Project Description
Children love poems especially short, quick ones that rhyme or make them laugh. Limericks are good for humour so do go to this limerick site and this one [press here ] for more about limericks. Children’s memories for learning lines are often so much better than adults. There is a satisfaction in learning and reciting a poem to suit a situation or make people laugh. It often happens without effort especially if there is a rhythm to the poem. Lyrics to songs which can be similar to poetry are just as good. A child might want to talk about why they like them with or put them in their life story book. Michael Rosen’s website is a rich resource for thinking about poetry: https://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/category/poetry/
Children are good at writing poems and because of their brevity they are easy to do, suiting those who might not be so advanced with writing skills. Haiku is a Japanese form of short poetry where a moment or a theme can be captured in a containing structure. A Haiku should consist only of essential words making a total of seventeen syllables [sounds]. These are divided into three lines of: Five syllables, Seven Syllables, Five Syllables.
You might insert the Haiku into a life story book or just enjoy listening to the child’s creations. You could display the Haiku with a picture or make a collage of imagery. This one below was created from last year’s Christmas cards.
https://achildrenspoemaday.wordpress.com/
The website above is where a children’s poet has written a poem a day specifically for children. It could be used to get your child in the mood for enjoying and writing poetry. The poet challenges children to write a poem a day for fifty days.
The site below has thousands of poems organised by theme for adult and child. Some of the poems' themes are family, humour, nature, tragic doomed love, friendship, death, holidays, love, spiritual love as well as teen issues. There is also a section on techniques for writing poetry with rhyme ideas, poetic forms, and how to write a haiku, stanzas, and a poem template!
The link below takes you to an excellent UK website that is devoted to poetry for children:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/children
Ken Nesbitt’s website below is great too, showing children how they can write poetry. It's appearance is kid friendly so they may well enjoy interacting with it without you! It is suitable for primary age children.
The following three poems are all by Heidi Webb- see them in print form in Poetry by Children section.
