Easy Semester Starter: Short and Sweet (Acrostic, Diamante, Cinquain)

for elementary and middle school students

       I like to start each semester with an easy-peasy assignment. Many reluctant writers take my class, so I have to hook them in quickly with something they can succeed at with little effort. I use the acrostic, diamante, and cinquain poems usually for the first class of a spring semester.  I often receive a sprinkling of new students in spring, when some parents find their child needs a writing nudge.
     I found two cute acrostic images on the net years ago, and my handout starts out with those, as well as two acrostics I wrote. I live in beautiful, big California, hence the CA poem. 

CATS 

C urled up in a small fluff-ball,
A ll snug and warm,
T hinking of mice and milk,
S lowly falling asleep.

California

C oyotes and locals eat chili peppers.
A rt reigns from Hollywood to San Francisco.
L ucky lookers spy passing whales.
I mmigrants galore make us strong!
F olks wear sunglasses even at night.
O aks are majestic in our golden hills.
R ose Parades float among cowboys and bands!
N orthern Sierras and southern deserts,
I ncluding beaches and bays we play,
A lways we love our beautiful state.



   I start with the acrostic. We read the poems aloud, then I write WRITING in a column on the board, and we fill in the letters.

W ith a pencil
R ainbow colors in our words
 I nteresting facts on paper
T ons of terrific books
 I nky fun to read
N ational Geographic around the world
G reat writers are we!

     Next I have the students write the name of an animal or simply their own name to create their acrostic.  After about 10 minutes we move on to the diamante poem. Again, we read the handout.
                 _________________________________________________________

DIAMANTE: a seven-line poem that takes the shape of a diamond. A poem of Opposites.

              Bananas                                                             Lion
          Long, smooth                                                Majestic, proud
    Peeling, squashing, sharing                           Roaring, snarling, prowling
Crescent, sweetness, heart, crunch                 Mane, muscle . . . Fleece, fluff
     Cutting, cooking, eating                               Bleating, leaping, grazing
        Circular, colorful                                              Meek, gentle
              Apple                                                                Lamb
       
 Diamante has 7 lines:
Line 1:  Noun
Line 2: Two vivid adjectives that describe Noun
Line 3: Three interesting  -ing action verbs that describe Noun
Line 4: Two nouns about Noun and two nouns about Antonym
Line 5: Three interesting  -ing action verbs that describe Antonym
Line 6: Two vivid adjectives that describe Antonym
Line 7: Antonym
     Begin each line with a capital letter, and remember your commas.  Do not use ending punctuation. Add an ellipsis ...  in Line 4 if you like. An ellipsis indicates something is omitted that the reader understands (which will be clear by the end of the poem; it is used in a puzzle here). Diamantes need no title.
       ___________________________________________________________________________

     I take suggestions for opposites and write those on the board,  day/night, war/peace, cat/dog, heat/cold, dinosaur/bird, reader/writer, etc.  I write the numbers 1 through 7 in a column to compose the poem.  After choosing antonyms, we add in lines, 1 and 7. Then we work on lines 2, 3 and 4 continuing to finish the poem. I use the ellipsis to remind them of the antonym subject change in line 4.

1                              Sun
2                         bright, hot
3             shining, burning, turning
4           fire,  gas  .   .   .   rock, craters
5            reflecting, waning, leaving
6                        bumpy, cold
7                            Moon

  
      Again I give them 10 minutes to start their own diamante or to at least come up with opposites they might like to write about as homework.  If we have time I include the cinquain as a third poem or as a challenge for homework.  This one has a looser structure and uses synonyms, so it’s fun for some students.  I number 1 through 5 on the board and start with the synonyms on lines 1 and 5, then fill in the rest of the lines. Here is one my class came up with:

Read
fun, informational
exciting, interesting, calming
learn while sitting down
Comprehend

        ___________________________________________________________________________

CINQUAIN: a five-line poem in which the first and last word are synonyms.

