Often, teaching poetry offers a special challenge to children and teachers alike. This author, a curriculum director at Middletown Township Public School in New Jersey, noticed that students routinely scored poorly on poetry questions, and attributed this to the lack of exposure at the elementary grades, as well as the discomfort that adults feel when trying to teach poetry. As a way to encourage both an interest in poetry and her own Asian culture, she developed a project involving haiku poetry. Haiku poetry is relatively easy for children to create since, although a seventeen-syllable format is traditional, it is by no means mandatory. The brevity of haiku appeals to students, who see it as manageable rather than overwhelming. Beginning with a discussion about the qualities of haiku (poems are about nature, discuss a current event, usually written in three lines, and contain seventeen syllables or less), the project culminated with the students composing their own haiku and showcasing their work to invited parents in a haiku-reading program. As a result of this activity, students' interest in poetry increased, and books about Japan and poetry were in high demand after these sessions.