Write a Poem About Color  
1. Ask your students to identify their favorite colors. Write the four or five most popular on the board. Leave room to add children's comments later in the lesson.  

2. What do students associate with these colors? They might have something personal in mind, such  
as green being the color of the walls in their bedroom--or they might associate the color with  
something more universal. Examples might be that blue is the color of the sky or yellow is the color  
of the sun. Write their responses next to the appropriate color.  

3. Hand out copies of “Fog” from The Macaroon Moon and ask a student to read the poem aloud.  

4. Instruct the children to pick out the items in the poem that the author associates with white? (the fog, a cloud, the bride’s dress, lace.)  

5. Ask the children what color is “nothing”? Is “nothing” white as the author says, or could “nothing” be another color? 

6. Instruct the children pick out the rhyme in the poem? Instead of couplets--two successive lines that rhyme—the author rhymes lines two and four in each stanza. This is a rhyme scheme students can use when they write their own poems.  

7. Discuss other patterns in the poem. Students might notice that each stanza is four lines and that there are three stanzas.  

8. Now it’s time to write. Remind students that a good poem uses specific details, such as color. In  
writing their poems, they should include some of the things they associated with their favorite colors  
at the start of this lesson.