Collage Poetry (9-12 years)

With National Poetry month coming up in April, we'll be doing a program at our library involving collage poetry. The prep for this program was very light. The program itself took about 30 minutes to do.

This included time to:

1. Define and discuss collage poetry.

2. Do an example 8-12 word poem.

3. Have the kids choose and cut out their words.

4. Assemble the collage.

To do the collage poetry, the following materials are needed:

• Magazine pages

• Markers, metallic pens, paint pens, etc.

• Glue stick

• Scissors

• Construction Paper (to glue collage on)

To make the above image, I went through several magazines, tearing out pages with content that was age-appropriate. If there were words that I liked on pages that were questionable, I went ahead and cut them out as well.

I also pulled out my collage bin - an accumulation of scraps from other projects. I find the best collage is done adding a layer of collage, then using markers to add embellishments, then adding another layer of collage materials. This makes for a really fun layering look.

Let me know how it went for you, or any ideas you used to make it your own!