Langston Hughes helps first grade students learn about using your five senses when writing poetry

My first graders have been celebrating Poetry Month by listening to poems and identifying how the poet used his or her five senses to help the reader feel, see, hear, smell, or taste the experience. 

Starting this unit off with Langston Hughes' April Rain Song (especially during a very rainy April) always engages the students. After listening to and thinking about how he used his five senses to write the poem, the students created an illustration for it. I think their pictures demonstrate the strong imagery he created for them. I am particularly taken with the students that included musical notes within their raindrops, like the one above, but I love all their still pools, and running pools, an sleep songs on the roof at night.