The diamante poem is composed of seven lines in the shape of a diamond. Each line is a particular part of speech. Elementary students start with a noun in line one, which is the subject of the poem. If writing a synonym poem, line seven also has a noun, a word that means the same. If writing an antonym poem, line seven contains a noun that is the opposite of line one. Line two contains two adjectives and line three contains three gerunds, which are forms of verbs. In line four, children will write four nouns that rename the subject of the poem. Line five contains three gerunds. In a synonym poem, these gerunds refer to the same subject, and in an antonym poem these gerunds refer to the word in line seven. Line six follows suit with two adjectives.
In order to teach diamante poetry efficiently, you should teach the children grammar lessons first. Adjectives are words that describe nouns or pronouns such as "pretty," "hungry," and "tired." You can help students practice understanding adjectives by bringing in a bag of miscellaneous items from your house or office. These nouns could include things like a stapler, an orange, a tennis ball, a baseball mitt or anything else easily described. Students take turns orally or in writing using adjectives to describe each object.
Nouns are people, places, things or ideas. Although students usually are most familiar with this part of speech, there are several ways to practice. The teacher can call out the name of a place, such as a farm, and students can draw as many nouns as they can think of that would fit on a farm. Places like a stadium or a restaurant also work well. Additionally, students can practice finding nouns in the books they are reading. They can find these with a partner and list them on butcher block paper in the classroom.
Gerunds will be the hardest word type for children to comprehend. Gerunds are verbals, a verb that functions as a noun and always ends in -ing. Acting out gerunds helps students to more fully understand them. The teacher or students can write down gerunds on slips of paper and students can take turns acting them out. Words like "fishing," "falling" and "singing" work well. Next, students can write gerunds in pre-constructed sentences such as "(blank) is fun" or "Marty loves (blank)." These sentences can be completed to say "Flying is fun" or "Marty loves running."