What brings you that feeling of satisfaction? We are exploring that in today’s NaPoWriMo prompt, and while writing does evoke those feelings, today I am talking about something else. And today’s poetry lesson features the swap quatrain, which is really a cool form.

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📝 Switch It Up with the Swap Quatrain

🎯 Grade Level: 3rd to 5th Grade
📌 Poetic Form Focus: Swap Quatrain
⏳ Time Needed: 45–60 minutes

🎯 Objective

Students will understand the structure and features of the swap quatrain poetry form and compose their own swap quatrain poems, practicing wordplay, rhyme, and line rearrangement to build fluency and creative confidence.

🔗 Connections

• Learning Connection: This lesson connects to students’ understanding of poetry structures and encourages creative writing skills, helping them to develop a sense of rhythm and rhyme.
• Poetry Connection: The Swap Quatrain offers a fun and engaging way for students to explore rhyme schemes and the relationship between poetic lines, enhancing their appreciation for wordplay and literary expression.
• Book Suggestions(any actually)
  • Read a Rhyme, Write a Rhyme by Jack Prelutsky
    

🧩 Lesson Flow

Introduction (5 min)

• Read aloud a familiar quatrain poem (e.g., Shel Silverstein or a simple quatrain about breakfast).
• Discuss what makes a quatrain (four lines, rhyme, rhythm).

What is a Swap Quatrain? (10 min)

A swap quatrain is a four-line stanza (quatrain) where the first line is reversed in the fourth line. The rhyme scheme for each stanza is AABB, CCDD, etc., with each stanza using a new rhyme. The syllable count is left to the poet but keep it uniform or similar throughout the lines for better rhythm (source).

• Read a short example aloud (below)
• Show how the 1st and 4th lines swap endings.
• Invite students to “predict the swap” if you only show the first 3 lines.

Example:
I found a frog inside my pack,
He wore a tiny coat of black.
And just one shiny bright red clog
Inside my pack, I found a frog.
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Soaring With Sauropods

Last night I rode on a dino’s back,
Across the sky on a starlit track.
The world below glowed soft and bright—
I rode on a dino’s back last night.

We dipped and twirled through midnight air,
A comet tangled in my hair,
and it whirled and whirled and whirled.
Through midnight air, we dipped and twirled.

We soared past stars, we circled the moon,
met the dish that ran away with the spoon.
We zoomed all the way to the planet Mars;
we circled the moon, we soared past stars.
.
He hummed a tune, both low and deep,
That rocked the moon itself to sleep.
While comets waved and zipped too soon—
Both low and deep, he hummed a tune

The ride was done with the bright sunrise
with golden light that warmed the skies
Back to my bed, through clouds we spun—
with the bright sunrise, the ride was done

~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Model Writing Together (10 minutes)

• Use a class brainstorm for a theme (e.g., weather, pets, playground).
• Co-write a Swap Quatrain on chart paper or whiteboard.
• Emphasize the phrases to swap, keeping meaning clear, and rhyming.
• Model writing the first line, then work together to write the next three lines, swapping the first line for the fourth.
• For Guided Writing:
  • Choose a short poem from a collection and rewrite the last line of a stanza using the swap technique.

Independent or Partner Work (15–20 minutes)

• Students write their own Swap Quatrain using a provided or chosen prompt or topic.
• Sentence frames can be used to support learners
• Encourage use of descriptive language and creativity.
• Peer or teacher support as needed.
• One option could be to have all the strudents write their first swap quatrain using the same first line!

Sharing and Reflection (10 min)

• Volunteers share their poems with the class.
• Discuss: Did the poem follow the swap quatrain rules? How did the reversal affect the meaning or sound?

🧒 Accommodations

• For younger students (2nd Grade):
  • Focus on recognizing rhyme and counting lines.
  • Write simple four-line poems with teacher support; introduce the idea of swapping lines orally or with sentence strips.
  • Use oral composition of rhyming lines.
  • Provide scaffolded sentence starters or “build-a-poem” cards.
  • Do line swaps together in a circle-time format with movement.
• For older students (6th Grade):
  • Challenge students to write multi-stanza swap quatrains
  • Experiment with theme challenges (e.g., opposites, emotion poems).
  • Add figurative language, alliteration, or metaphor.
  • Analyze published poems and adapt them into swap quatrain form.

