Summer Holiday Ideas: How to Build a Family Poem

Finding fun, rewarding activities for the entire family during the summer holidays can be a difficult process.  However, if you are looking for something to keep the kidlets occupied during the long summer days, then building a poem might be one of the best options. 

Building a poem with your family can give you works of art to hang in the home, or you can even give them as gifts or use them as greeting cards.  This simple family activity can be done very quickly, or it can be spread out over time.  It’s also an ideal family activity to bring out on rainy days when boredom threatens.

You will need:

To start building a poem with your family, you will need a supply of old magazines and a pair of scissors.  Visit the arts and crafts store and buy glue or tape and something to act as the backing. 

Steps:

First, have different family members use the scissors to cut out a wide selection of large-print words from the magazines you gathered.  Don’t forget to cut out words like "a," "and," "of," and "the," as well as larger words.  Once your family has chosen the words they want, arrange them on the backing sheet into a poem.  You can take turns letting different family members choose words, and watch your poem grow. 

For added fun, divide the words up evenly among your family, and only let them use their ‘own’ supply of word to make the poem.  This option is definitely harder, but heaps more fun.

As your family builds the poem, glue or tape the words onto a piece of cardstock or construction paper.  This can be framed later, or used as a greeting card for friends and family.  Once you’re done, use pictures cut from the magazines to illustrate your poem.  If you cut out a large number of words, just store them in an envelope for later use.