Students will write a haiku poem. Writing haiku allows students to practice dividing words into syllables and search for word to fit the haiku structure. Students will reflect on their hiking experience.

Materials:
Haiku Hike, written by fourth grade students of St. Mary’s, Mansfield, Massachusetts. (Scholastic Inc.)
Dictionaries
Watercolor paints
Thin tip black felt tip marker
A great hiking experience

Procedure:
Review the word syllable. Practice dividing words into syllables.

Introduce haiku as a form of Japanese poetry about one aspect of nature in which each line contains a certain number of syllables.

Show the haiku form

5 syllables
7 syllables
5 syllables

Read aloud Haiku Hike. Emphasize that each poem talks about only one thing in nature.
Practice dividing the poems into syllables. Chant each line.

Have students write a haiku poem about their researched plant.

Paint a watercolor scene about their plant at Rockville Park.

Carefully write their haiku poem on the watercolor picture.

Recite to the class and hang in the room.