Created by Betsy Potash of Spark Creativity

This guest post is written by Betsy Potash of Spark Creativity.

Looking for a fun holiday pop-up poetry workshop you can try this December? How about challenging students with the hilarious, fun intricacies of a lipogram?!

Melissa (you know, the founder of this site!) first shared this idea with me last year and I loved it so much that I created a wintery holiday version for December, and now we’d like to share it with you! 

What is a Lipogram?

In a lipogram, a poet avoids using certain letters. For our purposes, students will be creating a lipogram that avoids all the vowels except one of their choosing.

So hard.

So fun.

So exciting, right?

This type of lipogram is the kind that gets in your head! You and your students may find words popping into your mind for your next lipogram while brushing your teeth, driving to school, or walking the halls. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about how to roll out your holiday lipogram workshop.

Start with a Mentor Text

There are some fun ones out there. You could watch Cathy Park Hong read “Ballad in O” or Gabriela Garbut read “Lipogram in A.”  

Talk about what a lipogram is – in this case, a type of poem in which every word of the poem has only one vowel, though it can mean a poem that simply avoids any letter or group of letters. 

Roll out the Project: Brainstorming

Next it’s time to get students brainstorming for their own lipograms. (Grab your free copy of the full curriculum set right here.)

Kids will need to start with some guided brainstorming. Turns out, it’s not that easy to think up words with only one vowel!

Let them choose a vowel and a  partner if they wish, then list out as many words as they can think of with only that one vowel on the first handout. If you wish, challenge them with some number like “I want to hear about it if anyone makes it to 20!” Then if anyone hits your challenge, play a round of applause sound clip or just shout them out to the class as everyone is working…

“WOW! Julia and Jake are the first group to hit 20! Way to go! Who else is close?” 

Give the class a few minutes for this first brainstorm, until you feel the energy start to peter out. 

Next, share the handout with all the pictures (and/or project it). At this point, you can invite kids to change partners and find someone else with their same vowel. If they don’t find a match, no problem, they can do this brainstorm on their own. 

For this one, students brainstorm words with their vowel related to the imagery on the page. If they get on a roll with one picture, great! If not, they can hop from picture to picture during the writing session. 

Again, just play it by ear. As soon as you feel kids are ready, move on to the next (and final) brainstorm.

Once again, if you wish, invite kids to get up and move to find a new partner. For this third session, they’ll take a look at the emotion words shared on their handout (and/or projected by you on the wall) and brainstorm words with their vowel related to the emotions.

Time to Write

Once students have collected dozens of words related to the pictures and emotions, poetry ideas will already be suggesting themselves. It’s time to write.

Give them time. Wander around and compliment lines, maybe write a few favorites on the board with permission. 

When you feel kids have had enough time, invite them to trade with a partner and star their three favorite lines, then do it one more time.

At this point, you could invite sharing aloud, or move into step four. 

Step Four: Holiday Poetry Gallery

If you’d like to create a gallery of student poems in your hallway, take a few minutes to let students copy their final work onto white paper with colorful markers. Invite them to illuminate their poems as they go, adding color in purposeful ways, emphasizing key words with their choice of size and font, integrating icons, doodles, or full drawings to help highlight meaning. You can make this a significant part of the project if you want to spend time on how visuals can help illustrate meaning or just do it quickly. 

Finally, give students tape and invite them to put their lipograms up in your hallway gallery, then wander around and read other people’s for the last couple of minutes of class. As more of your classes add their pieces, you’ll soon have quite a display! 

You’re Ready to Rumble

OK, that’s it! You’re ready to introduce this fun wintery project whenever you have a free day in the coming weeks. Remember, you can grab the full curriculum to walk you through each step right here. 

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More lessons like this:

• Letter Play – writing prompt using mentor text poems by living poets
• Name Poem – writing prompt using mentor text poems by living poets
• Color poem – pop-up poetry to get students thinking like a poet