How to host a poetry party with free printables

Hello my dear friends! Greetings from Teacher Omi's little kinter garden. I just love thinking up fun, educational things to do with kids. So today, let's explore ways to host a poetry party for children. I'll throw in some free poem patterns, writing prompts and poetry templates. You can use these poetry lesson plans anytime, anywhere with all ages. So they're perfect for homeschool. As we're heading back to school this fall, why not host a poetry party in your classroom? 

For starters, where shall we hold the poetry party? You know what I'm going to say---outside! You can go for a nature walk or sit on blankets in the back yard, by the beach or in the park. You don't need much in supplies: a notebook, pencil and maybe some markers are really all. Some kids (like my grandson Silas) prefer drawing to writing so the markers can be used to illustrate their poems. 

And on that note, if writing isn't your thing or if younger children aren't quite ready to write, there are options. You can do picture poems, like a pictograph. Or you can dictate your thoughts into a recorder. All phones have one. Thought ideally, I prefer the poetry party to be device free. 

Oh, one more thing, what's a party without snacks? I think the best snacks for outdoor poetry parties are varieties of fresh fruit. For our fall back to school theme, why not bring an assortment of apples, pears and grapes?

So once we have our location, snacks and materials, we need a theme. You could do autumn, bugs, butterflies, beach, harvest, clouds, flowers, birds, meadow or woods or even just a nifty tree you saw on your walk.

Next, you'll want to create a word bank. This is as simple as encouraged kids to explore around them and come up with words to express what they see, hear, smell and touch. They can discuss and describe the fruits they've sampled. 

I like to have kids call out words and phrases as they think of them. And then you can note them in several ways. The teacher can bring a large poster board or dry erase and write the words there. Or kids can transcribe them into their notebooks. You might also do the silent word bank with older kids in which they find a quiet alone space to journal their ideas and thoughts. 

Be sure to let kids know that this word bank itself is a form of poetry. They can arrange the words into a kind of rhythm such as a song. They can play around with rhyming but make sure they know that poems do not have to rhyme. One of the most famous is William Carlos Williams "This is just to say" 

I have eaten the plums which were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast. Forgive me. They were delicious. So sweet and so cold.  

How is that a poem? I would say because of the rhythm and cadence. But that is the beauty of poetry. It's an arrangement of words that sound pleasing to the ear. Or they might sound discordant, like Edgar Allen Poe "The Bells." 

Once kids have their word banks, they can arrange their words to express thoughts. Encourage them to make sub lists of synonyms (words with similar meanings). This will give them more choice for their poems. 

Here's a sample word list with synonyms that I made on a walk to the Lake Michigan dune. 

sand

surf (waves)

gray, grey, slate, charcoal, smoke, dusty, smudged

aqua (teal, blue-green, turquoise, aquamarine)

hemlock, fir, evergreen, balsam

buzzing, creaking, dripping, croaking, chirruping, whistle, kiss, crash, roar

cloudy, misty, fog

dusk, twilight, evening

spicy, sharp, piney, peppery, 

blue jay, cardinal

Then I made up some combination of words: 

pepper pine

click tick tock

dusty dusk

creak-croaking, 

fir-frog

fluffy fog

sun-sun sand

cardinal kiss call

blue jay joy

wave rave

surf roar

And then I made these into my poem

in noon dune

blue jay joy

sings praise to pines

beetle tick-clicks

fir frog 

creak croaks

waves rave

on sun sun sand

in dusk dune

fluffy muffled fog 

creeps up on

jewel-bright surf

turns blue sky

to charcoal cloud

waves and frog shush

cardinal kiss calls

for twilight slumber

in dark dune

owl's hush hoot

on slow dancing tree

leaves fold in on themselves

pepper pine sharp

scents sklish, swish breeze

end of wonder wander

as weary wanderer

wends her way home

After creating poems, kids can read theirs aloud. It's always gratifying for them to hear their words. here are some free printable poem templates. I've listed the google page because many are downloads for you to click and print. 

How to write poetry

Hi my dear ones! Maybe you didn't know this but Teacher Omi is also poet Omi. I have a blog of poems called The Writer's Garden. People ask me sometimes, how I write poetry. And the answer is embarrassingly simple. I just do. I start typing ( or writing in a notebook). And when I'm finished, I call it a poem. There's more to it if I'm writing a formula poem, like rhyming, haiku or sonnet, but not much more.

Um, so you're wondering, 

I do sometimes edit it but only after I've let it marinate. And then not very much. I believe that free writing, just letting the thoughts come, is the most effective. Oh, one step I forgot, which isn't really a step but more of a preparation, is to pick a theme or subject. I know, probably obvious, but it's an important way to overcome writer's block and probably what caused the block in the first place. 

