This week, the kids are working in poetry stations to review the characteristics of poetry. We read a poem for shared reading and spent some time identifying important ideas and language in the poem. There are four stations for students to rotate through. Each station includes a matching activity and Test-like questions to practice the skill. I work with kids when they reach the most difficult station (station 2, this time). We analyzed a practice test to see where they were struggling. After we stopped crying, we created stations to address the worst of these areas.

Four poetry reading stations in my classroom:

1. Word Work.

Matching activity: match synonyms and antonyms to words in the poem. Questions: context clues, synonyms, and antonyms.

2. Making inferences.

Matching activity: statements from the poem to conclusions/inferences you can make. Questions: The reader can tell… type questions, and questions about why the author chose to include certain lines/stanzas.

3. Features/Characteristics of poetry.

Matching activity: match words like, “stanza” and “line” to examples from the poem. Questions: using features of the poem to answer questions.

4. Figurative Language.

Matching activity: match lines from the poem to two things: the poet included this line to show… and this line means… Questions: interpreting figurative language. Anyway, this is the freebie for you: if the kids finish their station early, they can work on the free poetry scavenger hunt below. I included two levels to make it useful for different grades. Grab it free below!