How to write poetry: Acrostic poems

Acrostic poetry can be a lot of fun for kids and adults alike. Grab your pencils and sit yourself down with your imagination and get ready to write about yourself, your pet or even your favourite season. The only limit is your imagination.  

What you need:

• pencil or pen for writing
• paper
• coloured pencils or markers to illustrate

Number of players:

Activity:

When writing an acrostic poem, you need to have a subject matter. This subject can be anything from a name of a person, an animal, a house or even a school. Anything that is close to your mind or heart at the time is worthy of creating an acrostic.

Here is an example of an acrostic poem to get you started.

Maroon walls
Yellow flowers

Red rug
Orange doona
Octopus teddy
My special place

Notice that the bold letters spell out "My Room" and the words coming from each letter describe my room. My readers can tell from that acrostic poem what my room looks like and that I love being in there.

Now your turn, give it a go!

Notes:

• Write each head letter in block letter form and colour it in.
• Create an acrostic for your family members and give them as cards or as a gift.

Image from Shutterstock.