1.3: Acrostic poems
Students explore their own and others attributes and create acrostic poems using their names and adjectives.
Tasks
- Read The Bunyip from THE BIG MOB BOOKS for little fullas series. Ask students to recall all the adjectives used to describe the creatures in the story. On the board or on butcher’s paper record students’ responses.
- Ask students to think of adjectives to describe students in the class. Stress that the adjectives must be positive.
Record the adjectives on the board or on butcher’s paper.
- Using Handouts 3 and 4: Acrostic poems (1) and (2) a model introduce students to the concept of an acrostic poem.
- Ask students to create their own acrostic poems using their own names and adjectives to describe themselves.
- Students should decorate their acrostic poems with self-portraits. Poems may be displayed in the classroom.
- The Bunyip is a Dreaming story from Narrandera which is part of the Wiradjuri Nation. The story tells of two children who go to the river against the advice of their Elders. Many colourful adjectives are used to describe the creatures in the story. Any text which uses many adjectives to describe its characters may be used as a stimulus for this activity.
- Depending on the language ability of the class, the acrostic poems may be simple in structure taking the form of a list of adjectives beginning with the letters of students’ names or more complex in the form of phrases or thoughts continuing across lines to describe students.
- Dreaming stories are the intellectual property of the community from which they came. If you school falls in Gamilaroi land, it is considered protocol to ask permission of the Gamilaroi Elders to read The Bunyip in your school. (Board of Studies NSW and NSW Department of School Education, 1997)
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Downloads
- Text: The Bunyip from THE BIG MOB BOOKS for little fullas series as told by William Archibald Lyons or similar text.
- Butcher’s paper
- Coloured pencils, textas or paint
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