Acrostic Poem Fun

by Lauri Griffin | More from this Blogger

28 Feb 2007 01:02 PM

Here's another writing activity that children love - because it's all about them. It's good for increasing vocabulary and making decisions and getting to know yourself and each other. It's also easy, quick and fun. Acrostic poems are a word written vertically, so that each letter has its own separate line. An example for a child named Danny would be:

D

A

N

N

Y

Then, the fun starts as you try to think of a word for each letter in that name. Ideally each word would describe that person. "D" could be Danny, or Dinosaurs or Darling. You can also use more than word and make that line Dives at the Pool or Doesn't like Broccoli. The ability to use more than one word comes in handy for those hard letter words. "Y" might be Yes to Candy, "A" might be Always Smiling. "E" might be Eats Everything or Eats Only Bread and Cheese or Excellent at Soccer. If you can't come up with a word for the letter, break out the dictionary and show the kids how to find words. You might also break out the thesaurus and talk about synonyms.

Children love to write these acrostic poems, and it's always illuminating as to what words they think define themselves.

And you don't have to stop at your children's names. You can use holidays or a vocabulary word. Or you could all work together for one with your family's last name. These are also fun to make for gifts. Imagine Grandmother's delight at getting a hand-painted original poem about her from her grandchildren! If nothing else, they make cute original and appreciated greeting cards. That's a card that will bring a smile to the receiver and won't end up in the trash. I've also seen acrostic poems put to good use on scrap-booking pages. Let the kids help think up words that define their summer or vacation or first day of school.

Have fun!

More on Poetry:

Fun With Poetry

Learn more about Lauri Griffin

Lauri lives in Colorado with her husband and three sons. Amidst all the laundry and packing of lunches, she tries to keep parenting fun.

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Jeff Bogle (1022) 28 Feb 2007 02:07 PM

Lauri, I just printed this off to try with my girl tonight. She is super-into practicing her letters right now and this should be a really fun for her. Thanks for the great idea!

Lauri Griffin (2703) 03 Mar 2007 08:12 AM

Thanks, Jeff. I'm sure she will get a kick out of it.