Confetti: Poems for Children

In the classroom/library:

Introduction
GRADE LEVEL: 3rd
SUBJECT: Writing (Poetry) and Art
OVERVIEW: In this lesson, students will learn how to compose a five-line poem describing a color of their choice, utilizing their five senses: hear, smell, touch, taste, and sight. They will also create an illustration showing their imagination and their color of choice.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the students to the process of gathering ideas and creating a poem through free writing.

Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Identify the five senses; taste, smell, touch, hear, and sight.
2. Choose their favorite color and utilize the fives senses to write their poem.
3. Compose a basic five line poem and create an illustration.

Standards
Language Arts/ Writing Standards
Strand 3: Writing Applications
Concept 1: Expressive
Expressive writing includes personal narratives, stories, poetry, songs, and dramatic pieces. Writing may be based on real or imagined events
PO 2. Write in a variety of expressive forms (e.g., poetry, skit) that may employ:
a. figurative language
b. rhythm
c. appropriate language

Visual Arts
Standard 1: Creating Art
1AV-F6. Use visual structures (e.g., organizational principles, expressive features, sensory qualities) to recognize the components of own work into a cohesive and meaningful whole
PO 1. Create a finished work of art based on organizational principles (e.g., rhythm, emphasis, unity)
PO 2. Use expressive qualities to create meaning in a finished work of art

ELL Standards
ELL II
Writing Applications
The student will:
Express in writing his or her own thinking and ideas. (ELL-W-1)
Identify, describe, and apply conventions of Standard English in his or her communications. (ELL-W-2)

Resources
Confetti: Poems for children by Pat Mora, illustrated by Enrique O. Sanchez
White board
Sample illustration

Materials
Web Graphic Organizer
"Color" Graphic organizer
Pencils
Paper
Construction paper
Colored pencils or crayons

Process
Introductory/Anticipatory Set
Can anybody tell me what your five senses are? Just in case you don't know, it is what you can taste, smell, hear, touch, and see. What does blue taste like? What does blue look like? Here are some blue things that are one of the five senses: blue kool-aid for taste, blueberries for smell, a CD of an ocean for hearing, a blue sponge for touch, and a blue bird.

Objectives
Students will:
1. Identify the five senses; taste, smell, touch, hear, and sight.
2. Choose their favorite color and utilize the fives senses to write their poem.
3. Compose a basic five line poem and create an illustration.

Input
Before reading the poems, ask the students to focus on the illustrations and listen carefully to the content of the poems. Tell them to look for the parts in the story that utilizes any of the five senses. The last poem read will be examined by the students and the teacher. In order to understand the poems content, Abuelita's Lap will be used as an example and students will be asked to point out the parts in the poem that use any of the five senses. From this poem students should recognize that the young girl is telling her grandma about the colors she saw and the things she heard throughout her day. Students will then be asked to think about some other senses, besides sight and hearing, which the young girl could have shared with her grandma. Students will share their ideas with the class.

Explain to the students that they will need to choose their favorite color to write about the five senses in their own poem. Tell them that when they are writing their poem they will be expected to write about what they taste, feel, see, hear, and smell when they think of their color.

Read the five selected poems:
" Sun Song
" Colors Crackle, Colors Roar
" Purple Snake
" Cloud Dragons
" Abuelita's Lap

Modeling
After reading the poems to the class, a web will be drawn on the board in order to brainstorm and create a poem together. Choose a color and under each sense fill in three ideas. Pick the best ideas from each sense and fill in the graphic organizer.

Explain to the students that this is the process they will need to follow to create their own poem. They will fill in their web graphic organizer, choose the best ideas, and plug in those ideas in the "color" graphic organizer. From the "color" graphic organizer, students will write their final poem starting each sense on a new line. Next, show the students the sample of the illustration, but explain to them that the sample is only for ideas not for them to copy. Students will create an illustration of the senses in their poem using the color they wrote about.

Once the students are done with both their poems and illustrations, using the teacher samples, demonstrate how to share their pieces by choosing the parts from the poem and illustration and showing the correlations between the two.

Check for understanding
Picking popsicle sticks, ask students:
1. What are the five senses?
2. What are they expected to fill in on their brainstorming/web?
3. What do they fill in on the color and senses graphic organizer?
4. After they fill out their graphic organizer what will they do next to put together their final poem?
5. Once they are finished with their poem what will their illustration consist of?

As students respond to questions, write on the board so they are able to use the list as a reference. Explain to the students that if they finish early they will need to quietly read their SSR books until the rest of the class is finished.

Guided practice
Circulate among the tables to make sure that the students understand the concept of writing about a color and the five senses into a basic poem. Ask students at each table why they chose that color and what connections they have, if any, with that particular color.

Independent practice
None

Closure
Assessment: Students will share their poems with their table. They will discuss with their group why they decided on the ideas they came up with. Teacher/s will walk around to each table and listen for understanding.
Bridge:
In the next lesson students would be familiar with poems and could use that knowledge to learn about different structures of poems.

Assessment
The students' poems and illustrations will incorporate the five senses as writing and art prompts for poetry.

Extensions
Students will continue this lesson by choosing something from their life that they have a strong connection with. That same night students will create a web of their ideas and bring them into class the next day. They will create a poem from their prewriting to express their ideas in their daily journals. The teacher will explain to the students that now that they are familiar with how to write poems they can and should use this genre of writing when reflecting on their ideas.

Modifications
Disability: The aide will be given a list of colors that correspond to the choices on a learning board. It will be suggested that the choices be narrowed down to allow easier choosing. Also the questions will be asked in a format that will help the student to create the poem, at the aide's discretion.

ELL: Have the ELL student teach the Spanish words in the book to the class at the end of each poem. This will allow the student to have an important part in the lesson that they can make a connection with. Use any available bilingual staff or student to clarify the lesson expectations.

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