Prompts for Poetry About Family and Culture

When students are just starting out on their poetry-writing journey, it’s a good idea to start with familiar topics.

This set of 16 Family and Culture Poetry Prompts has been designed to support your students to write simple poems that celebrate the people and events that matter most to them. Each card focuses on a different aspect of family life or cultural events and includes rhyming word suggestions to inspire creative writing.

Example Prompt: Write a poem about your dad. Try using words like had, mad or glad.

Some of the topics included in this set of poetry prompts include:

• Yo, Bro!
• My Nan Can…
• New Year Cheer
• St. Valentine of Mine
• Finishing Our Fast
• And many more!

These cultural poetry prompts are perfect for increasing writing skills, recognizing culture and teaching multicultural awareness. Although the cards contain simple rhyming phrases designed to assist children in learning how to repeat or combine text to form rhyming words, you might also like to remind children that they are welcome to write any poem and that not all poetry must rhyme.

Ideas for Using These Prompts for Poetry

These family and culture poetry task cards can be used in a variety of ways for cross-curricular learning. Here are some suggestions from our teacher team:

1. Social Studies and Culture – Use these prompts to help students reflect on family traditions or cultural celebrations as part of a social studies lesson. After discussing various customs and traditions, students can write a poem that captures their own family’s unique experiences or highlights a cultural event they celebrate.
2. Classroom Celebrations – Use the prompts as part of classroom celebrations around events like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or cultural festivals. Students can write poems to present to family members, creating meaningful gifts that express their appreciation and love.
3. Poetry and Art Integration – Have students create a visual representation of their poem by drawing or crafting something that represents their family or cultural event. Display their artwork and poems together in the classroom or hallways, creating a celebration of family and culture through both words and art.

Download and Print These Prompts for Poetry

This resource downloads as a full-color or black-and-white PDF. Use the Download button to access your preferred file.

Print the cards on cardstock to increase the durability of the resource. Place the cards together in a large envelope or ziplock bag for safekeeping.

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