Set Up a Poetry Corner in Your Classroom

* Designate a corner of the classroom as a hands-on poetry corner. Place a poetry box on a table or desk so students can have easy access to it.

* Display a variety of poetry anthologies or collections.

* Develop sensory awareness by creating a seasonal display using plants, fresh flowers, dried flowers, interesting nature items such as rocks, leaves, shells, etx.

* Choose a poem as the special focus for the day or week.  Display the poem in the poetry corner. Leave blank space next to the focus poem so that children can attach poems they have found with a similar theme, original "response" poems or their own artistic interpretations of the poem.  

* Provide lots of paper in various sizes, shapes, and colors for children to use when writing their own poems.

* Keep a large jar, empty aquarium, or basket at the poetry corner. Ask a different child each day to bring something to put into the conatainer. (Examples: a toy airplane, seashell, clay dinosaur, bird's nest, or other realia.) When the teacher takes a turn, he/she could surprise the class with a turtle, fish, hermit crab, or the like. Challenge students to find, recite and display poems that describe the object in the basket. Whenever children have free time, they may want to sit at the poetry corner, reflect on something in the display (or classroom environment), and write a poetic description of what they see.