Storybird #10: Celebrate Poetry Month in April 2018 using Storybird

Storybird is my favourite, free, story writing application on the web www.storybird.com. I use it with my classes all the time, and I love all its tips and ideas. This is an old post from 2015 on the Storybird blog but it is so apt for April 2018's poetry month that I am going to add it here  so that I can constantly refer to it in April. The words below are taken straight from the Storybird blog:
https://goo.gl/4gwssG
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12 creative ways to celebrate Poetry Month

"1. Poem-a-day: Start off your morning with a different student reading an original poem every day. It’s a great addition to the morning routine, and one that can continue beyond the month of April!

2. Writing warm-up: Storybird poetry is a great tool for engaging reluctant writers. If your students are struggling with writer’s block, or if they just need to kickstart their creativity, get them rolling with poetry as a story-starter. You can have them search for a specific word or theme (such as adventure or friendship), select a piece of art, and then refresh the word sets until they get inspired.

3. One image, many words: Students can create millions of different word combinations with Storybird’s poetry word sets. Have your class choose one piece of artwork as a group, and then see how many ways it can be interpreted using different word sets. 

4. Storybird Haiku: Challenge your students to write a haiku (5 syllables-7 syllables-5 syllables) using only the words available in a Storybird set. Here’s one we created as an example: 

5. Poetry slam: Rev up the energy in the classroom with a poetry slam! If you have a projector, transform your classroom into a stage and let your students perform their poems in front of an audience. With older students, poetry slams can also work well as a team sport—have small groups of students work together to write a poem, and then battle it out on the stage.

6. Create a classroom poetry anthology: An anthology is a collection of literary works (poetry, short stories, essays, etc) compiled by an editor. It can be a book of poems by one author, a collection of poetry from a particular country or region, or it can be organized by a theme. Discuss the type of anthology you would like to create as a class, and have all of the students contribute a poem to the collection. Print your final anthology to add to the classroom library, or put it on the web to share!

7. Poetry quilt: If you’re feeling crafty, you can turn your students’ poetry into a beautiful paper quilt to hang on the wall. Have each student write a poem on Storybird, then take screenshots of the finished poems and print them out in color. Glue the poetry squares onto sheets of construction paper, and attach them to the wall in a grid.

8. Poetry roulette: This is a fast and fun writing game to get the creative juices flowing. Here are the rules: Go to the CREATE page on Storybird and click the very first image that appears. Use that art to make a poem with the first set of words that appear—no refreshing allowed! See an example here.

9. Spoken word poetry: It’s easy and free to make a voice recording of your poetry on Storybird. Click here for a tutorial about how to create audio files with VoiceThread.

10. Poet-tree: Print out your students’ poems and hang them from the branches of a tree with loops of yarn or string (think: Christmas ornaments). If you don’t have a live tree handy, you can create a 2-D tree out of construction paper and attach it to a classroom wall or bulletin board.

11. Longform poetry: Younger students might be surprised to learn that not all poetry has to rhyme, while older students can delve into the differences between prose and verse. Have your students use Storybird to experiment with longform poetry: sonnets, limericks, ballads, odes, epic poems… the sky’s the limit! In the example below, Storybird member Amethystgirly writes freeform poetry inspired by the Canadian poet, Robert Service.

12. Rhyming picture books: Then again, there’s a lot of fun to be had when making words rhyme. Dr. Seuss said it best: “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” The sillier the better."

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Such lovely ideas! If you haven't yet signed up any of your classes to Storybird, head over to www.storybird.com today and join. Your students will love this application.