Build Your Own Sky Castle

Poetry is a genre that seems to get short changed during the elementary years.   And, I am not so sure why that is.  Maybe, it’s because the essence of poetry analysis is left to secondary teachers?  Possibly, younger children are thought not to be adept at poetry analysis in the fourth grade?  However, if we think about the early childhood rhymes that most parents impart upon their infants , preschool, and elementary school children, we know that the rhymes and rhythms can become inherit and natural for children to produce on their own, if given the chance.

This poetry lesson is one you might try with a group of fourth grade students.  Read aloud to students, Sky Castle, by Sandra Hanken.  Students will immediately sense the rhythm in this poetic story, but they may not notice the pattern of 10 and 11 syllabic lines running throughout the entire book.   Once you point out this pattern, students will have fun doing some investigative work of their own; to be sure all lines are either 10 or 11 syllables in length.   At this point, you can give a brief explanation of pattern in poetry; most students this age would not have been introduced to the concept previously.  

Next, allow the class to brainstorm an imaginary “thing” to build.  Brainstorm together descriptions of this thing, using generalizations to start.  Divide the class up into teams of two or three students, who will work to write one, four line stanza with each line being 10 or 11 syllables in length.   Each stanza will represent one of the descriptors the class created. Once they complete this, they may illustrate their page.   Illustrations can also be done on a computer in Power point or Word.   The final poem will be a class story, similar to Sky Castle.