Guest Author - Alissa Moy
Encourage a love of poetry in your early elementary homeschooler by learning about different types of poetry. Begin with a lesson about the types and styles of poetry by reading "R is for Rhyme" aloud. This wonderful book is a poetry alphabet by Judy Young. There is also a 26 page teaching guide for this story, too, so you can revisit the story and complete a lesson for each poetry type. (link at the end of the page) There is also a neat poetry unit study on the homeschooling site for you to correlate with this book, too.
Choose a few poetry books to read next, such as "A Collection of Children's Poems, Verses & Rhymes For All Ages" by Teresa Belgrove, or "Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings" by Shel Silverstein. Ask your homeschooler for their thoughts on the poetry, and which one is their favorite. Segway into Language and explore grammar by reviewing sentence endings in these poems.
Challenge students to find these punctuation marks. Circle periods, question marks, and exclamation points in red, as red means "stop" and these marks stop a sentence. Read the poems aloud, being certain to emphasize sentence endings properly. Use a dramatic tone and encourage your child to do the same when reading aloud. Learning the basics about poetry can be a great way to enjoy
literature and have fun, too!