The Joy of Agriculture
Poetry Contest
Help Celebrate the 25th National Poetry Month in Canada!
The League of Canadian Poets is celebrating this year with the theme, Joy!
Join in on the celebration with us and submit your own poetry with the theme of The Joy of Agriculture!
The Art of Poetry
From cinquains and sonnets, to limericks and free verse, to slam poetry, there are many different types of poems and we are here to celebrate them all. The difference between each type is based upon the format, rhyme scheme and subject matter. Canada is home to some of the most famous poets in the world, historical and new.
To celebrate the art of poetry, we invite students to share their creativity by submitting a poetic masterpiece highlighting The Joy of Agriculture.
All entries will be included in our 2023 Joy of Agriculture Poetry eBook, shared on our social media channels and showcased on our education blog.
BONUS
All class entries will be entered to win 1 of 5 surprise
Joy of Agriculture class-sized gift baskets filled with agriculture themed goodies.
All homeschool entries will be entered to win 1 of 5 surprise Joy of Agriculture gift baskets filled with
farm-tastic prizes.
Entry deadline is April 30th, 2023
Entry Details
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The Joy of Agriculture Poetry Contest runs from April 1 to April 30th and is open to Alberta residents only
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Open to grades 4 –12 students
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Entries must be original and written entirely by the author
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Only one entry per author will be accepted
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Submissions are accepted in English only
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There is no entry fee and no purchase is necessary
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Only online entires will be accepted
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Maximum word count is 500
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The text must be typed and submitted as a .doc or .docx file
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Click HERE for additional contest information and rules
Teachers Corner
Poetry can be a powerful teaching tool, helping students improve their literacy. It can also allow writers to express their emotions and allow readers to connect to those emotions! Here are some ideas that can help you teach your students about poetry!
1. Write your own poems. You can do this before or during the unit—or both. Share your process—drafts, failures, and successes—with your students.
2. When you’re passionate about the poetry you teach, your passion becomes contagious. It is critical that you teach about poetry that you can relate to, this is important when teaching poetry to students because they will be able to relate to the poem and therefore better understand what is being asked of them.
3. Spend time analyzing poetry to really understand the authors purpose. The fun part of analyzing poetry is figuring out what the poet was trying to say. This is where the use of figurative language comes in. It’s what makes the poetry have that music-like rhythm and flow.
4. There are many new and emerging poets that can help get your students excited about poetry. Explore different poets and styles of writing to ensure your students are exposed to the many different styles of poetry.
5. Ensure you are reading the poetry out loud to your class as well as reading it more than once. When you read the poem again, different words and patterns will begin to stand out.
6. Teach figurative language to help students better understand the poem’s meaning. Some poems require very basic surface level understanding while other poems are challenging to grasp what the poet is really trying to say. Poems often use metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia, alliteration, idioms, and other figurative language.
The best thing you can do is be excited and have fun with poetry. Poetry is a wonderful way of expression!