Some years ago, about four – I think, I had my writer’s circle students write a compilation of alphabet poems. There were six students in my group, each getting four letters on which to write a short, descriptive poem about what the letter brings to mind for each of them. I gave my usual, stay on topic, use descriptive words that form a picture in the reader’s mind, and get to work! As I usually wrote alongside my students, I took the last two letters upon which to write. Of course these were the “unpopular” letters like Q and U, which were probably felt to be “too difficult” upon which to write.
During our poetry unit, I found that it was often difficult for the student’s to stay on topic. For example, when writing on prairie dogs, do not start veering off to include coyotes! Of course this depends on the type of writing that is being done, the strength of individual student skills and capacity with vocabulary, among other things like the degree of distractibility or focus possessed by each writer. Surprisingly, I noted that despite the variability, with good instruction, the use of mentor texts, and solid feedback which includes both written comments and verbal encouragement, my writers always produced some nice work. Generally, they completed it on time, too!
Some examples of their poetry follows along with a Q poem that I gave as an example that had a few things wrong with it. I used my Q poem to demonstrate what I wanted them to avoid, and what I wanted them to strive to accomplish.
Alphabet Book Poems
‘Q’
Q is a donut dripping frosting
Q sounds like the quick quacking of a duck’s bill
Quicksilver the Color of Quiet Money
Quarterly, Quotient, Quagmire, Quench, Quest
A Quest for Quarterly Quotients led to a Quagmire
The Quagmire was Quenched when the Quarterly Quest was completed.
By Mrs. L.
Some of the questions I want you to ask yourself when you write your alphabet poems are:
- What is wrong with this poem?
- How could I fix it?
- What is the topic? Does the topic stay consistent?
Student Alphabet Poems
A
By A. M., Age 9
A Is An Ape Amazingly Chewing On An Apple
Amazing, Astonishing.
And Then The Apes Are Amazed At How Many
Apples The Gorillas Have.
B
By A. M., Age 9
Bloodhounds In The Open Fields Of Grand Dad’s Bluff
B – The Moaning By A Bridge Of Bears
By The Fine Mist Of
Brilliant
Blue, B Is Amazing.
D
By A. M., Age 9
D Is Danger
D – Is the Sound of Daring And Drain
D Is Dreamless, Dare-less,
Never Daring to Give Up.
E
By W.L., Third Grade
E Sounds like C.
E on its side looks like an animal.
Electric Blue – the color of an animal,
Elegant, Electric Blue, Elmer, Easily
The animal looked elegant.
The animal, an eel, looked like a shade of Electric Blue!
F
By S. V., Third Grade
F is snow blowing through the air
F sounds like the snow making a big thump
Fuchsia the color of the snow mysteriously turning into the color fuchsia
Freezing, fabulous, for very beautiful, friendly,
Freezing snow falling above my roof,
The fabulous snow vanishes all of a sudden and the grass replaces it.
G
By G. K., age 8
G is a curly grapevine
G sounds like the pitter-patter of dew drops dropping off a vine
Green – the color of some grapes
Great, grand, goodness, globular
You’ll enjoy yummy goodness once the globular grapes are picked and shipped.
K
By G.K., age 8
K are the sun’s rays outstretched in the sky
K sounds like a kite tail swirling in the sunset
Khaki – the color of desert sand at sunrise
Kaleidoscopic, keen, kinetic, kinesthetic
Kaleidoscopic rays shoot out of the sun
The kinetic rays shine in the distance beautifully and majestically.
M
By B. G, age 9
M looks like two mountains
Mountains look like laundry piled up after vacation
Maroon, the color of the rocks
Mighty, Magnificent, Miles, Master, Magma, Mountain Goats
The Mighty Mountains turned into Magma spitting volcanoes
Mountain Goats master climbing many Miles of mountains.
N
By L.C., Age 9
N looks like two hills
N smells like fresh-cut grass
Navy blue – the color of flowers
Nice, narrow, nature, neat,
The navy blue flower is part of nature
The hills are narrow and neat.
We did complete the student written alphabet poem that year in Writer’s Circle. It was a fun project that the students enjoyed and was shared with their classmates during the Young Author’s night. Sadly, I believe Young Author’s night no longer happens in our school. While it did, many young students were inspired to write from their heart and share their accomplishments with many.
Can you tell that I miss Writer’s Circle?
For some sources on word choices visit:
This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by TeacherDanceBlog. Thank you! For more wonderful poems, check out her page for the Poetry Friday round up!
The Apples in My Orchard 
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