Snowflakes

Types of poetry

Preview the Art and the Poem (15 minutes)

• Look at the page together. What do kids notice about the art? (It shows a child catching snowflakes in her mouth.) What do they notice about the poem? (The word snowflakes is written down the side.) Explain that this is an acrostic poem. That means that each new line starts with a letter that makes a word down the side.

Preview Vocabulary (5 minutes)

• Play the online vocabulary slideshow to preview the challenging vocabulary words. This issue’s featured words are flurries, souvenirs, and tongue. (Tongue isn’t a hard word to understand, but it’s a hard word to read, so we wanted to give kids practice with it before reading the poem.)

• You can read the poem to the class first to model fluency and get kids familiar with the language. You can also click the Read Aloud button at the top of the digital issue to hear it read aloud by a professional voice actor.
• Then call on volunteers (this works if you’re doing class in-person or in a live video format) to read every two lines of the poem aloud.

Discuss the Poem (10-15 minutes)

• Ask kids, “What do you think the poem is describing? What is happening in the poem?” (Someone is standing in the snow and trying to catch snowflakes on their tongue.)
• Point out that the poem is very descriptive. It uses a lot of words that connect to our five senses to show what it is like to be in the snow. What are some words that describe the experience of being in the snow? (softly swirling, white, flurries of flakes float, cold, icy)
• You can also point out the alliteration in the poem. Explain that alliteration is when words that are next to each other or near each other start with the same sounds. They c help make the poem beautiful to read. (softly swirling, world white, flurries of flakes float)

ELA Focus: Write Acrostic Poems (20 minutes)

• Use the “Winter Acrostic Poem Templates” printables to help children write their own acrostic poems.
• Once kids have chosen a word, they can brainstorm what their word makes them think about. They can jot down ideas on paper.
• Now they can write each line of the poem. When kids are done, they can decorate the poem with drawings, stickers, or glitter.

• This poem makes a perfect pair with Ezra Jack Keats’ 1963 classic book, The Snowy Day.
• After reading both, ask, “What do Peter and the speaker of the poem try to do with snow? (Peter tries to keep a snowball. The speaker of the poem tries to keep a snowflake as a souvenir.) “What happens to the snow they want to keep?” (The snowball melts in Peter’s pocket. The snowflakes melt on the girl’s tongue.)

• Film a Poetry Performance: Have the students use a program like Flipgrid to film themselves reading the poem to share with you or the whole class.
• Share Student Work: During a virtual class session, call on volunteers to read their acrostic poems to the class. They can also share their writing on a learning management system, such as Seesaw, to see what their classmates are doing and feel connected.