Best Holiday Tree Poem Project

Decorating the Classroom Bulletin Board or Wall with Haiku

Nov 7, 2009

Fun holiday classroom project that combines student poetry with a creative winter mural for a bulletin board or wall.

Poetry assignments are writing assignments that encourage children to think about writing in a different way, specifically by following a rhyme or rhythm pattern. Haiku, a Japanese style of poetry, is typically about nature and simple everyday events.

Many classroom cork boards and walls become displays for student writing assignments. It provides a way to display each child's creativity and success while encouraging others in the class to read what their classmates wrote. Creating a holiday mural in the classroom for the bulletin board or wall can be an extension of a poetry assignment when the trees are the surface for a haiku poem.

Writing the Haiku Poem

To be successful in writing a haiku, children need to be familiar with counting syllables in words. Haiku is written as three lines with a total of seventeen syllables. The first line is five syllables long, the second is seven syllables, and the third line has five syllables.

Students should choose a winter or holiday theme for their haiku. This could be about snow, skiing, trees, popcorn chains or other nature related and simple holiday topics. Students should then play with combining different descriptive words related to their topic in order to create the three different lines. Encourage them to work with a partner for editing or proof reading.

Creating the Winter Mural

Once the haiku poems are ready, students can place them on trees. Students first write the poem on lined or unlined paper. Then they can either color an evergreen tree shape around the poem or cut out the tree from colored paper and paste the poem in the center of the tree.

The mural is created on the bulletin board or a wall using each student's poem tree. Fluffy white cotton can be placed on the bottom of the chosen area to create the effect of snow and the trees placed to look like a pastoral winter scene. Forest or farm animals, birds and rocks can also be cut out and placed around to add to the winter mural, which could also have haiku poems attached.

Some creativity, a reasonably sized space on a board or wall, and student poetry can combine to make a winter holiday scene. Students can enjoy not only the process of writing and art work but also the combined effect created by their collective display.

The copyright of the article Best Holiday Tree Poem Project in Classroom Activities is owned by Tammy Andrew. Permission to republish Best Holiday Tree Poem Project in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.