Poema Diamante en tercer grado (Diamante Poem in third grade)

To complement third grade’s Moon Study, which connects with their social studies focus on Ancient China, the students have crafted a poem in español with the thought of sharing it during their Mid-Autumn Moon Festival celebration this coming Friday.

In their homeroom, the students have just finished an extensive study of the moon and its phases. Therefore, it made great sense to connect their learning with their Spanish class experience.  Since creating poetry is a wonderful way for students to share information they learn, we decided to form a poem using Spanish words that describe the moon.

There are many styles of poetry. One simple type is one invented by an American poet Iris McClellan titled “Diamante Poem,” a seven-lined poem. To start, we watched a PowerPoint that introduced us to the simple rules of this art form. This study helped us learn (and review) three parts of speech in español; sustantivo (noun), adjetivo (adjective) and verbo (verb).

A Diamante (which means diamond in Spanish) is an unrhymed seven-line poem. The beginning and ending lines (which are the subjects) are the shortest, while the lines in the middle (describing the subjects) are longer, allowing the text to form the shape of a diamond. Here’s a way to visualize this piece of art.

sustantivo

adjetivo, adjetivo

verbo, verbo, verbo

sustamtivo, sustantivo, sustantivo, sustantivo

verbo, verbo, verbo,

adjetivo, adjetivo

sustantivo

 

Once the third graders learned what a Diamante poem was, we began to list the words we could use.  With “moon” as the topic, we jotted down all the words that came to mind when they thought of this natural satellite.  To gather sustantivos, adjetivos and verbos the following questions were posed:

• ¿A qué se parece la luna? (What does the moon look like?)
• ¿Qué color es la luna? (What color is the moon?) 
• ¿Qué forma tiene la luna? (What shape is the moon?)
• Si visitas la luna, ¿qué harías? (If you visit the moon, what would you do?)

All the words gathered were then written on flashcards and categorized by each part of speech, with its Spanish translation. Then, both class groups (Grupo Azul y Grupo Verde) took turns at creating their own collective poem by choosing and voting on the words to use.

Once completed, all students practiced learning their group’s poem in Spanish, individually or in pairs. To help reinforce the learning of the newly introduced vocabulary, we played many games including piecing the poem together in small groups and ringing a buzzer when done. ¡Divertido!

The result of their work will be heard during the third graders’ Mid-Autumn Moon Festival celebration this coming Friday, 11/19.  I sure hope you can make it and hear the fabulous work they have created!

Cariños,

Alicia