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Poetry Activities that Inspire a Love of Poetry

This post features poetry activities for the classroom, including a poem of the week ideas. Read these weekly poems in your class (don’t forget to grab FREE poems!).

poetry activities
Today, I am here to share something I am passionate about, and I think that everyone should teach in their classroom. It’s using POETRY in the classroom!
 
The following poetry activities listed in this post are some of my favorites.
 
Not only do kids find poetry fun and engaging, but they can also learn how to read through the repetition and rhyme it provides.
 

Poetry Activities & Routines

Start by introducing a poem of the week to your class. Write the verse out on sentence strips and post them in a pocket chart. Then every morning, choral read the poem and add actions.
poetry activities - poem of the week choral reading
 
Talk about the meaning of the poem and look for things like rhyming words.
poetry activities - pocket chart words
 
Provide students with a copy of the poem to put into their poetry folders. As part of their weekly homework, send a copy home to practice and read with their families.
poetry activities - folders

How-To Use Poetry Activities

  • Introduce a poem each week that suits your theme, the time of year, or celebrations going on. The poem of the week resources features a ton of poems for all your themes, celebrations, and topics of study.
themed poetry activities
  • Use the poem to teach and reinforce various language arts skills. These activities are great for differentiation as they meet the needs of many students, on many levels.
poetry activities that build literacy skills
  • Offer different choices (three ideas below) for learning the poem of the week. Differentiate the activities to meet the needs of all learners.
  1. Have students re-write the poem out on lined paper. This exercise helps them develop their fine-motor and handwriting skills.
  2. Have students sit in front of the pocket chart to copy, use their poetry folders to copy, or try to write from memory.
  3. Students only need to finish each sentence. They must be reading and following the poem to complete this correctly.
poetry activity - complete the sentence

Poetry Activity Ideas

  • Encourage students to read the poem as much as possible.
  • Search for words that rhyme and look for sight words.
poetry activity - rhyming and sight words
  • Have them draw a picture that goes along with the poem’s meaning.
  • Given a list of missing words, they read the poem and write in the correct lyrics.
  • Practice their reading skills to figure out which words from the word list go where.
poetry activity - fill in missing words
  • Cut paper strips with the lines of the poem and glue them back in order. The strips are mixed up, and students must figure out the right order using their reading skills and knowledge of the poem.
poetry activity - mixed up sentences
 
Using these poetry activities each week to build poetry in the classroom is extremely useful. Children build reading fluency and love the confidence and independence they gain with each week and each new poem.

Resources for Teaching Poetry

FREE Poem of the Week Pack

This FREE Poem of the Week resource includes 2 original poems and 1 nursery rhyme to add to your collection of poems. There are 6 differentiated activities included, as well as sentence strips and a bulletin board banner. Your students will be reading and writing poetry all week long!

Click the image below to get the resource.

Click here to subscribe

FREE Social-Emotional Learning Poem & Activities

This FREE empathy poetry pack includes an original poem and engaging activities. The poem and activities will help you teach the concept of empathy and build important reading skills at the same time.

Click the image below to get the resource.

Click here to subscribe

Poetry Mega Bundle with 3 Complete Resources

Find essential resources for the K-3 classroom with the Poetry Mega Bundle. It includes three complete resources that will encourage a love of poetry in your class!

poetry mega bundle ptbp

See the three poetry resources in action!

Poem of the Week

Poetry Mats

Poetry Writing unit

Find MORE Poetry Activities in these Posts

the ultimate guide to teaching poetry

Ultimate Guide to Teaching Poetry to Kids

why is poetry important

Why is Poetry Important?

shape poetry

Shape Poetry

PIN

poetry activities - poem of the week

FREE Poetry Email Series

Sign up for the poetry email series filled with tips to get you started, strategies for success, and tons of FREE poems and poetry writing tutorials you can access right away. Everything you need to have fun and build reading skills with poetry!

This form collects information I will use to send weekly emails with strategies, promotions, and resources. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

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Reader Interactions

19 Comments

  7. Amber

    Hi there!

    I’ve purchased your poetry bundle, and plan on implementing it soon. I wondered how your students complete the different activities? Do you do it whole group, or as a center? For example, the complete the poem and illustrate activity.

    Thanks for the inspiration to provide more poetry in the classroom!

    Reply to this comment

    • Proud to be Primary

      Great question, Amber! I do a combination of things. I like to differentiate the activities so different students complete different activities. We usually spend one chunk of time as a whole group completing our assigned activity. As as a group, we practice the poem daily. These activities would work great in a poetry center as well!

      Reply to this comment

  8. Dayna

    You had me at ‘duotang’ … you must be Canadian. It’s been a lonnnng time since I heard that term. I’m a teacher in Australia but grew up in BC (Duncan, Vancouver Island). Love your work.

    Reply to this comment

  9. Rafik Massoudi

    Thanks Elyse! I really liked the idea of using poetry in the classroom and I will use it soon in my class; my focus will be to enhance students` writing skills through poetry and I hope it will work well…

    Reply to this comment

  10. Carol Smith

    I love doing a Poem of the Week. I have done this for many years however I was getting a little stale with my ideas of activities to do with them. These are great refresher and new ideas for me! Thanks for the freebie poems too. 🙂

    Reply to this comment

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