Hello and welcome to Virtual Kids Create! This is a self-paced version of the monthly kids day we host at the Poetry Center and includes age-appropriate language arts workshops for children from infancy to ten-years-old, developed by our incredible facilitators. March's theme is acrostic poems which, according the the Academy of American Poets, are defined as, "a form in which names or words are spelled out through the first letter of each line." The activities include read- and sing-a-longs, and creative writing exercises for pre-school and elementary students. Feel free to use this as a guide to create your own at-home, structured Kids Create, or pick and choose activities you think the kids in your household might enjoy.

Infant to 3-year-old read-a-loud & sing-a-long:

Musician Gabrielle Pietrangelo leads a sing-and-read-a-long that includes "Apples and Bananas," "The Ash Grove," "What a Wonderful World," and "Bingo":

4-6-year-old writing workshop: Acrostic: A Poem in Two Directions

"An acrostic is when you take a word—any word—and stack it so that the letters go vertically down the page," writes facilitator Sophie Daws, "Tipping a word over like this allows words and phrases to flow from the letters arranged vertically. It’s like tipping a word over and seeing what other words spill out!"

In this engaging, interactive activity, you'll be challenged to create acrostics out of random letters and spine words created by and in collaboration with a writing partner.

7-10-year-old writing workshop: Acrostic Rainbow

"An acrostic poem is a poem in which the first letter of each line spells out a word, name, or phrase when read vertically," writes facilitator Chalese Potts, "You can easily write an acrostic poem!"

In this activity, you'll be invited to create a name acrostic in the shape of a rainbow, using the provided .pdf or construction paper.

 

Photos by Sharon McCutcheon and Paola Franco.