Many parents recently became homeschoolers in the blink of an eye! It’s difficult when you aren’t prepared for it. And even when you think you are, it can still be difficult!
I chose to homeschool my four children two years ago. So, thankfully, America going into lockdown hasn’t changed my life much! But that doesn’t mean I haven’t met my share of obstacles in homeschooling my children. Trying to occupy a two-year-old productively while also trying to engage your 2nd grader in age appropriate works continues to be a challenge of mine!
However, the one thing I have learned over the past few years is that there is no one right way to teach your children. In fact, the number of ways that exist to teach children is probably as numbered as there are children!
Sure, you could purchase a fancy, expensive curriculum that covers every major subject you can think of. But sometimes, it’s the spontaneous activities, that cost little currency, that teach the most. This “poet tree” craft project is one of those examples.
Poetry
My oldest daughter became interested in poetry after we read “Fancy Nancy: Poet Extraordinaire,” by Jane O’Connor. In the book, Nancy’s class creates a “poet tree,” and each classmate creates a poem on a leaf that is added to a class tree. It’s a very cute book. We definitely recommend reading it!
Immediately, she wanted to create a poem of her own. I guided her on creating her first poem using the letters of her name. Before we knew it, everyone in the family had a poem written on a leaf using their name!
But it didn’t stop there. We borrowed books from the library and searched for kids’ poetry online. There is such great poetry available, that we never tired of reading and deciphering what the poet was writing about.
We soon started copying our favorite poems on cute colored paper cutouts that matched the poems. Eventually, we had much more than a “poet tree.” We had a poet scene!
What a Scene!
Our initial poetry scene turned out beautifully. But what was more beautiful, was watching my daughter begin to enjoy poetry. It didn’t take long for her to want to make another piece to add to our wall.
We now have a pumpkin poem that was added for Halloween and Thankful Turkey Poems that were added at Thanksgiving time by all 4 of my children. There are even snowflakes for winter and flowers with spring and summer poems written on them. The most recent addition we made were stars that have HAPPY acrostic poems added to them, as we studied expressing gratitude.
What Supplies Will I Need?
To create your own “poet tree,” you will first need some poetry for inspiration. We found poetry books in the library, as well as online. We found a lot of great Poems For Kids on the Academy of American Poets website. However, some of the best poems we read came from the book Outside The Box: A Book Of Poems, by Karma Wilson. It’s a must read!
You can also use your imagination and start creating your own poetry! We purchased the books Writing Poetry with Children and Poetry Patterns & Themes by Evan Moor to help us improve our poetry writing at home.
Once you have some poems picked out, you can start creating! You’ll need:
- Cardstock Paper or Construction Paper
- Glitter Pens, Metallic Pens or Markers
- Scissors
- Glue sticks
- Scotch tape
How To Make Your “Poet Tree”
We started by taping several pieces of brown construction paper together and penciled in our tree and branches. We carefully cut out our tree and taped it to the wall.
Next, we added the leaf poems we had already started making. We also looked at our additional chosen poems and decided what type of picture would bring out its meaning (such as a flower, leaf, snowflake or sun). For the most part, we made our own designs, free-hand, and cut them out. Occasionally, we found a template online and copied it. However, most of the time we really just used our own imagination and creativity!
Then, we started copying our poems onto our designs. For many of them, I penciled in the poem for my daughter and she copied over the words with fancy markers or glitter pens. This helped her not only get the spelling correct, but also fit the poem on the design we chose. However, older children can probably do this part themselves.
And, finally, tape your designs on the wall for all to see!
This project makes a beautiful wall of art that can be added to over time. It has been so fun and inspiring, I don’t want to take any of our poem art down. Instead, we just keep adding to the wall! Hopefully, this inspires you to make something both beautiful and educational of your own and that it brings smiles to everyone who sees it!
How have you introduced poetry into your home? Please share below.
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