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Looking for ways to engage your students in online literacy learning? Find more interactive tools that help them accomplish a variety of goals-from organizing their thoughts to learning about language.
|Grades||K – 12|
|Interactive Type||Writing Poetry|
|ABOUT THIS INTERACTIVE|
In this online tool, students can learn about and write diamante poems, which are diamond-shaped poems that use nouns, adjectives, and gerunds to describe either one central topic or two opposing topics (for example, night/day or winter/spring). Examples of both kinds of diamante poems can be viewed online or printed out.
Because diamante poems follow a specific format that uses nouns on the first and last lines, adjectives on the second and fourth lines, and gerunds in the third and fifth lines, this tool has numerous word-study applications. The tool provides definitions of the different parts of speech students use in composing the poems, reinforcing the connection between word study and writing. It also includes prompts to write and revise poems, thus reinforcing elements of the writing process. Students can save their draft diamante poems to revise later, and save and print their finished diamante poems.
For additional ideas on how to use this tool out of school, see Diamante Poems in the Parent & Afterschool Resources section.
Lessons That Use This Interactive
Grades K – 2 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Shadows, shadows, everywhere! In this lesson, students read fiction, informational text, and poetry about shadows to extend their knowledge of the concept before casting their own shadow poetry.
Related Classroom & Professional Development Resources
Grades 7 – 10 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Students research engineering careers and create poetry to understand the vocabulary of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
Grades 6 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Students compare the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald with the song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” then create their own poetry about a historical event.
Grades K – 5 | Student Interactive | Writing Poetry
Formerly known as Shape Poems, this online tool allows elementary students to write poems in various shapes.
Grades K – 12 | Student Interactive | Writing Poetry
This online tool enables students to learn about and write acrostic poems. Elements of the writing process are also included.
Grades K – 12 | Mobile App | Writing Poetry
In this app, users can learn about and write diamante poems, which are diamond-shaped poems that use nouns, adjectives, and gerunds to describe either one central topic or two opposing topics (for example, night/day or winter/spring). Examples of both kinds of diamante poems can be viewed online or printed out.
Grades 3 – 6 | Calendar Activity |  April 21
Students select a poem and create a Stapleless Book using the interactive tool.
Grades 3 – 12 | Calendar Activity |  March 21
Students read and respond to Billy Collins' poem "Introduction to Poetry." Students then write about a favorite poem and imagine the perfect way to read it.
Grades K – 12 | Calendar Activity |  April 1
Students are assigned to be "poets of the day" and are provided several models to create, illustrate, and present their different poems to the class.
Grades 3 – 8 | Printout | Writing Starter
This tool will allow your students to create a diamante poem by reflecting on their knowledge of a topic and by using nouns, verbs, and adjectives in a creative manner.
Grades 2 – 6 | Printout | Writing Starter
This graphic organizer provides students the opportunity to brainstorm words about a given topic, count and record the syllables, and draft a haiku.
Grades 3 – 8 | Professional Library | Journal
This article discusses the need to engage students and teachers in active poetry writing.
Grades 5 – 8 | Activity & Project
Learn about diamante poems, and then consider the idea of cause and effect before working it into the diamante poem format.
Grades 4 – 6 | Activity & Project
Kids will love Hink Pinks—word puzzles that use two-word clues to lead to a rhyming solution. Try one and get hooked yourself: Obese feline? Fat cat!
Grades 3 – 12 | Game & Tool
Diamante poems are poems where the longest line comes in the middle, creating a diamond-like shape. The Diamante Poems tool helps children write these patterned poems.