This week the theme in our Second Grade Learning series is Poetry. We are well into the swing of our school year and second grade Spelling words do need a lot of practice at home. We decided to create poems using our -CH and -TCH Digraphs Spelling Word list. This was a lot of fun for my second grader and I. She really got into creating rhyming lines of our poetry. This is one spelling practice technique, we’ll definitely be using throughout the year as we practice spelling words and words that sound similar this school year.
Second Grade English Language Arts: Poetry with Spelling Words
(Affiliate links are included in this post.) We started out with our Spelling list for the week, which were words containing the similarly sounding -CH and -TCH ending diagraphs. These words can be tricky for students to learn because the sound is so alike. We needed a little extra practice before the week’s test, so this poem building exercise was perfect.
We started off by cutting out rectangles of cardstock
. I wrote out each word from the spelling list, adding in a few that contain the -CH and -TCH ending diagraphs.
. I wrote out each word from the spelling list, adding in a few that contain the -CH and -TCH ending diagraphs. 
We started by sorting all of the words in the pile. This activity was a good way to review the words and recognize that words with -CH or -TCH rhyme. We identified several rhyming pairs.
Next, we used the rhyming pairs to create rhyming lines of poetry. We built a poem by piecing in the rhyming lines. To do this, we pulled out a pair of rhyming word cards and placed them on our paper. We wrote lines of the poem around the spelling words, using the spelling word as the ending of the line of poetry. It was fun for my daughter to come up with lines that used both words of the pair in a way that made sense. She liked the puzzle of building lines of her poem and wanted to create more.
To make this a collaboration between the two of us, we took turns creating lines of the poem. What a fun way to write and create together. While we wrote, we talked about the rhythm of the lines of our poem. We discussed the beat of the lines and how that added to our poetry.
What are your favorite ways to learn and practice diapgraphs? Here are a few fun ways that we discovered by doing this activity together:
- Write a diagraph poem. Try it. It’s fun!
- Sort words by diagraph.
- Match pairs of rhyming words. Notice how the matching words (like arch and march) contain many of the same letters.
- Use flashcards to do a scavenger hunt.
- Practice diagraph words with balloons.
- Make a sensory bin with diagraph words.
- Use ping pong balls in learning diagraphs.
Stop by and see what the Second Grade Blogger Team have done with Poetry this week:
Classic Poetry for 2nd Graders – from Look! We’re Learning
9 Poetry Books your child might enjoy – Planet Smarty Pants
Introducing Children to the poems of Rober Louis Stevenson – In the Playroom
Hand print Poetry – Creative Family Fun
Cinquain Poetry for Kids – Still Playing School
Solar System Poetry – Rainy Day Mum