Extension Activities

• Poetry Swap: Students swap first lines with a partner and each writes a swap quatrain using the new line.
• Illustration: Illustrate their swap quatrain poem and display in the classroom. Where relevant, illustrate each stanza with a before-and-after “swap” drawing.
• Cross-Curricular: Write swap quatrains about science or social studies topics (e.g., weather, famous people).
• Literary Remix: Take a favorite stanza from another poem or book and rewrite it as a Swap Quatrain.
• Poetry Wall: Add the poem to a “Swap It Up!” board and challenge others to guess the original first line from the swapped fourth.

The Satisfaction of Steps

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt challenges us to write a poem about something we’ve done – whether it’s music lessons, or playing soccer, crocheting, or fishing, or learning how to change a tire – that gave us the kind of satisfaction (and perhaps still does) that Diana Wakoski talks about in her poem, Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons

One thing that brings me that feeling is keeping the golu – or the display of dolls – for the Indian festival of Navratri each year. Below is a picture of various golus at home over the years, and this post has my Kamala by the Riverside golu from last year.

Or Maybe Steps of Satisfaction

In These Steps, A Story
It’s well past midnight—
and we’ve learned the meaning of bone-tired—
not just in the feet,
but in the very marrow of our backs and hands,
as we clear away
the last of the—well, whatever we had to.

The doll-hoppers have all gone home,
resting their feet -and their chatter-
after their “Golu-roam.”
I ask him softly,
“Did you eat?”
He shrugs—can’t remember.
Neither can I.

But really, who has room for hunger
when your heart is this full?

Since before dawn I’ve been on my feet,
summoning joy, crafting warmth, offering sweets—
for guests we call just once a year,
to fill these halls with festive cheer.

Each step we stack is more than display—it’s memory,
layered deep with time and care.
Clay dolls whisper stories my mother left,
still speaking through the autumn air.

And in the stillness,
I see a little me, climbing stairs,
wide-eyed and proud,
handing invites, calling neighbors,
drawing a crowd.

Then I remember my little ones, too,
curating their own “mini-golu”—
just as I did long ago.

A ping brings me back to here and now,
with twin texts from two dorm rooms miles away:
“Mommy, how did it go?”

I smile, I reply, “All good, dears,”
and as I sit with aching limbs,
debating – a bite or a snack? –
I realize—
this is more than tiredness.
This is bone-deep satisfaction.

A celebration of culture,
of community, of creativity—
and, most of all,
of culture carried forward—
of continuity.

Like my mother,
and hers before—
I build this Golu year after year.
And maybe, just maybe,
my children will too.

~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Surprise! Surprise!

Today’s theme for Top Ten Tuesday is books that surprised me. And while I know I have way too many books like that, I just couldn’t rack my brains for that now, so here are children’s books that have the word “surprise” or its synonyms in the title. I loved all of them, and they all do surprise in their own ways!

1. Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman & illustrated by Caroline Binch 
2. The Astonishing Case of the Stolen Stories by Anca Sandu 
3. The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon & illustrated by Jake Parker  
4. A Big Surprise for Little Card by Charise Mericle Harper & illustrated by Anna Raff 
5. Just Shocking by Andy Griffiths & illustrated by Terry Denton
6. The Most Amazing Machine by Emily Dunckle & illustrated by Danika Runyan 
7. The Surprise by Zadie Smith and Nick Laird with illustrations by Magenta Fox
8. Wonder Dogs by Linda Ashman & illustrated by Karen Obuhanych 
9. Wonder Walkers by Micha Archer 
10. The World Needs the Wonder You See by Joanna Gaines & illustrated by Julianna Swaney 

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, will you attempt to switch some words and phrases and write a swap quatrain? What books surprised you recently? What have you done – of late, or long ago – that brought you feelings like Diana Wakoski talks about in her poem? And any other comments and thoughts on my post are welcome as always.

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