    Dog                                                       Mules
    friendly, loyal                                        Stubborn, unmoving
    jumping, licking, running                      Braying, kicking, resisting
    loves to chase balls                                Not wanting to listen
    canine                                                    People


      A cinquain has 5 lines:
Line 1: Noun
Line 2: Two adjectives that describe the Noun
Line 3: Three action verbs or gerunds (“ing” words) about the Noun
Line 4:  A four word verb phrase relating to the Noun (can be a Feeling or Effect of the Noun)
Line 5: Synonym of Noun.

Line 1: One word                        Dinosaurs
Line 2: Two words                      Lived once,
Line 3: Three words                    Long ago, but
Line 4: Four words                     Only dust and dreams
Line 5: One word                        Remain

Cinquain originally consists of twenty-two syllables distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, in five lines:
Line 1: Two syllables                    Baseball
Line 2: Four syllables                   Bats crack against
Line 3: Six syllables                     The pitch, sending it out
Line 4: Eight syllables                  Over the back fence, I did it!
Line 5: Two syllables                    Homerun

Ono! Zany Anteaters Zap Ants

                                                   
 for Elementary writers

     Onomatopoeia, who created this word?!  The Greeks actually; it means “made up name!”  I actually love this word and mysteriously can spell it, no problem. If you sing it over and over, the students can sing it with you, and they won’t forget it. Besides, onos are words that sound like the sound they are representing, like whoosh, buzz, hiss, and click.
     I often use the following as the first fall lesson of the year.  Boys especially love it, incorporating loads of exploding onos.
     For the ice breaker I ask the students to write two words, an adjective and a noun: one has to start with a Z and one with an A. My examples are Zany Anteater or Artsy Zingers. If they can’t think of Z words, we start writing as many as we can think of on the board.
     After the ice breaker, I write the alphabet on the board from A to Z.   Then I ask them to write the alphabet backwards down their paper, Z to A, with one line for each alphabet. We start with Z (if we didn’t already) and write 2-3 of our favorite words that start with that letter, zero, zipper, zinger, zigzag. Then we move on to Y, yessiree, yoga, yellow, yard.  I always do X with them because it’s difficult. I allow them to use words that start with EX, like excellent and extra. I have the kids continue on the letters, working on this for about 10 minutes, then we share some on the board. There’s not enough time to cover all the letters, but everyone has fun offering their selected words.
     Next I give out a little handout with sneezes from around the world. The students think these are hilarious and sometimes will try to formulate their own. This is my introduction to onomatopoeia. Finally I give them a handout called "Whiz Bang Onomatopoeia." I believe I snitched this from Word Hero by Jay Heinrichs.  It explains rappers’ origin of the word “bling” from cartoons, and also points out onos from comic books.
    We write as many onos on the board as we can think of,  buzz, bonk, stomp, smack, click, splash, tap, hiss, clank, scratch click, thump, chomp, whir, whiz, zip, ding, dong, crack, crackle, snap, pop, peep, chuckle, giggle, gurgle, ka-ching, zoom, boom, kaboom, whisper, whoosh, poof, swoop, screech, squeak, slap, clap, clang, bubble, rustle, rumble,  . . . 
    Finally we can begin to write a paragraph. I explain what a paragraph is and make sure the students indent using their thumb or two fingers from the margin to start.  The challenge is this:
    Write a paragraph using 5 onos and 5 words from their Z to A list.
   I model it on the board, using their ideas. Start with a character or topic.  Here are a few examples my students came up with. The first example uses only onomatopoeia; the chosen words are underlined in the second example with rad and queen from their Z to A list that was left on the board. 

         Randy whizzes down the street on his bike. He screams as he loses his balance, screaching, and squishing onto a neighbor's wet lawn. He hoots as he recovers. For a break, Randy opens his backpack, gobbles his lunch and slurps his water.

         The rad skateboarding queen of England whispers to the king of Scotland.  He scratches his bald head and asks for a pink wig. She explodes in anger and stomps on the king's big toe. The king wailed until she brought him a chocolate cupcake to apologize. 

      The students write their own wild paragraph next and share it before class is over.  I give them the assignment to write another at home using 5 onos and 5 words from their Z to A list.