Poetry Folder Detectives

We spend a lot of time on poetry in our classroom. I provides a lot of bang for the buck. I use the weekly poems to "dig out" and review nouns, verbs, word wall words, rhyming words. We have a weekly reading comprehension test using our poems as well. The students pictures above are being "Word Wall Detectives" using magnifying glasses to search for word wall words and highlight them yellow. Since we add new word wall words and new poems to our folder each week, the search never ends right back to the first poems added at the beginning of the year. Each week there are new words to find. This is a great challenge activity for early finishers too. Have fun detectives!

Practicing Fluency Using Poetry

Using fun poems to practice fluency is a big part of our reading program. We typically have one or two focus poems each week. Many of them are taken from Tim Rasinski's materials. We do activities each day with our poems such as going on word hunts and coloring blends pink, digraphs green, word wall words yellow, etc. I also use the poems to locate rhyming words, nouns, verbs, and adjectives so that we are continually reviewing these skills in a fun way. We chorally read them together of course, discuss vocabulary, act them out, and practice reading them with buddies. At the end of the week, I make up a comprehension test for the kids to take using the focus poems of the week. This gives the kids great practice at looking back at the text to find the answers, and since these poems are practiced at home each night, parents get involved by asking questions about the poems at home to prepare for the comprehension activity on Fridays. Just a couple cute pictures to go along with my post.