My theme is memories of my childhood with my grandparents. Mostly the ones who lived near Lake Michigan but I'm working toward including my Grand Rapids ones too. The overarching theme is walks with grampa to the lake.  We called it the Big Lake so my poems are the Big Lake Anthology. 

It's important to pick a subject or theme that means a lot to you. You can't really get a good head of writing steam going if you're not interested. And my time with  my grandparents means the world to me. It's been fun exploring these memories with my children and now grandchildren, too. 

I know that there are some poems with a very angry vibe to them. And if that's what you need to write then more power to you! Writing is a perfect way to work through bad feelings and experiences, for sure. I personally am a bit old-fashioned and like the pretty poems that make me feel good. And which I think people prefer to read. Not that this should matter or affect your choice of subject. You do poetry for you. If people want to read it, fine. If they don't, fine. 

And I'm always going to plump for nature poems. You know me and my "get schooling outside" mantra. Our big beautiful world is the best teacher and for a writer, it's an amazingly fertile and endlessly pleasing subject to write about. When I first began writing poetry, I would sit outside. Now that we have phones, I can walk and talk-write into the notepad app on my phone. Then upload to my blog later. 

I don't talk-write directly into the blog template. I'm techno-fied enough to use a blog but still old-school about needing a full computer keyboard. 

Another thing: to rhyme or not, that is the question. The answer is whatever you prefer. You knew I was going to say that! I like to exercise my skills on a rhymer occasionally but I'm more concerned about word choice rather than whether it fits a pattern. I don't want to sacrifice the perfect word, just because it doesn't rhyme. I also feel that word sound is more important. It's like the music of the poem. 

One of my favorite poem styles is onomatopoeia in which words are just sound descriptions. The classic example is Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" which is a fabulous read-aloud. And on that  note, poems are meant, in my opinion, to be read aloud. So as you write, practice reading it the way you're thinking it. This will help you "hear" your poem. 

Oh and another fun thing about these sound poems is making up sound words! I love trying to get just exactly the right descriptor for the sound. Here's one called "Campfire music and lightning bugs or fireflies" ( I greatly dislike the title and that's always my nemesis. If you  think of a better one, let me know, please and thanks!) I am particularly and fondly proud of crickle-trickle, sklish-swish and moan-groan. I do hyphenate a lot in onomatopoeia. 

Okay so stay tuned because I'm going to write a post on how to throw a poetry party that promises to big fun! 

Little ways to find God in your daily lesson plans

Hi friends. Did you know that writing to you in this blog is my therapy? I don't know who needs to hear this, but you are precious and amazing, just as you are. And I see you. I know, being a teacher can be overwhelming, especially if you're homeschooling. There is always a mountain of things undone. That monkey on your back never shuts up. If you do stuff with the kids you should be doing housework, or laundry, or cooking, or, or, or. And if you work around the house, bad you, you're  neglecting the kids. 

Well, Teacher Omi (grama) is here to tell you that neither is true. You don't have 8 arms or 48 hours in every day. You can't be in two places at once let alone everywhere. Even if you spend the day reading and eating chocolate chips, it's okay (kids, remember "The Musgrave Ritual" on that summer day?) You are a human being, not a human doing. God doesn't expect as much of you as you expect of yourself. And having said that, here are some little ways to find God in your daily lesson plans. 

You know what I'm going to say, here. Go for a walk. In the woods or beach if possible. But down a street will do to. I used to take my kids and later grandkids on walks when they were babies. I babbled on about all we saw. I asked them questions and they answered in their baby ways. We talked about cracks in the sidewalk and foofers (dandelions gone to seed). We observed insects and birds and squirrels. We admired the work the neighbor had done on his roof and another's pretty flowers. 

I think those walks and other such little moments held my soul together. Spending time with children, with no particular aim or plan except to enjoy and give thanks, IS quality time and also worship of God. And you can do that too, anytime, anywhere, with 12 kids or one. You can fancy it up by having them keep a science journal, if you feel the need. Or you can just make memories. You can make it 10 minutes or two hours. You don't need any materials, lesson plans or lecture. Nature speaks for itself if we will just listen. If you're city bound, you can notice the cool buildings or nice people you meet. (thank you, Mister Rogers 🥹) 

When we went to Louisiana to visit this year, one thing my second oldest baby grand Moses wanted was to go for a wander with Opi (grampa). I loved wandering with my Opi along the Big Lake (Michigan) dunes. We didn't bring anything, no water bottles, sunscreen, and certainly no phones. We didn't talk about God or even talk about much at all. We just appreciated God's handiwork. He really outdoes Himself in a back dune woods. If you've never walked the beach of Lake Michigan, do yourself a favor and come visit.

