This post features poetry activities for the classroom, including a poem of the week ideas. Read these weekly poems to your classroom and kids to engage them in learning to read and write poems.
Poetry Activities for Kids in the Classroom
Today, I am here to share something I am passionate about and think everyone should teach in their classroom: using poetry in the classroom!
The following poetry activities 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.
Table of Contents
- Poetry Activities for Kids in the Classroom
- How To Use Poetry Activities
- Resources for Teaching Poetry
- Poem of the Week Year-Long Bundle
- More Poetry Activities for Kids
Easy Poetry Activity 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 readers will read the poem and add actions.
Talk about the poem’s meaning and look for things like rhyming words.
Give your little poets a copy of the poem to put into their own poem folders. Then, send a copy home for them to practice and read with their families as part of their weekly homework.
How To Use Poetry Activities
Introduce a weekly poem that suits your theme, the time of year, or celebrations. The poem of the week resources feature poems for all your themes, celebrations, and topics of study.
Use the poem to teach and reinforce various language arts skills. These fun poetry activities are great for differentiation as they meet the needs of many students on many levels.
Offer different choices for learning the week’s poem. Differentiate the activities to meet the needs of all learners.
- Have students re-write the poem on lined paper. This exercise helps them develop their fine motor and handwriting skills.
- Have students sit in front of the pocket chart to copy, use their poetry folders to copy, or try to write from memory.
- Students only need to finish each sentence. To complete this correctly, they must read and follow the poem.
Fun & Simple Poetry Activity Ideas
There are many simple yet fun activities to combine with your favorite poems. These activities build literacy skills and comprehension skills at the same time!
- Encourage students to read the poem as much as possible.
- Search for words that rhyme and look for 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 the correct lyrics.
- Practice their reading skills to determine which words from the word list go where.
- Cut paper strips with the poem’s lines and glue them back in order. The strips are mixed up, and students must figure out the correct order using their reading skills and knowledge of the poem.
Using these weekly poetry activities to build poetry in the classroom is extremely useful. Children build reading fluency and love the confidence and independence they gain 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, 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.
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.
Poem of the Week Year-Long Bundle
Try the Poem of the Week Bundle by Proud to be Primary. It includes everything you need to practice reading fluency each week with your students. There are 85 poems in this bundled pack, each with six differentiated activities kids will love.
Here are the 4 individual poetry resources you get in the year-long bundle.
- September to January Poem of the Week – This pack covers the winter holidays, Santa Claus, back to school, pumpkins, healthy eating, skip counting, and more fun topics for fall and winter.
- February to June Poem of the Week – This pack covers holidays like Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day, Mother’s Day, Earth Day, Easter, shapes, plants, and more engaging topics for winter, spring, and summer.
- Supplemental Poems for the Year – This pack includes a variety of topics from the school year, focusing on losing a tooth, Veteran’s Day, firefighters, time, dinosaurs, gingerbread cookies, and more.
- Nursery Rhymes of the Week – This pack covers familiar nursery rhymes like Itsy Bitsy Spider, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and more!
More Poetry Activities for Kids
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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!
Linda Nelson @ Primary Inspiration
Great post, Elyse … I totally agree with you about the power of poetry in teaching reading.
Have a wonderful new year with your sweet baby girl – congratulations!
Linda
Elyse
Thanks Linda! Wishing you a wonderful 2015!!
Elyse 🙂
teachertam
What a great poetry pack! No wonder it's your #1 best seller! Happy New Year! 🙂
Tammy
Elyse
Thanks Tammy! Wishing you a wonderful new year!!
Elyse 🙂
Jennifer Drake
I love having a 'Poem of the Week' in my kindergarten classroom- and so do the kids! If you 'forget' to read it they DON'T let you forget! Thanks for the freebie- Happy New Year!
Jenn
Crayons & Cuties In Kindergarten
Elyse Rycroft
Yes! My kiddos never let me forget the poem during our morning meeting time!! Love how fluent they become by the end of the week!
Sebrina Burke
Great ideas for using poetry in the classroom! Have a great new year!
Sebrina
Burke's Special Kids
Elyse Rycroft
Thank you Sabrina! Hapoy new year!!
Elyse 🙂
makeupjoy1
I have these and LOVE them! How do you use them for homework? I have been wanting to do that but didn't know how to start it. Thanks ")
Elyse
I provide a copy of the poem for families to practice at home to build fluency!
Trang
Thank you so much for your sharing. I’d like to bring poems to class after reading your post 🙂
Proud to be Primary
You’re so welcome, Trang! Happy to hear you found the info useful!! Good luck in your poetry endeavours!
RuthS Davis
Love these poetry passages and the skills you pulled in to all of them!
I will use them during the week for RTI lessons add ons!
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!
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!
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.
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…
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. 🙂
Proud to be Primary
You’re welcome! I’m working on adding a google slides option right now so that teachers can use the poem of the week activities online with students!