The diamante is a simple form of poetry to teach to children.
There is no better way to get children to enjoy reading poetry than by teaching them how to write poems. With so many different forms, poetry writing can easily be taught in the classroom or home school setting year round.
For the diamante, children need to know nouns, verbs, and adjectives because of the structure of the poem.
For the first step, have the children choose one topic or, depending on whether you are attaching this writing activity to a specific subject, give them a broad topic to write about. For example, the children’s topic can be a season such as autumn, amphibians, water, etc.
The diamante has only seven lines. Rhyming is not important.
The first line, line one, is the name of the topic. Have your students keep it short, using only one word. For example, is I were writing a diamante that falls under the subject of autumn, I would choose the topic of “leaves.”
The second line is made of two adjectives, describing words. For leaves, I might use the adjectives “colorful, lively.”
Line three uses three action words. I would have the leaves “falling, tumbling, dancing.”
For line four, use a four-word sentence that shows feeling about the topic, such as “making the children laugh.”
Line five uses three verbs.
Line six uses two adjectives.
Line seven, the last line in the diamante, is a one-word synonym for the word that was used in line one.
Here is a quick example of a diamante:
Leaves
Colorful, lively,
Falling, tumbling, dancing
Making the children laugh
Swirling, twirling, sailing
Reds, yellows
Fall