We'd walk for hours. Even the dog got sick of it and went home. But he was an overweight poodle. I'd come home from our walks, footsore, weary and thirsty as all get out! Grama always joked that she thought we'd gotten lost. And in a way, we did. Lost in our wander wonder. I loved every minute and treasure those memories. I wanted to live there forever. I'd go back to the woods with grampa in a heartbeat. I'm making myself memory-cry just recalling those days. 

He's swimming in the big lake of  heaven now. But I can and do take every opportunity to enjoy wherever I am with my grandkids. We took numbers 5 and 7, Milo and Juno on Grampa's and my woods walk to Mona Lake channel.  I told them how happy I'd been walking with their great-great Opi, how lucky I was to be able to take them and that maybe someday they'd take their grandkids and tell them the story. Heavy stuff for kids. But Milo smiled and said, "Omi,  I want to live on the great-great Opi beach forever!" That's my boy.  

So this has kinda digressed from lesson plans, but not really. My goal in teaching and hopefully yours too is to make (as Dr. Montessori showed us) every moment a teachable one. 

(Picture is a much younger me and Emma Grace, not at Lake Michigan but nearby at Bass Lake, in Pentwater.)

Free printable paper airplanes and plane models for aviation science lesson plans

 

Hello and welcome to a beautiful day in the Omschool! Teacher Omi (grama) here with some science lesson plans I know you're going to enjoy! I've got a collection of free printable paper airplanes for you to cut out and assemble! Sprint is the perfect time to turn out attention to flight and aviation science lesson plans. 

Since I was a kid, I've been fascinated with all things with wings, be it birds, bugs, airplanes or helicopters. The science of flight is crucial to our understanding of physics (physical science) Building model airplanes or making paper airplanes are excellent hands-on STEM (STEAM) activities. STEAM is the expanded version of STEM that includes science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Building model airplanes addresses all those STEAM disciplines. 

Here are free printable paper airplanes from Delta. Here are more downloads for free printable paper airplane models from Iowa State University. Fold 'N Fly has a plethora of free printable paper airplanes to cut, fold and assemble. There are instructions plus information of flight duration and expected distance that you can use for measurement and other STEM lesson plans. My favorite part are the suggestions to extend the science lesson plans by encouraging students to experiment with add-ons, different configurations, etc., thereby building in student creativity. 

I suggest giving each student a notebook science journal to record airplane statistics, modifications and results of experiments. Using scientific method shown below, students can collect and analyze data to draw conclusions. 

Science journals employing scientific theory make ideals HOTS (higher order thinking skills) activities. Plus flying their model airplanes gets kids outside, actively learning,  in the fresh air and away from passive staring at screens. 

Free printable calendar lesson plans: reuse old calendars

  Hi friends of the Omschool! Teacher Omi (grama) here with free printable calendar lesson plans and ways to reuse old calendars. If you use paper calendars, you've got a treasure trove of math manipulatives at your disposal. Save your old calendars to make hands-on math activities to teach date and time, skip counting, sorting and organizing and calendar skills.

Reuse old calendars as math worksheets. Give students calendar pages and teach them to count, skip count by 2-8, to help kids understand times tables (fact families). The beauty of  reusing calendars as worksheets is that kids can write on them like workbook pages. Use them to teach days of the week and months of the year. 

Reuse old calendars as flashcards. Let children cut and paste calendar numbers onto recycled cardboard. Then students can arrange flashcards in order or by 2-8 fact families. In this way, you get double duty free lesson plans with math crafts and counting activities. 

Reuse old calendars as games. Have students cut and paste calendar numbers to make Memory games, Bingo or a pathway counting game such as Candyland. Students might also invent their own games. This expands these into cross-curricular free printable lesson plans that include writing, reading, spelling, creative writing, design and STEM activities. 

Reuse calendar pictures as homemade kids books. Calendar pictures are usually centered on a theme (nature scenes, etc.) Instruct students to cut and paste the 12 images onto recycled cardboard. Then they can practice creative writing skills to make these into homemade books. Kids might then read the stories aloud to younger children to practice storytelling skills. 

These free printable lesson plans make excellent resources for classroom and homeschool students. 

Free St. Patrick's Day lesson plans with printables, books, activities, crafts and snacks

 Hello my friends of this blog on free printable lesson plans! Teacher Omi (grama) here from the Omschool! (2nd gen homeschool by grama) with St. Patrick's Day printables, activities, games, crafts and snacks. Learn more about St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland and other Catholic saints with these homeschool activities. 

