Seashell Poetry-Lunes

After I taught the seashell lesson in my son's third grade class, his teacher told me she planned to have the students write haiku poems about their shells. Haiku is a challenging form of poetry to write and one that can be too hard for some children due to it's rigid 5-7-5 syllable structure. English Language Learners and children with language disabilities have an especially difficult time. I suggested a similar, yet easier to manage, relative of the haiku-the Lune- as an alternative. His teacher welcomed the suggestion.

A lune is a short poem of 11 words:  3 words in the first line, 5 words in the second line, and 3 words in the third line. Frequently, the third line offers a surprise. For more information about lunes, including examples, I recommend the book Poetry Everywhere by Jack Collum and Sheryl Noethe. I have the first edition. Here's the second:

If you wish to explore other poetic forms with your children or students, this book is an excellent resource.

Here are some examples taken from my son's third grade class. Only students who wished to have their poems published are included. Not all of the poems stick to the 3-5-3 structure (some did 5-3-5) but they have a similar feel. All students drew their shells, as well, but I think these poems stand alone well.

My shell is

orange bumpy and smooth at

 the same time.

by Kayla

My shell is very curly

round and short

and colors of the rainbow.

by Nathan

My shell looks

like a breaking wave crashing

onto the shore.

by Dante

A happy shell

swimming in the blue sea

on its back.

by Hannah

A conch is a conch

brown to its

point, dizzy, dizzy, dizzy you get!

by Haley

Happy scallops live in shells

sad scallops don't

Sad scallops get eaten. Yum!

by Ben

This oval shaped, spikey shell

has brown bumps

with a peach colored inside.

by Beatrice

My shell is at the

sunny beach with

all the shells and creatures.

by Cole F.

One black dot

in the middle, bumpy brown

around every edge.

by Cecilia

My shell has

wings on its side to

help it swim.

by Ella

My shell looks very bumpy

and also looks

like the beautiful setting sun.

by Marissa

My shell has two parts,

lives in the

ocean and opens and shuts.

by Julia

And here's one that is best read along with the art:

Will you give Lunes a try? Since they're such a short form, I hope you'll share examples in the comments.