Free 8th Grade Poetry Activities

Looking for a thought-provoking, creative activity to pair with your Wonder novel study? This acrostic poem and "Design Your Own Choose Kindness Shirt" art activity are just what you need to inspire your students while reinforcing themes of kindness, empathy, and self-expression!

Recommended for grades 5-8.

WHAT'S INCLUDED:

✨ Acrostic Poem Template: Students use their names to craft thoughtful poems inspired by the story and its powerful message. It’s perfect for encouraging critical thinking and creativity.

✨ Kindness T-Shirt Design Activity: Have your students imagine they’re creating their own “kindness campaign” by designing a T-shirt with a positive message or a powerful quote from the book. This hands-on activity promotes individuality, self-expression, and classroom collaboration.

WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT FOR YOUR CLASSROOM OR HOMESCHOOL:

✔️ No Prep, Easy to Use – Just print and go!

✔️ Aligned with SEL Themes – Focus on empathy, respect, and inclusivity.

✔️ Fun and Flexible – Use as a quick activity, a station in your classroom, or as part of a larger unit on Wonder.

✨ BONUS: These activities also make a great bulletin board display to celebrate your students’ creativity and showcase the lessons learned from Wonder.

Love this freebie? Take your Wonder novel study to the next level!

Check out my comprehensive Wonder Novel Study with over 100 pages of engaging activities that dive deeper into character analysis, themes, literary devices, and much more. It’s packed with tools to inspire rich discussions and critical thinking—all aligned to standards and designed for grades 5-8.

IMPORTANT DETAILS:

This is a digital download. You will not receive anything in the mail.

Please use a computer to download and not your phone.

Explore United States history through the art of haiku with the History in A Haiku Activity! This comprehensive kit is designed to enrich and engage students in their understanding of U.S. History while honing their creative writing skills. With carefully curated historical prompts, research resources, and a structured writing process, this activity offers a dynamic way to learn about various U.S. historical topics and craft expressive haikus.

Key Features:

• 30 Fascinating Historical Prompts: Choose from a diverse range of 30 U.S. historical topics that span different cultures, regions, and time periods.
• Grading Rubric: A comprehensive grading rubric guides students in meeting the criteria for historical accuracy, creative expression, language use, and more.
• Step-by-Step Guide: A detailed lesson plan and instructions make it easy to implement the activity effectively in your classroom.
• Extensions and Variations: Discover ways to extend the activity with group collaboration, multimedia integration, and exciting variations to cater to diverse learning preferences.
• Bonus Challenge: Encourage creativity with a bonus challenge that offers students the opportunity to earn extra credit by incorporating unique historical references.
• Grading Scale: A clear grading scale ensures students understand the evaluation process and helps you provide constructive feedback.
• Teacher Instructions: Detailed teacher instructions and suggestions for variations provide you with a flexible framework to adapt the activity to your classroom's needs.

Benefits:

• Enhance Historical Understanding: Foster a deeper understanding of world history by researching and connecting with different cultures and periods.
• Develop Creative Writing Skills: Cultivate creativity and descriptive language skills as students craft haikus that convey historical messages and imagery.
• Engaging and Interactive: The activity actively involves students in research, critical thinking, and artistic expression, making history come alive.
• Tailored Learning: Choose prompts that align with your curriculum or pique students' interests, creating a personalized learning experience.
• Meaningful Assessment: Assess historical understanding, language skills, and creativity through a well-defined grading rubric.

Immerse your students in the past, inspire their creativity, cultivate a deeper appreciation for history and language, and bring history to life in your classroom!

10 colorful, themed Valentine's Day stationary sheets with lines and addressings. Also, 10 black and white images to write and color. Students can write to family members and friends to express their emotions and gratitudes. Easy to use--just xerox and let students choose their favorites. Fun to give and get!

Ring in the new year with this NO PREP acrostic poem goal writing activity! Students can choose their favorite words and write their own acrostic poem on the printable template while spelling out the words HAPPY NEW YEAR. Enjoy as morning work, center activity, brain break, or for your New Year's Party!

Find this and more:

New Year's Bundle

Directions:

• Print the template in color or black and white
• students write a word or phrase to describe what they hope the new year will bring for them or what goals they have for the new year
• In an acrostic poem, each line starts with a capital letter that spells out the poem's theme vertically
• Acrostic poems don't need to rhyme, but all the other poetic devices like alliteration, similes, and rhythm are often used to create an effect on the reader

What's included?

• 1 "Happy New Year" acrostic poem template in Color
• 1 "Happy New Year" acrostic poem template in Black and White

New Year's Resources

Writing Resources

This resources features the first task of our popular Poetry ESCAPE ROOM. Check out this freebie to get a feel for how our escape rooms operate!

There is no wonder why escape rooms are so popular; they are highly engaging and encourage people to work together and think creatively in order to solve different puzzles... all while trying to beat the clock! This meticulously-crafted resource features all of the materials you need to conduct the first task of our Poetry ESCAPE ROOM in order to get a feel for what our escape rooms are like. The activity involves creative thinking, logic, and collaboration. Your students will be having so much fun that they won’t even realize the higher order thinking skills they are applying (and the number of poems they have analyzed) in the playing of this game!

How does it work?

The ghosts of Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, Langston Hughes, William Shakespeare, and Maya Angelou have risen from the grave to lock your students inside your classroom. They are upset because they believe that students spend too much time talking about (fill in the blank with whatever is hip with students these days) and not enough time reading and writing poetry. Students cannot escape until they complete 5 poetry-based tasks to show these ghosts of poets past that they do in fact know their poetry. This resource features task 1 of the escape room:

• Match 'Em Up: In this task, students must match up poetic terms and devices with their definitions. Letters intersected by the lines between the terms and definitions will reveal their code.

Product Includes:

• Task Sign
• Task Instructions
• Match 'Em Up Worksheet
• Answer Key

This task is suitable for middle and high school students and is ideal any time during your poetry unit.

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Get the full escape room here: Poetry ESCAPE ROOM

More poetry escape rooms by Language Arts Excellence

⭐ Digital Poetry Escape Room

⭐ Back to School Poetry Escape Room

⭐ Halloween Poetry ESCAPE ROOM

⭐ Thanksgiving Poetry ESCAPE ROOM

⭐ Christmas Poetry ESCAPE ROOM

⭐ Poetry Escape Room Bundle

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