Hidden Poetry for Poetry Month

Student reading the poem that he found

A couple of years ago, I came up with something for April that I called Hidden Poetry, but we didn't have time to do it last year and resurrected the activity for 2013. During National Poetry Month, I email a poem every day to all the students and staff of PFTSTA. Hidden Poetry allowed me to have a more interactive activity using poetry. First, I collect poems from students. I asked them to  send me a poem that they either wrote or a poem that speaks to them by any poet living or dead. I collate all the poems then print them on different colored paper. Students helped me cut out the poems, roll them and tie them with a ribbon. Then one day after school, the students hide the poems throughout the building. The next day, when a student finds a hidden poem, they bring it to the library. I ask them to read the poem to me and whoever is in the library, and then I reward them with a candy prize. All the poems are put onto a bulletin board as I collect them, so that everyone can read them. This year the middle school students really got into the whole event. They were so excited to show off the poems that they found. We put out a little over 100 poems, and students were allowed to bring me one poem each. I was very pleased with the outcome of this event, and I need to make an effort to make sure it happens again next year.