Spider Haiku Poems

Title – Spider Haiku Poems
By – Jennifer Dalke
Subject – Language Arts, Science
Grade Level – 4-5

Unit contents:

• This part deals with the End of the book, and involves launching a Balloon Journey
• Here’s a Writing Activity involving the students’ Favorite Parts
• This section is on the Main Characters and Quoting
• This portion is on Acting Out portions of the book
• This lesson is on Predicting with Charlotte’s Web
• This part uses a Crossword Puzzle to learn Scientific Facts about Spiders
• This section is on Finding Spiders’ Homes
• A similar section – Finding Where Spiders Live
• Here’s More on Finding Where Spiders Live
• This portion is on writing Haiku Poems about Spiders
• Here students take on the roles of Arachnologists and Interview each other
• The Spider’s Life Cycle is the subject of this lesson
• Graphing the Lengths of Spiders is the subject of this part
• More Graphing, this time with Facts about Spiders
• Here students Plot Facts about Spiders
• Another Math lesson, this one using Spider Math Problems
• This part involves doing Research on Spiders
• A fun activity for developing Spider Webs out of cold Spaghetti
• This portion is on Spiders’ Venom
• A Writing Activity about Wilbur’s First Day

Subject: Writing

Illinois State Goals: 1. Read with understanding and fluency
2. Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras, and ideas
3. Write to communicate for a variety of purposes

Instructional Objective:
Students will pretend that they are spiders and write a haiku poem about them, their webs, their
victims, etc.

Supplies:
* writer’s notebooks
* blackboard

Anticipatory Set:
* I will ask the children if they have ever seen a spider web. What does it look like? What kind of shape does it have?
* I will ask them to name other things that have the same shape as a spider web. Bicycle wheels? Ferris Wheels? Merry-go-rounds? I will make a list of these ideas on the board

Activities:
1. I will ask the children if they know any poems by heart. Students will be encouraged to share them with the class.
2. I will ask them what makes up a poem. I will read them a portion out of the newspaper and ask them if it is a poem. Why or why not?
3. I will introduce the idea of a haiku poem, showing children how they are made up. I will ask children to make up different lines so we can make up our own haiku as a class. I will write this on the board, noting proper structure.
4. I will ask students to take out their notebooks and turn to the page entitled Carnival Webs. I will ask them to pretend that they are spiders and bicycle wheels, Merry-go-rounds, or other ideas, are their webs. They should read the directions at the top of the page, and write a haiku poem about their experiences.
5. Students will have fifteen to twenty minutes to write their poems, and then I will have them volunteer to read their poems aloud.

Adaptations:
Cassie (LD)- I will have her work with another student who I know has a firm grasp on the idea of a haiku poem. I will ask them to make up two poems, with both of them giving input, and the aiding child helping Cassie to understand the structure of the poem.

Closure:
* Students will be asked to put their heads down on their desks with their eyes closed. I will instruct them to raise their hand when I say the name of the child whose poem they thought was the best. The student who receives the most votes will receive a special award.
* I will ask students to return their writer’s notebooks to their proper place.

Evaluation:
Students will be evaluated on their writing. Their poems should follow the correct structure, and they should cover the correct writing topic.

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