Volcanoes - Unit 3 - Poem about Mount Vesuvius PowerPoint

The educational resource on volcanoes, specifically focusing on Mount Vesuvius, aims to inspire students to create poetry that captures the essence of the historic eruption that occurred on August 24th, 79AD. The learning unit encourages students to delve deep into the catastrophic events that unfolded in Pompeii, prompting them to consider the most terrifying moments for the residents. Through table discussions, students are invited to share their thoughts and gain a deeper understanding of the impact of the eruption. Additionally, the resource includes a video that provides a detailed timeline of the day's events, allowing students to make notes on the timings and stages of destruction, enriching their comprehension of the disaster.

Following the video analysis, students are tasked with imagining the experiences of Pompeii's residents during and after the eruption, considering their feelings and the difficult decisions they would have faced. To facilitate this empathetic exercise, pairs are instructed to create a senses map, capturing the thoughts and feelings of the Pompeii residents using touch, taste, sight, smell, and hearing. The unit also introduces the concept of acrostic poems, where students use their senses map to write their own poems about Mount Vesuvius, incorporating various poetic techniques such as similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, idioms, and oxymorons. The resource provides examples and activities to help students match sentences with the correct figurative language, enhancing their literary skills. Finally, students are encouraged to use repetition to emphasize points in their poems, select their vocabulary carefully, and decide on the atmosphere of their poem, whether it be dark and disturbing or focused on the wonders of nature.