New Year’s Tree

The other day I learned that February is Haiku Month. Maybe because it’s the shortest month and they are really short poems? I don’t know. In any case it’s a great time to learn about, read and write haiku in the classroom or at home.

Haiku is a traditional Japanese poetry form that usually has nature as its subject, but for kids haiku can be about anything. The main distinction for haiku is the breakdown of syllables per line: 5, then 7, then 5 again.

There are lots of great books about haiku for kids, but one of our favorites is Hi, Koo!, about a panda experiencing the four seasons. Check out this list from Imagination Soup for more good haiku books for kids.

If you want to keep nature the focus of your poems and the weather is cooperating, take your class on a nature walk to discover something to write about. Upper Elementary Snapshots has a printable you can use so kids can take notes on what they see, hear and feel on the walk and then write their poem based on those observations.

Notes from the Portable has another printable students can use for writing their haiku.

Imagine Forest has some great tips for how to write haiku based on traditional forms, including how to structure a haiku as you write it and how to present it on the page.

That Homeschool Family has a good post on haiku including the benefits of writing haiku, and they have a free download for writing spring-themed haiku, complete with lists of spring themed words with one, two, three and four syllables to make writing even easier.

If going outside for inspiration is not an option for you, have kids write and illustrate a haiku about their favorite animal or plant. This activity from Teach Beside Me is really cute and would be super cute to hang in the classroom or hallway.