This activity is ideal for the beginning of a new school year as it helps you to get to know your students and helps them learn about each other. Start by writing down some facts about yourself on the whiteboard; you could include information about your family, hobbies and favorite foods. Then, with your class, write an acrostic poem about yourself. Students should then write down some facts about themselves and write their own poems, using their first name as the topic word. Encourage students to share their poems with classmates or make a display of the poems so that students can learn about each other.
Acrostic poems can be used to help children celebrate events and the special people in their lives. Try writing an acrostic poem for a Mother's Day gift to take home using the word "mother" or "mommy." Write acrostic poems for Christmas, Thanksgiving or Halloween. The Enchanted Learning website suggests using events such as the Olympics as a topic. You could even use a current event happening in your local community or in your school.
Invoking the seasons of the year as a topic for an acrostic poem is an excellent way to develop your students' vocabulary. Take students outside on a lovely summer day or when the leaves are turning in the fall and have them write notes describing what they can see, hear, feel, smell and even taste. Then use these notes to write a poem, using the name of the season as the topic word. Make sure that students include a line for each of the senses.
Poetry has long been used to help people express their feelings, and acrostic poems are a simple way to introduce this idea to students. Have them discuss as a class or in a small group a time in their life when they felt happy, sad, angry, afraid or excited. Students should make notes of any strong, powerful words they think of during these discussions. Then they can use these ideas to write an acrostic poem, using the letters that make up the "feeling" word to begin each line -- for example, "anger" or "fear."