Acrostic Poems

Recently Joe and I have really been struggling with writing, so it was exciting that yesterdays task went down so well, he embraced the idea and was creative and productive. I suspect the delight for Joe was the simplicity of the form, the fun, game playing, puzzle making, silliness and he got to do some decorative writing!

Acrostic poems are easy to write, the first letter, syllable or word of each line in the poem spells out a word or message. Good for writing secrete coded messages!

Sister

Joe's wrote about his sister;

Silly

Infant

Trip

Electric

Roar!

1. choose a word for your subject, it could be a name, or an activity...

2. write that word in big bold letters vertically going down the side of your piece of paper (or you could cut letters out of newspapers or magazines and stick them down.)

3. think of lots of words that fit with the subject, don't worry if they fit with the letters, list as many as you can think of

4. look through your list of words, and think about how they could fit in the poem

5. when you're sure write them down.

In Lewis Caroll's Through the Looking-Glass, the final chapter is an acrostic of the real Alice's name: Alice Pleasance Liddell.

A boat, beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July -

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear -

Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream -
Lingering in the golden gleam -
Life, what is it but a dream?

puzzle writing with collage

Collage is a way to play with the look and meaning of words on a page. Individual letters can take on great importance if they are emphasised. By changing their scale and colour, words can be made to jump around the page in all directions, like little acrobats. (In fact, an early Ian Hamilton Finlay poem Acrobats does just this.) There's something very satisfying about spending time in ordering your colours and alphabet, for boys who like fiddling and puzzles it will be a winner. For some children, the empty white page can be intimidating and using collage can help distract them, because the material comes readymade.

Odd one out. ©  Lois Blackburn 2010 

This is an exercise in creating visual puzzles:

1. Discuss what you would like to create. In this case, I've used a rainbow of colours... which is the odd one out?

2. If there are any words you are unsure how to spell, practice them on a separate piece of paper.

3. You can cut out words/letters from newspapers, magazines (make sure they've been finished with first!) food and toy packaging. Once you start looking for letters, you will see them everywhere.

4. Carefully cut the letters out.

5. Rearrange the letters on your page so they form the words you've picked

6. Puzzle your friends and family with your 'odd one out'. 

This was an exercise in creating a visual puzzle, but the idea could be adapted to help learn the spellings of colours,  creating each word in its appropriate colour to reinforce learning. Joe's example here is his favorite colour. Golden.

Golden, by Joe 2010