Engaging Poetry Activities for Upper Elementary

Want some fresh ideas to make learning poetry fun for your students? This post shares 7 engaging poetry activities for upper elementary students that can be used all year long.

Plus, you can grab a FREE digital poetry activity to use in your classroom!





Fun, Year-Long Poetry Activities for Upper Elementary Students


I LOVE reading and teaching poetry to my 4th graders!

Each year, I look for ways to infuse poetry reading and writing activities in our class throughout the year–not just for National Poetry Month in April.

Here are some general tips that will help you incorporate fun, year-long poetry activities in your upper elementary classroom:

  • Include poetry games and activities with your on-going literacy centers.
  • Use poetry to help your older kids with phonics. Often times, my students complain that phonics activities are “baby-ish,” but they enjoy reading poetry.

    Many poems with a simple rhyme scheme has word / phonics families that they need to practice, so it’s a win-win!
  • Teach your students to look for poetic forms through read-alouds or novel studies. (I’ll go into more detail with this one below.)



In addition to these general tips, I use music, brain breaks, and online games to teach poetry all year long.

Now I’ll dig into more details with these engaging poetry activities below!



“Poetry Hour” Makes Reciting Poetry So Much Fun


Poetry Hour is one of my favorite poetry activities for upper elementary students!

Once a month, I allow my students to choose a poem they want to stand up and recite to the class.

It can be a poem I have provided in class or one they found on their own. I even have students recite a poem they’ve written themselves.

In addition to reading the poem, students are allowed to dress up as a character if they want. They do not have to memorize the poem, but many of them do it anyway.

Then I give them a toy microphone from The Dollar Tree, plus a decorated podium to make it seem like a “stage.”

My kids LOVE getting up to share their poems! We even “snap fingers” instead of clap at the end of each recitation.


This similes and metaphors poetry activity comes in a printable and digital format that works well for in-person and virtual learning. Click the image OR click here to see more.



Teaching Students to Talk about Poetry with “Poetry Talks”

I’ve never had a group of students that didn’t like to talk!

So, I find ways to channel their chattiness into our learning activities. Poetry Talks allow students to work with partners and discuss poetry with one another.

Learn more about printable and digital Poetry Talks by clicking the image or clicking HERE



Then I give my students sentence stem cards to help them discuss their poetry appropriately. This also helps me hold them accountable to stay on track while they talk about their poems with one another.

We use this poetry activity during our poetry centers and after a whole-class mini-lesson on poetry.



“Poetry Puzzles” Provide Excellent Hands-on Poetry Practice


It should come as no surprise that 3rd through 5th grade students thrive with hands-on literacy activities.

So, one of the poetry activities for upper elementary students that I use is a poetry puzzle.

digital-poetry-vocabulary-puzzle
This poetry vocabulary puzzle comes in a printable and digital format. You can click the image or CLICK HERE for more details.



Here’s one way you can use this in your classroom too:

  • Find a poem you want to teach your students.
  • Cut each stanza or line apart in strips and place in sandwich baggies or envelopes.
  • After analyzing the poem with the whole class, split students into small groups of 2-4 kids in each group.
  • Give them the poem in baggies and have them put it back together again like a puzzle.

Not only is it hilarious to see what they come up with (since they don’t have the poem memorized), but it really strengthens their understanding of stanzas, line breaks, and rhyme scheme!



Poetry Writing Task Cards for Upper Elementary Students


I don’t just want my students to read poems more, but I also want them to write more poetry.

So I use task cards to build up their poetry writing muscles.

Task cards are easy to incorporate, plus it allows me to expose my kids to different types of poetry.

Do you want to teach poetry all year long? My Poetry Mega Bundle has poetry writing prompts, PowerPoint slideshows, several different poems, and more. Click the image or click here for more details.



The diverse writing prompts push students to write all sorts of interesting poems!

Not only this, but my students keep a writing journal, which holds all their written poems for the year.

It’s always so fun to see how much they’ve grown with poetry writing by the end of the school year.


free-digital-poetry-activity-for-any-poem



Analyzing Poetry Through Music

During our Poetry Hour, I had a student ask if he could perform rap songs. I told him yes and helped him choose appropriate examples to recite.

Needless to say, it was a huge hit with my students!

Thankfully, music and poetry have so many similarities that allow them to go hand-in-hand.

So, analyzing music of all genres provides excellent exposure to different examples of figurative language in poetry.



Incorporating Poetry through Read-Alouds for Upper Elementary Students


Another one of my favorite poetry activities for upper elementary students is to find examples of it through read-alouds.

Just like with music, books showcase poetry examples that help students get on-going exposure to it.

In my class, students use literacy choice boards, which include an option called “The Poetry Finder.”

I teach them how to identify different types of poetry when they’re reading independently.

The more poetry students see in different forms, the stronger they get with interpreting figurative language and inferencing while reading.



Play Online Poetry Games



If you’re looking for ways to connect poetry with technology, you’ll love this poetry activity.



Poetry Games (poetrygames.org) is a free website that does three things:

  • Defines different types of poems
  • Gives examples of each poetry type
  • Provides a built in writing template where students will type their own poem into a “Poetry Machine.”

The poetry machine will “spit out” the student’s typed poem. I love how the templates provide scaffolded writing tips and lines to help students write/type their poems independently.

Plus, it will not allow students to click the “Create Your Poem” button until they fill in each blank in the template.

It’s one of my favorite, no-prep ways to include poetry practice with our technology centers!

digital poetry activities
You can even keep students engaged with these digital poetry activities! Click the image or click HERE to see more.



Poetry Lesson Plans for Upper Elementary Teachers


Teaching poetry can seem intimidating; especially if you feel short on time–which most of us do!

This is why all of my PowerPoint Lesson slides and step-by-step lesson plans for my poetry units are available in my shop HERE.



Each poetry unit also has printables and poetry assessments + rubrics included that help you teach poetry to your 3rd through 5th grade students.

They are designed for whole class mini-lessons AND poetry centers that can be used all year long.



More Poetry Resources

Bookmark or pin these poetry posts to infuse more poetry activities into your classroom:

Don’t forget to grab your free digital poetry activity before you go. This freebie is only available to my email subscribers.

When you sign up, you’ll also be subscribed to my newsletter, where you’ll get more exclusive content from me.

Happy Poetry Teaching! 🦋

The Butterfly Teacher

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