Thrive Thursday: Write Your Own Poetry Display

When I go to visit our branches, I like to tweet out pictures of the great displays I see, and so awhile ago I posted some pictures from a fun children’s Poetry Month display. Marge asked if I were going to write a post about it and I said, “I could!”

This display and passive programming idea is actually the brainchild of Julie, who wanted a way to shine a light on all those beautiful poetry books in 800s that never seem to circ as much as we want them to. She took the magnetic poetry concept and turned it into something fun for the kids to do while they were in the library.

On a big set of display shelves, she created a poetry book display:

And on a table nearby she had paper, crayons, scissors, glue, instructions, and two baskets of words!

The words Julie found by going to sites that list the most common words in the language–she didn’t say which ones, but you could look here, or use the Dolch sight word list, too. Julie also added in some library-related words to the mix!

All the words were printed, cut apart, and put in the big baskets. A couple of signs explained what to do. Julie said the table was in frequent use and the poetry books flew off the shelves. She saved a few of the poems they found on the table at the end of the day–you can see that the big kids did this too!

This display and activity has been up all month–what a simple but powerful passive program! Poetry Month is a natural fit for this, obviously, but this is something you could put out at different times of year when you need something to do. Just add in extra words to fit your time of year (fireworks, ice cream; acorns, squirrels) and/or use colors to match (red and pink at Valentines, white text on black background for Halloween). Have fun!

If you are here from Thrive Thursday, welcome! I actually don’t write much about school-age programming, but I do have a few after-school programs written up from a long time ago if you’d like a look: Kaleidoscope & Mirror Crafts and a Mo Willems Party.