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Christmas-Tree-Shaped Poems
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Subject: | Arts & Humanites, Technology
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Grade: | 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
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Brief Description
Students create poems in the shape of a Christmas tree. The poems tell how they will spread joy this holiday season.
Objectives
Students think about ways -- big and small -- in which they can spread joy during the holiday season. Students create poems in the shape of a Christmas tree.
Optional: Students learn to use formatting commands in word processing programs to center text.
Keywords
Christmas, character, poem, tree, word processing
Materials Needed
Optional: word processing software
Lesson Plan
Start the activity with a discussion, as a class or in small groups, about ways students might show kindness to others during the holiday season -- or any time of year. Students will then create poems in the shape of a Christmas tree to express ways to spread joy during the holiday season.
If the students have access to word processing software, that software can make this activity more fun -- and educational. All they need to do is input their poems into the word processing program. Students can set up the poems so that the first line is the shortest one, the top of the Christmas tree. Then each line of the poem grows successively longer, forming the body of the tree, until the last three lines, which are short. See the sample below.
This
Christmas
end a quarrel.
Seek out a forgotten
friend. Dismiss suspicion,
and replace it with trust.
Write a love letter. Share some
treasure. Give a soft answer. Keep
a promise. Find the time. Forgo a grudge.
Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you
were wrong. Try to understand. Examine your
demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be
Be kind; be gentle. Appreciate. Laugh a little. Laugh a
little more. Express your gratitude. Gladden the heart of a
child. Welcome a stranger. Take pleasure in the beauty and the
wonder of Earth.
Speak your love.
Speak it again.
Speak it yet
Once again.
Then students can use the word processing program to highlight the poem text and center it on the page. In Microsoft Word, that is accomplished by
- highlighting the text to be centered
- clicking FORMAT in the toolbar
- clicking PARAGRAPH in the format options
- changing the ALIGNMENT from Left to Centered
- clicking OK to accept the format change.
Assessment
Students share their Christmas-tree-shaped poems with their classmates.
Lesson Plan Source
Education World
Submitted By
Gary Hopkins
National Standards
Technology:
NT.K-12.1
NT.K-12.3
Language Arts:
NL-ENG.K-12.4
NL-ENG.K-12.5
NL-ENG.K-12.6
Visual Arts:
NA-VA.K-4.1
NA-VA.K-4.2
Updated 11/21/2001
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