In this online tool, students can learn about and write diamante poems, which are diamond-shaped poems that use nouns, adjectives, and gerunds to describe either one central topic or two opposing topics (for example, night/day or winter/spring). Examples of both kinds of diamante poems can be viewed online or printed out. Because diamante poems follow a specific format that uses nouns on the first and last lines, adjectives on the second and fourth lines, and gerunds in the third and fifth lines, this tool has numerous word-study applications. The tool provides definitions of the different parts of speech students use in composing the poems, reinforcing the connection between word study and writing. It also includes prompts to write and revise poems, thus reinforcing elements of the writing process. Students can print their finished diamante poems. For additional ideas on how to use this tool, see Tips for Using Diamante Poems.

Visit this interactive tool at: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/diamante/.

ReadWriteThink Lessons That Use This Tool

All About Alliteration: Responding to Literature Through a Poetry Link (3-5)
This lesson for third and fourth grade students uses a read-aloud to teach about alliteration. It then has students brainstorm alliterative word lists using a variety or print and online resources. Students create and illustrate a poem using the poetry they have read as a framework for their writing.

Building Classroom Community Through the Exploration of Acrostic Poetry (3-5)
This lesson explores the genre of acrostic poetry and reinforces positive community practices in the classroom. After looking at various acrostic poetry websites, students participate in a shared writing experience. Students then write an acrostic poem about one of their peers using online resources such as thesauri and an interactive writing tool.

Casting Shadows Across Literacy and Science (K-2)
As they read about shadows in fiction, informational text, and poetry, students bring their own background knowledge and experiences to the text and extend their understanding of concepts. Lesson activities encourage students to use their observational skills, both in science and in literature, and to create their own shadow poetry.

Color of Silence: Sensory Imagery in Pat Mora’s Poem “Echoes” (6-8)
Moving from personal experience to practical application, students use their senses to discover new ways to read and write. Pat Mora’s poem “Echoes” is used to demonstrate that our senses are powerful tools for literary analysis and comprehension.


Creating Classroom Community by Crafting Themed Poetry Collections (3-5)
Back to school means new teachers, new classmates and many unanswered questions. In this lesson, students create poetry collections with a back-to-school theme of “getting to know each other.” Students write poetry with the goal of introducing themselves, helping to create a sense of classroom community, while exploring the many and varied types and forms of poetry and constructing and refining their own definitions of poetry.

Dancing Minds and Shouting Smiles: Teaching Personification Through Poetry (3-5)
In this lesson, students reflect on the use of personification in three classic poems, comparing and contrasting how each poet uses it. Students then complete a prewriting exercise before writing their own poems using personification.

Dr. Seuss’s Sound Words: Playing with Phonics and Spelling (K-2)
Boom! Br-r-ring! Cluck! Moo!—you are bound to find exciting sounds everywhere. Whether you visit online sites that play sounds or take a sound hike, ask your students to notice the sounds they hear then write their own poems, using sound words, based on Dr. Seuss's Mr. Brown Can MOO! Can You?

Dynamite Diamante Poetry (3-5)
This lesson combines grammar and spelling instruction with creative writing. Students review nouns, adjectives, and verbs and are introduced to gerunds. They then write and revise diamante poems using these types of words.

Earth Verse: Using Science in Poetry (3-5)
Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith's picture book, Science Verse, serves as a model for students to use poetry to improve content area knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension—in this case, for the science curriculum.


Exploring Change through Allegory and Poetry (6-8)
In this lesson, students explore the theme of change through allegory and poetry. Students read an example of literary allegory, review basic literary concepts, complete a literary elements map and plot diagram, create a pictorial allegory, and write a diamante poem related to the theme of change.

Exploring the Power of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Words through Diamante Poetry (9-12)
Encourage your students to explore the ways that powerful and passionate words communicate the concepts of freedom, justice, discrimination, and the American Dream in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech by paying attention to the details of King's speech as they read and as they gather words to use in their own original poems.

Honoring Our Veterans Through Poetry Prewriting (6-8)
This lesson uses the informational power of the Internet for a prewriting activity. Through various Internet sites, students gather information about the history and celebration practices associated with Veterans Day. Following the prewriting activity, students write content-rich poems that honor our veterans.

Multipurpose Poetry: Introducing Science Concepts and Increasing Fluency (3-5)
This lesson introduces the study of insects in science by using poetry. Students work in cooperative groups to prepare choral poetry readings and present factual information on an assigned insect to the class. The choral poetry readings also serve to increase fluency in ESL students.

Peace Poems and Picasso Doves: Literature, Art, Technology, and Poetry (3-5)
Students and teachers employ think-aloud strategies as they read literature, compose poems, and create artwork related to the theme of peace. This unit is designed for collaborative teaching among classroom, art, and technology teachers, and school librarians. A single educator can also teach this unit.

Shape Poems: Writing Extraordinary Poems About Ordinary Objects (3-5)
In this lesson, students learn the characteristics and format of shape poems and write their own shape poems using an online interactive activity.

Slipping, Sliding, Tumbling: Reinforcing Cause and Effect Through Diamante Poems (6-8)
In this lesson, students practice identifying cause and effect, an important introduction to higher order thinking. Students begin by brainstorming cause and effect statements. They are then introduced to the diamante form of poetry and apply their knowledge by creating cause and effect diamante poems.