April is Poetry Month (Haiku)

Grade Level: 3-5

Texas School Library Standards: 

Strand 3: Reading – School library programs promote reading as an essential skill for learning, personal growth, and enjoyment which are essential skills for college, career, and community. 

Dimension 1: The library encourages students to read a variety of literature for information and pleasure. The library provides access to physical and virtual collections of high quality, current resources in a variety of formats (print, audio, electronic) and platforms (readable on most devices) that reflect input from stakeholders.

Materials: 

• Preselected poetry books

• Preselected Haiku poems 

• Colored paper

• pencils

Instructional Procedures: 

• Share with students that the month of April is National Poetry Month

• Share with students preselected poetry books and show them where they may find other poetry books in the library 

• Tell students that today they will be focusing on a specific poem type (Haiku is always a fun one to start with) and read a few of those types of poems

• Discuss with students what they notice about those types of poems

• Ex. If your focus is Haiku, then you will probably discuss the following

• Where that type of poetry originated from

• The format of the poem (Haiku = 3 lines with the first and third line containing 5 syllables and the second line containing seven syllables

• Don’t have to rhyme

• Written to evoke a mood or instance

• Share with students that they will try writing one of their own haiku poems

• Provide students with pieces of colored paper to choose from and pencils

• Students will spend a bit of time trying their hand at writing a haiku poem

• Be sure to walk around the tables offering assistance in helping students count out their syllables correctly for the specific line in the poem they are working on

• If time allows, students may draw a picture to go along with the poem they wrote. 

Suggested Instructional Strategies:  

• Close read 

• Modeling

• Realia 

• Word wall

Assessment:

• Assessment of the ability to correctly create a haiku poem using the correct format and syllabication

International Night

 International Night

All Ages

Planning

• Discuss and decide on a day and time for International Night with the administration

• Develop a plan and delegate who will be reaching out to local restaurants for food and drink samples

• Develop a plan for inviting representatives (families or local community members or businesses) to participate in the event and represent a specific culture

• Develop a plan for determining the number of families that will participate

• This will determine the number of supplies needed

• Determine the amount of staff that need to attend to assist

• Determine if decor will be needed and if so, if it will be purchased or donated.

• Develop a plan for the flow of evening events

• An initial introduction to all who attend

• Description of representatives or booths present 

• Where and when will food and drinks be served?

• Drawing of door prizes

- Determine if door prizes will be awarded. If so, determine what the prize(s) will be and how will they be acquired. 

• Determine if families will be receiving any promotional reading materials

• If so, what will need to be created/donated and distributed?

• Determine books and/or other resources that can be shared with families (books students can check out on different cultures or other resources that can be accessed for more information if students are interested in learning more about a specific culture)

Promotion

• Verbal promotion among teachers 

• Verbal promotion among students 

• Create a flyer 

• Add information to social media websites

Preparations

• Generate a promotional letter, email, or flyer to generate interest in the event for representatives. This can be shared with parents who may also like to attend the event and represent a specific culture. 

• Generate a google form for parents to fill out if they will be interested in attending. This will allow time to determine the approximate amount of supplies needed. 

• Create and send out a google form or digital sign-up sheet for teachers to volunteer to attend and assist. 

• If there aren’t many teachers willing to attend, extend the invite to PTO members or other volunteers. 

• Obtain supplies and/or decor needed. The PTO may also be of great help with this. 

• Once there is a general idea of which cultures will be represented at the International Night event, find or obtain resources that may be shared with students or families if they are interested in finding more information about a particular culture. 

• Secure door prizes and store them for the event. 

• Create and print or secure promotional reading materials. This could include statistics on the benefits of reading to children and children being exposed to reading culture.

• A list of resources in the library and virtually about various cultures can also be included for family/student use 

Procedures

• Welcome everyone into the building and guide them into the library. Promotional material may also be available at tables for families to read. 

• Begin the event by thanking everyone for coming. Share with attendees the various booths present and offer them to visit each booth at their leisure to sample any food/drink and learn about different cultures.  

• While attendees are visiting booths, draw for door prizes periodically. 

• Close to the end of the event, thank all of the families and booth representatives for coming out and making International Night a success. 

• Pass out promotional materials and any other goodies that have been chosen for families to take home.

Payoff

• Provides an opportunity for the librarian to build community relations.  

• Provides an opportunity to promote the library. 

• Provides an opportunity to involve families in learning about various cultures while promoting reading and the library program and resources.