D is sometimes dashing, at others, oh-so darling, and delightful too; and the diminishing verse is certainly all of that and more, even as it trims itself down, line by line!

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D is for the Delightful Diminishing Verse

✨ Poetry that shrinks — but ideas that grow!

🎓 Lesson Plan: Diminishing Verse!

• Grade Levels: 3rd – 5th grade (Easily adaptable across grades)
• Theme: Wordplay & Poetry
• Objective: Students will create a diminishing verse poem by removing one letter from a word in each line — watching meaning, rhythm, and fun evolve as words shrink.

Diminishing Delight!

Why It’s Delightful

Poetry Skill:

• Poetry Connection: See how small changes to words can create big shifts in meaning and sound.
• Learning Connection: ELA Boost: Builds vocabulary, sequencing, spelling, and creative thinking.
• Book Connections:
  • The Disappearing Alphabet by Richard Wilbur and illustrated by David Diaz
  • Lemonade: and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word by Bob Raczka with art by Nancy Doniger
  • My Pet Feet by Josh Funk and illustrated by Billy Yong 
  • Take Away the A by Michaël Escoffier and illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo 

📚 Materials Needed:

• Chart paper or whiteboard
• Markers
• A read-aloud book (see suggestions above!)
• Paper & pencils
• Optional: Colored pencils or crayons for illustrations

✏️ Activity Steps

1. Warm-Up: Wordplay Brainstorm

Ask:

• What happens if we take away one letter from a word?
• Can you find a new word? Does the meaning change?

Try this together:
Bread → Read → Ad → A

2. Read-Aloud & Word Hunt

• Pick a book from the list above. (see note below for Lemonade)
• Read through the and note examples of this concept across the pages.
• Note: Use Raczka’s Lemonade to see how words can be squeezed into new ones. It’s a twist, but it gets the brain buzzing.

3. Introduce the Diminishing Verse

Diminishing verse is a form where the end word of each line loses one letter (or more) — and becomes a whole new word. No rules for rhyme, rhythm, or length, just wordplay magic!
Most often: remove the first letter. But feel free to get creative — drop letters from the end or middle too! Just remember to retain the order of letters in the word.

A sample poem below. Also check out my earlier post on this form for another sample.

Letting Go
She tossed her thoughts like a skipping stone,
Each one echoed with its own tone.
Soon, her worries dwindled to one,
As the waves kept drifting softly on,
She breathed out slow — a quiet ‘o’.
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

As you can see, I started with removing the initial letters first (stone –> tone–> one), and then the ending letters (one –> on –> o).

4. Create a Class Poem (optional)

Pick a starting word together (e.g., stone, plant, brave). Write a poem on the board, shrinking the word line by line. This becomes a model for students.

5. Individual or Partner Poems

Write a poem: solo or with a partner.

• Choose a starting word (provide a list for younger students)
• Write your own diminishing verse
• Illustrate each stage of the word

7. Share & Reflect

Let students share their favorite line or the whole poem. What surprised them? What new meanings did they find?

Extensions/Adaptations:

• Grades 6–8: Add a theme (e.g., nature, fear, friendship) and write a tiny story using diminishing verse. Bonus: you can write multiple tiny stanzas too.
• K–2: Use pre-selected words or letter tiles to help build understanding.
• Detours and Deviations:
  • Move the shrinking word to the start or middle of the line
  • Write a poem with multiple stanzas. Use different starter words for each stanza
  • Add rhythm or rhyme to elevate the poetry!

Assessment/Checkpoints:

• Did the student follow the diminishing format?
• Did they play with language and creativity?
• Bonus: Did they show rhythm or rhyme?

(Dis)appearing(?) Memories

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt asks us to write our own poem about living with a piece of art. Draw inspiration from Denise Levertov’s “Living with a Painting.”

That Painting
That painting on the wall—
you know the one, in the living room?
It’s not just art.
It’s a whole little world
from a time
when Mom and I
took turns adding to it,
one brushstroke at a time.

Funny how she let me join in.
She usually preferred to work alone—
not unfriendly, just focused,
Said other hands are distractions
and she would anyway do it faster!
_{(With that I agree –
A petite powerhouse was she!)}

But this time,
she made an exception.
For me.
I suspect she knew
It would help keep my mind
on something else.
And it did.

We painted together,
side by side.
And now it hangs,
right by the doorway—
a daily hello and a long-ago goodbye.

As I look at it, I wonder,
has something changed?
Faded away?
A chip of memory here; a shared smile there?
Like a diminishing verse of color
I can’t quite name now? (nor ask her)

Or has it deepened over time—
layer on layer,
like a harmony
you can only hear
when you’ve lived it long enough?
Like songs with new verses
I didn’t know I remembered.

Either way,
it’s a treasure,
this painting.
Not just the art,
but the memory
only I can see—
made by Mom and me.
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Disappearing Letters Here For the Bookish Five

(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.

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.  

Who is your favorite “hobbit” from J. R. R. Toliken’s Middle-Earth books?

Samwise Gangee for me!

5 Random Books from My TBR (for the letter D)

• Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life by Maggie Smith
• Dino Poet: A Graphic Novel by Tom Angleberger
• Don’t Cause Trouble by Arree Chung
• Don’t Squish a Slug : A Wonderful Celebration of Marvellous Minibeasts! by Yussef Rafik and illustrated by Riley Samels
• A Dumb Birds Field Guide to the Worst Birds Ever by Matt Kracht

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, do share your diminishing verse when you write one! Which of the books would you pick first, or have enjoyed? And which words do you think will be great for the diminishing verse? Which ones would you pick?

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