What is an acrostic poem? 
An acrostic poem, sometimes called a name poem,
uses a word for its subject. Then each line of the poem begins
with a letter from the subject word. This type of poetry doesn't
have to rhyme.
Here's an example using the word school:
Shabonee
is where I go
Computers,
spirals, books, and more
Homework
every night
On
math, science, reading, and social studies
Our
class does lots of fun projects
Learning
never stops
How do I write
an acrostic poem? For
your first try, you might want to use your first name as your
subject word.
1.Write the subject of your
poem vertically (up and down)on a piece of paper.
2. Brainstorm a list of
words/ideas to include in the poem. Think of any words that
might go with your subject word. Don't try to only think
of words that begin with the letters in your subject word, list
anything you think of. You can make the words/ideas fit later.
3. Look
through the list of words/ideas. Begin to decide how they might
fit into the poem. **Often a word you want to put into the poem
doesn't begin with the letters found in the subject word. Think
how that word could be put into a sentence that begins
with a letter from the subject word. Here's an example
from the school poem:
Projects is a word
that is a part of school, but there isn't a "p"
in the word school. But by thinking of a sentence that
contains the word projects, the word can be fit into
the poem.
Our
class does lots of fun projects
4. Work through all the letters
of your subject word until you have created a line for each
letter. Sometimes this can be tough. The first idea isn't always
the best. You may need to think of some new words that describe
your subject word to complete your poem.
