Poetry activities for all seasons are important to support reading development and promote a joy in reading. Poems are magical! Have you ever noticed how much fun kids have when you read poems to them or read a book written in a poetic form? I love reading a book that has a poetic form. Almost always, a student will raise their hand after a page or two (or call out because they are excited) and say, “Hey, this rhymes!” as though you never knew!
Kids love poetry! I have quite a few silly poem books that the kids love and sometimes I pull them out and we read and laugh and it’s great!
Why Do Kids Love and Need Poetry Activities All Year?
For one, many kids are taught poems early in life in nursery rhymes and songs. This is usually at home or preschool. Rhyming is a part of phonemic awareness and supports the science of reading and how students learn to read. Rhyming is also an important part of learning about syllables and helps students to orthographically map words out as they are learning to write.
Kids’ poems have a strong oral language component. Whether it’s for primary learners or older students, listening and speaking to the rhythm of poetry is not only appealing to the ears, but it also promotes an enjoyment of words and language. This contributes to an increase in the motivation to read.
As a teacher, I want to be able to teach poetry all year not just a “unit” on poetry. For this reason, I created a poetry set I will use with my students this year to integrate into all aspects of their learning. Poetry activities for kids needn’t be just for reading time. Poetry can be integrated into all aspects of your curriculum. In fact, “non-fiction” topic poems may appeal to more readers than creative fiction-type poems. Shape poems may appeal to your visual learners and/or art students.
The power of poetry is a WIN-WIN for everyone!
To see more about how poetry can integrate well into the teaching of writing throughout the year, take a lot of this blog post on a full year-long writing curriculum that includes poetry.
If you would like to get started teaching a fun poetry series of lessons and activities that will fit nicely into your seasonal lessons and more, you can click on the image below. This set has original poems for all seasons – Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. It even has special event poems like the Super Bowl! This set contains original poems and instruction on specific poetry skills (such as alliteration) and types of poems (such as Haiku). It also includes worksheets for students to use to practice.
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