Yesterday I tried a great little lesson inspired by a PBS Facebook post. I wanted to do some kind of poetry related activity this month in honor of April being National Poetry Month, but I was having difficulty fitting it into our already jam packed schedule.
This quick Book Spine Poetry activity was the solution to my problem! My students chose books from our classroom library and used the titles on their spines to create poems, phrases, and silly sentences. It was great for reluctant writers who have difficulty creating original sentences from scratch. By working with existing book titles as sentences and phrases students only had to look for a connection between them to create a beautiful piece of original writing.
After showing the class my example, I told students to head to our classroom bookshelves and choose 5 or 6 books with titles they liked or found interesting. Students brought these books back to their seats and started stacking them in different ways to see if any interesting sentences or phrases appeared. If books in their stack didn't work or they needed something else they went back to the shelves to find another.
Stop by my TpT store to grab this quick and easy activity for your classroom!
Let me know if you try this out in your classroom! I'd love to hear the poems your students create!
