Traveling lines with the viator and listening to music! That is what today’s post is all about, and some more.

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🗺️ Poetry Lesson Plan: Writing a Viator Poem

Grade Level: 3rd–5th
Poetic Form: Viator
Time Needed: 45–60 minutes

🎯 Objective

Students will write a Viator poem using a repeating refrain and structured stanza format to explore theme, rhythm, and creative expression.

🔗 Connections

• Learning Connection: This lesson builds sequencing and pattern recognition while encouraging deeper reflection on word choice and structure.
• Poetry Connection: The Viator introduces the power of repetition in poetry and allows students to explore how meaning shifts through reuse of a single line.
• Book Suggestions (for theme & repetition)
  • This Is the Rope by Jacqueline Woodson – repetition with a refrain-style narrative
  • Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer – observing poetry in the everyday
  • And the People Stayed Home by Kitty O’Meara – poetic reflection with structure

The Viator: One Step at a Time

📚 Warm-Up (5–10 min) – “Rhyme & Refrain”

• Begin with examples of familiar refrains:
  • Songs: “Let it go, let it go…”
  • Poems: “I do not like green eggs and ham…”
  • Books: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
• Ask: What does repeating a line do in a story or poem? (Emphasis, emotion, rhythm, structure)

🧭 Introduce the Viator (10 min)

Explain the Viator structure:

• Choose one refrain line—this will appear again and again.
• Number of lines per stanza = number of stanzas (e.g., 2 stanzas of 2 lines, 3 stanzas of 3 lines,…)
• Refrain is Line 1 of stanza 1, Line 2 of stanza 2, Line 3 of stanza 3, and so on
• The last line of the last stanza is also the refrain—full circle!
• Rhyme and rhythm are poet’s choice.

Examples

2*2 –

A penguin wore a purple hat
And danced with seals—imagine that!

He slid on ice with a splat !
A penguin wore a purple hat

3*3

Kindness is a magical seed
Planted deep in the heart
It grows with love and care

When you see someone in need, remember—
Kindness is a magical seed
So go plant it there

It spreads hope in every way
And blossoms into smiles, for
Kindness is a magical seed
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

4*4

I built a rocket in my room
With pillows, tape, and a wooden broom
I counted down – 3, 2, 1 – and… zoom

Clad in my cool cosmonaut costume
I built a rocket in my room
To soar past stars and many moons

To find aliens glowing, I roam
A zillion miles away from home
(‘cause) I built a rocket in my room
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

🏗️ Step-by-Step Writing with the Class (15–20 min)

1. Brainstorm Refrains (as a group or individually):
   Prompts:
   • “I see the light”
   • “Kindness is a seed”
   • “I hear the rain fall”
   • “The stars are always there”
   • Let students vote on one to model as a class
2. Model a Viator Together:
   Choose 3- or 4-line stanzas. Fill in the first stanza.
   Build each stanza together, inserting the refrain at the correct position.
   Show the pattern visually on the board.

🧑‍🎓 Independent Writing (15–20 min)

• Students choose or create a refrain line.
• Decide on stanza structure: 3×3 or 4×4
• Use sensory words, similes, or alliteration to add poetic richness
• Write and revise their Viator poems

🎤 Share and Reflect (5–10 min)

• Invite volunteers to read their Viator aloud.
• Ask:
  • How did the refrain change meaning for you as you repeated it?
  • What did you like about your poem’s pattern?

🧒 Grade-Level Accommodations

• Younger (1st–2nd grade):
  • Use a 2 or 3-line poem with a 2 or 3-stanza format (2×2, 3×3)
  • Refrain provided or chosen from a list (e.g., “The sun shines bright”)
  • Allow illustrations to show shifts in meaning across stanzas
• Older (6th–7th grade):
  • Write longer viators (5*5 or more)
  • Try to tell a story and use the power of the refrain
  • Challenge: Use subtle changes in punctuation or context to alter the refrain’s tone

🌱 Extension Activities

• Anchor Art: Illustrate each stanza in a comic-style layout to show how the meaning of the refrain evolves
• Refrain Swap: Trade your refrain with a classmate and write a new Viator with their line as inspiration
• Theme-Based Viators: Assign a theme (e.g., kindness, weather, seasons, emotions) and have students craft poems around it
• Performance Option: Recite the poem with gestures or varying tone for each repetition to reflect emotion shifts

Versing

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt asks us to check out Evie Shockley’s poem senzo draws parallels between poetry and a live concert, and challenges us to write a poem that recounts an experience of our own in hearing live music, and tells how it moves us. It just needs to be something meaningful to us.

The music this poem refers to is also there at the end of the poem, if you want to give it a listen. It is what happened at home, and the audio included below is part of the piece my kids performed from home together (though this recording is from their practice session)

A Virtual Vignette

Vignette in V Major, Virtually

Keeping things normal was the norm of the day
When we were homebound, locked in, so to say.
We logged on for classes, for parties, for games—
Life went on, though it wasn’t the same.

The kids kept at music, week after week
The school planned a concert, a comfort to seek.
No accompanist teachers, so her brother stepped in,
A flute and piano, just siblings, in sync.

We dressed up just like we would for the hall,
Except now, the backdrop was our living room wall.
A string of fairy lights, a slightly tilted screen,
And there they were—my two stars on the scene.

She in a simple dress, focused and shy,
He with his awkward grin and collar gone awry.
They gave the signal, and the music began,
Not flawless, but earnest, like only kids can.

The flute found its voice, pure and light as the air,
The piano beneath, grounding notes with care.
They laughed mid-note when a beat went astray,
And somehow that made it more perfect that way.

It wasn’t the stage or the grand concert hall,
But something much deeper had happened after all.
In that small living room, so far from the crowd,
I felt my heart swell—it was me, feeling proud

~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

V for Friday

April 25 is DNA Day, marking the discovery of the double helix in 1953 and the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003. With that in mind, today’s book for the bookish five, one that has been on my TBR for too long, is…

(1 & 2) Book Beginnings and First Line Friday

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

From the Prologue:

Chapter 1

3 Friday 56

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne at HeadFullofBooks. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up and visit others in the linky. 

4 Book Blogger Hop

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.  

Do you have enough shelves for all your books

NO!

5 Penguin Books to Read

April 25th is World Penguin Day, so in the spirit of the day, here are 5 penguin books for you (of the many more delightful reads about penguins)

• And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell with illustrations by Henry Cole (Picture Books | 2 – 6 years, and up) 
• Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers (Picture Books | 2 – 6 years, and up) 
• The Old Man and the Penguin by Julie Abery and illustrated by Pierre Pratt (Picture Books | 3 – 7 years, and up). My review here
• Penguin Problems by Jory John and illustrated by Lane Smith (Picture Books | 2 – 7 years, and up)
• Mr.Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater with illustrations by Robert Lawson (Children’s Books | 6 – 9 years, and up). My review is here

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, hope you liked the Viator and will attempt to write one yourself! What is the most recent musical performance you have seen (whether a concert at a stadium, at a theatre, your kids’ school, online, or even at home)? Any penguin books you love that I can check out next? And which of these books mentioned here today would you pick first?

I am linking up to A-Z, Blogchatter, UBC, NaPoWriMo.

And you can find all my A-Z posts (this year and previous years’ as well) here:

A to Z Challenge Posts