Any time I post about Catholic activities, I have to share Catholic Icing, a wonderful blog created by a homeschool mom featuring a wide variety of Catholic Christian lesson plans, printables, crafts and more.  You can get secular St. Patrick's Day activities anywhere with leprechauns, rainbows, shamrocks and other Irish schmaltz. But for free printable lesson plans on the St. Patrick visit this blog. 

For free printable coloring pages to explore the Bible, Catholic saints, teachings, liturgical activities and more, visit The Catholic Kid.  Loyola Press has pages of Catholic lesson plans  and The Kids' Bulletin has free printable Sunday bulletins for children that follow the Catholic Bible readings of the liturgical year. EWTN Kids has a lot of good homeschool and religious ed activities too. Catholic.org has a plethora of helpful links, activities and lesson plans. Though these sites are free, they're free for moderators to maintain, so a donation is requested to defray costs. 

For kids books on Saint Patrick, read Gail Gibbons St. Patrick's Day and Tomie DePaola Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland or Patrick, Saint of Ireland Joyce Denham and Diana Mayo. The Wolf and the Shield is excellent for older readers (Sherry Weaver Smith). Check this link to Thriftbooks for other picture books, easy readers and chapter books on St. Patrick, Ireland and the saints. 

Stereotypical foods to serve on St. Patrick's Day include the usual corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, Irish soda bread and beer. However, in 4th century Ireland that would be almost unheard of. The fare in 399 was wheat bread (barley was for ale, fermented to prevent the grain from spoiling), sour milk and cream and cheese. Fish was common too, so salmon, eel and trout. Include garlic, apples and watercress too. 

And Patrick was not Irish but a wealthy patrician (where the name Patrick actual comes from) of Rome living in Saxon Britian, the furthest Roman outpost. So prior to being taken slave (or running away as some stories tell it) he would eat as "an expat with a mild case of affluenza" as one author adeptly put it. So this would include such foods as French wines, game birds and peas with coriander. 

In his Confessio, Patrick recalls as a captive living on deer and wild honey. If you want to eat like Saint Patrick really ate, serve salmon with garlic and butter, creamed peas, flatbreads made of wheat (think pita) buttermilk, simple watercress soup and stewed apples with nuts. 

More YA literature and kids books on girl power for Women's History Month

Hello my friends of this blog on free printable lesson plans from the Omschool (Omi's homeschool)! Teacher Omi (grama) here with another list of YA literature and kids books on girl power for Women's History Month. When I was a kid and teen, literature was my lifeline, social media and therapy! There's a word for this: bibliotherapy. My role models came from strong female characters. The term "girl power" wasn't a thing yet, but I think it stems in part from many of the girl protagonists featured in these books. 

The most important thing about these girls and women is that they are 3D, realistic, relatable and fallible. They aren't cardboard Disney princesses, helpless handwringers or male dependents that peopled so many books of the time. They interact with men. But they are higher power or self-reliant. They break glass ceilings and defy expectations. I know that now, this may sound like dated ERA rhetoric, but believe me, it was crucial then and necessary now. Because expectations woman were hypocritical, shaming and punitive. 

We had to be beautiful but humble, work like mules and be paid about as much, achieve the impossible but not outshine men. We worked in factories to support families when our men couldn't or wouldn't, but were blamed for taking men's jobs. And then we couldn't vote or own property. We had to take care of our children but not have a say in their lives. The list and I, could go on all day. So here are YA and kids books featuring young women and girls, existing within these expectations but yet rising above them. This will be an ongoing series as I think of more books with strong female leads. 

Where the Lilies Bloom I'm known for crying over stories, even Pooh Bear and this YA book, was one of the tear-jerkiest. It explores the lives of an orphaned family of rural Appalachian children who find creative ways to avoid being separated. Second oldest, Mary Call Luther takes on the matriarch (and patriarch) role at just 14. 

The Boxcar Children You haven't lived till you've read the story of four also orphaned kids who make a home for themselves in an abandoned train boxcar. It's maybe a smidge idealized but the lessons learned on sticking together are worth it. Eldest sister Jessie is our featured she-ro, but little Violet gives a lot in her own way too. 

Me Too  (Bill and Vera Cleaver). A sister rails against having to basically parent her special needs sister. But she also fights hard for her. It's got a lot of mostly-recent negative reviews, but that's because many in younger generations can't wrap their minds around issues and situations that many of us in this time period lived every day: parentification, rabid cruelty, discrimination and anger with no channels. 

I'll be sharing more YA literature and kids books on girl power for Women's History Month as they surface in my memory! Love you all and a special hugs and kisses sent to my lovely daughters, Emma and Molly, daughter-in-law Samantha and grand-daughters Lola, Juno and Flora. You rock my world.