Invite your students to capture winter in their own words and create an original poem inspired by the season, their surroundings, celebrations, or what this time of year means to them.
Download the Entry FormWinter looks different depending on where you live. For some people, it means snow days, sledding, frosty mornings, and warming up with hot chocolate. For others, winter may bring sunshine, cooler evenings, family trips, school breaks, celebrations, or time spent outdoors.
Whatever their experience, Winter Words gives every student the chance to turn their ideas, feelings, memories, and imagination into poetry.
Your students can write about anything that inspires them. Here are some ideas to get their creativity flowing.
What does November to February look, sound, smell, and feel like in their part of the country?
Family traditions, holidays, festivals, favorite foods, parties, gifts, or special moments spent together.
New Year's resolutions, hopes for the year ahead, things they'd like to learn, change, try, or achieve.
Snowy forests, migrating birds, bare trees, desert sunsets, changing weather, fall leaves, hibernating animals, mountains or oceans.
A real or imaginary adventure: a snow day, road trip, family vacation, magical journey to the North Pole, an unexpected discovery.
Friendship, family, helping others, gratitude, community, or the people who make this time of year special.
Give winter a personality, invent a winter creature, or imagine a world where the season never ends.
Do they love winter or wish it would disappear? Encourage them to make their case in rhyme, free verse, or any poetic style.
Winter Words is designed to easily fit into your plans, and it's totally FREE.
Share the theme and use the ideas above to get your students thinking.
Poems can be handwritten or typed, with no line or word limit.
When they're ready, submit your students' poems to us by email or upload.
Give students the freedom to experiment with ideas, language, rhythm, rhyme, and self-expression.
Having their writing read and celebrated gives young writers a real sense of achievement .
Selected poems could be published in a special Winter Words poetry anthology.
Our favorite poet will win a $50 Amazon gift card.
Bring poetry into your classroom, let your students' imaginations take the lead and, when they're ready, send us their poems.
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