Rock Poetry

Long before anyone had heard of magnetic poetry, one of the summer activities at our house was creating Rock Poetry.

This is not one of those activities that can be done quickly as there are various steps involved. The beauty of that is that you can have a different kind of fun at each step of the way so why not simply declare the week ROCK POETRY WEEK!

For instance, the first activity is picking out a poem. Depending on the age of your child/ren you may want to select a short poem… but really, anything that delights will do.

We love reading the poems of Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky and often get lost for over an hour being silly and dramatic as we explore these sometimes silly, sometimes poignant and always entertaining poems.

Once you have selected a poem you want to count the words because that’s how many rocks you’ll be looking for on your upcoming rock hunt! [tip: if your poem has several long compound words you might want to write those on two rocks. Depending on rock size it can be tricky to write a lot of letters.]

The next activity is going for a walk in your neighborhood or a local park looking for just the ‘right’ rocks. Most kids are quite naturally attracted to rocks and given a purpose like this they’ll have a ball.

Look for rocks that have at least one relatively flat surface and are of similar size. Of course, if there’s a word or two in your poem that deserves exaggeration don’t hesitate to search for a larger rock for those words.

Be sure to bring a sturdy bag along for each child and if you have several children bring a wagon. (Rocks get heavy and children get weak! lol)

After you bring your rocks home you’ll want to wash and dry them all. After the rocks are dry then it’s time to settle in and write one word on each rock. For this we use a variety of Sharpie pens and markers. You want as fine a point as you can get in order for the letters of each word to be distinct. And remember to use paint shirts or have scruffy clothes on as these markers will definitely leave permanent marks. After the words are written I apply a clear acrylic spray on the rocks simply for the ‘polish’ effect. The rocks in the image below were done 20 years ago.

The next day, after the rocks are completely dry… children will have fun creating the poem out of the assortment of words on rocks before them. I had a large group doing this activity and they had a lot of fun sharing their rock poems with one another and having competitions to see who could successfully create their poem the quickest. Another activity they enjoyed was seeing how different original sentences they could create just using the words from their poem.  [additional note: these were best sellers at our end of summer ART FAIR. So if you're planning a children's art fair be sure to include some ROCK POEMS]

The rocks below are the Shel Silverstein poem titled Hug O’ War

I will not play at tug o’ war
I’d rather play at hug o’ war
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs.
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.