Fall Poet-Trees -- Poetry Writing Unit for Fall

This year, I have brought Poem of the Week back into my room.  Because of this, we are learning about many different facets of poetry on a daily basis.  My students are fascinated by it.  They just love learning all of the little snippets we learn each day.  It really has brought a sense of fun back into the room.

So, with the Poem of the Week, I thought I would start off with a writing unit on different types of poems that dealt with rhyme scheme.  We learned how to write couplets, triplets, and quatrains, as well as decipher just what the difference between them was.

Now, with this being the Fall season and all, I decided that just writing poems wouldn't be super fun.  I wanted to incorporate some sort of Fall craft into it.  So I thought and thought and.....

The Poet-Tree was born!

After brainstorming a list of Fall related words and concepts (the kids came up with different holidays, foods, feelings, weather patterns, sights, and sounds that said "fall" to them...and some were really interesting being here in Southern California, where our fall is suspiciously like our summer ;) ) the students wrote several different poems of each type on this topic.  The poems were so creative and cute!

Then, they chose their six most favorite poems to display on the tree.  Using some leaf templates, they designed a tree that was befitting of fall.  I let them choose the leaf colors too, so it was quite the scene in my room with all the yellows, oranges, and brown leaves around! (again, not something we really see here in So. Cal...must be from TV ;) )

I really love how creative and imaginative the students were with this project.  Since the theme was so universal for them, all of the students were able to be successful.  I also was able to see who really understood meter and rhyme scheme through the trees.  Plus, our Poet-Tree Forest makes an awesome display!

Here are a some of the signs I have displayed along with the trees for you.  They are fall themed, and basically define the three types of poetry.  There is also a student page for you to copy and have your students glue into their notebooks or just keep on hand as a reference sheet.

If you would like to get your hands on the tree and leaf templates, as well as all the things you will need to help your students learn about these three types of rhyme scheme poems, you can get it at my TpT store.

What are some fun writing activities you do in the fall?