Poetry Writing Assignments

I am not big on poetry, it just isn't my thing. Most of it I find either confusing, or incredibly boring. However, it is something the kids have learn about. DJ has done some, and wrote one short poem last year called the Hot Dog Poem. It was pretty cute actually. This year, for fifth grade, I want him to write two full poems. One for the first half of the year, and the second for the second half of the school year. While I had tons of ideas for poem writing they were way too broad for a fifth grader. So between my husband and I we came up with two subjects, bees, and favorite season. I think these will be perfect, and DJ seemed please with what we chose. He wants to do the bees poem first. So the first step of the writing process has been done, picking the topic to write about. Next he has to begin to jot down his thoughts on how he wants to write his poem. Because we gave him two semesters he has plenty of time to do this. Do you like poetry? Do you write any poetry? What tips can you provide to readers about writing poetry?