Do You Use Poetry Anthologies?

I just love, love, love working with poetry. I have had so much fun seeing how everyone used my Writing a Poem a Day Poetry Pack that I wanted to share another poetry idea with you. It just might be something you want to try with your class next year. Even if you don't want to try them, keep reading to snag an end-of-the-year poem freebie for your students.


For the past several years, I've been creating poetry anthologies with my students. We use simple paper books made of computer paper with a card stock cover. Ours are just a few dollars each, but you could also make your own or have your students use spiral notebooks too. The books aren't nearly as important as the ideas students put inside them!

The anthologies are broken into four sections: Poems about Me, Poems from Friends, Poem Connections, and Poems by Me. Each section has a different purpose, with the first three sections used for studying published poems. Students don't actually write their own poems until they reach the fourth section. In our room, we do poetry Fridays and end the week with our anthologies. I usually teach each section in isolation and practice it a few times before moving on to the next section. After all sections have been taught, students are free to choose which section they'll work in each Friday. I allow my students to use some of their poems from our Writing a Poem a Day unit in their anthology.


If you're looking for a way to make poetry fun while also working with figurative language, mood, inferences, poetic devices, and more, I highly recommend trying poetry anthologies with your class next year. You can grab a copy of my poetry anthology directions pretty cheap over at my TpT store if you don't want to make your own. Here's a free poster I use in our classroom that goes with it.

And now for the freebie... here's a cute poem that I give my students as the last one in their Poems from Friends section. Even if you don't use anthologies, it makes a great goodbye gift for your kiddos. 

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