I encountered a new word. Cinquain. I have always loved writing ever since I can remember. When I discovered rhyming words when I was young, I had a go at writing poems too. I studied the rules, the rhythms, the counts. I even studied the different types of poems. A 3-line poem for example, is called a Haiku. I saw some Hivers before that wrote Haikus. Then there's the limerick, which I think was my most preferred form of poetry but let's not forget the sonnet which I just remember the name now but couldn't quite recall of I had written a poetry in that form.
Nevertheless, I was quite astonished to find out and learn about another form of poetry from a children's book. My daughter has a library of books at home ranging from educational books, activity books, study books, leisure, and silly books. I make sure that I curate the collection she has so as to ensure that there is a balance of fun and learning in her library. Charlotte Mason recommends that we limit the nonsense readings a child does.
One of the books that was gifted to my daughter was one of Barbara Parks's Junie B. Jones series Junie B., First Grader - Cheater Pants. I know better than to judge a book by its cover so even after seeing the title, I had to quickly browse through it to make sure that there are no negative impacts on the values that we are teaching her in the book. Especially after we had to go through a thorough process of forming the habit of truthfulness.
We had to revisit the topic of honesty and integrity with her after we've finished reading the book. There are lessons to be learned in it but the best one I might say is the lesson about cinquain. This is a fun and relaxed way of transitioning from reading poems to writing one.
A cinquain is a 5-line poem. Now this poem doesn't count the syllables unlike a haiku (3 lines with 5-7-5 syllable count). It counts the number of words. It's quite easy to make, actually. I and my daughter had a lot of fun writing cinquains this afternoon.
Like I said, there are 5 lines. You just need to think of a topic. For the first line, you need just one word. This is going to be the title. You may then proceed with the second line. You'll need 2 words describing the title. You'll then need to think about 3 action words about the title. The fourth line needs 4 words expressing a thought or feeling about the title. You'll then need 1 word for the 5th line that has the same meaning as the title.
I am loving this idea because first of all, poetry writing is a challenging activity for young students. With cinquains, they don't need to worry about rhymes or syllable counts. All they need are words and right now, there is an abundance of that in their brains. It's a good start at practicing poetry outside of just reading and memorizing them.
Secondly, it's a great way to introduce adjectives, verbs, and synonyms to them without sounding too bookish. A child is more likely to produce something if you'll ask them to give a describing word rather than give an adjective. I also remember feeling a bit bored when I was in gradeschool during discussions about verbs. I felt like it's a waste of time having to come up with words and then just throw them all away into oblivion. For a 1st or 2nd grader, this is a great way to transition into advanced English lessons.
The way kids are challenged into coming up with the necessary words to complete the cinquain helps in their brain development. My kid has daily poetry reading both in English and Filipino. She also has memory works. Although her mind is already used to writing stories, writing a poem is new to her. She has tried last year but is was way too challenging for her. Cinquains made it a lot easier for her brain to pull the words from her set of vocabulary to produce a poem.
We made cinquains earlier. We chose the topic: favorite food. Here's how our poems went:
My daighter's poem:
Sinigang
Veggieful, sour
Eat, taste, appreciate
Yummy appetite, love it!
Ulam
Here's mine:
Chocolate
Dark, bitter
Melt, bake, bite
Makes me feel alright
Delight
Not bad for a first try, eh? I know there's a lot of work to be done, but it's our first try.
It really did not say if it needs to rhyme or not but somehow, we made some of the words rhyme without even trying. I guess we were just both having a blast at making a cinquain. The little person asked that we make another cinquain tomorrow.
This is one fun activity both for kids and kids at heart. Why don't you give it a try? Let me know how it went. :)
