Unit Plan 16 (Grade K ELA): Poetry & Sound Play
Kindergarten poetry unit: students explore rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration, learn to distinguish poems from stories, and perform short verses with drawings and gestures to build expressive reading and listening skills.
Focus: Rhythm, rhyme, alliteration; noticing poems vs. stories
Grade Level: Kindergarten
Subject Area: English Language Arts (Literature • Speaking/Listening)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 45–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
This week kids meet poetry as a special kind of text. They’ll learn how poems look and sound different from stories (short lines, white space, beat, repetition). Through playful reading and chanting, students will hear rhyme, notice alliteration (same beginning sounds), ask about tricky words, and prepare a tiny poetry performance with drawings/gestures.
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…
- Tell how poems and stories are different, naming features (lines, white space, rhyme, repetition). (RL.K.5)
- Identify and produce rhyme in familiar poems; ask/answer about tricky/interesting words and sound effects. (RL.K.4)
- Notice alliteration (same starting sounds) in a line and try a class tongue twister. (RL.K.4)
- Add drawings/gestures to help the class understand a poem during a brief share. (SL.K.5)
Standards Alignment — CCSS Kindergarten
- RL.K.4 Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text (applied to rhyme/alliteration and vivid word choices).
- RL.K.5 Recognize common types of texts (storybooks, poems); identify basic text features of poems.
- SL.K.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions to provide additional detail.
Success Criteria — student language
- I can say, “This is a poem” and tell how I know.
- I can find two words that rhyme and say them together.
- I can hear when two or more words start with the same sound.
- I can show my poem with a drawing or gesture so others understand.