Welcome to the Spring Has Sprung: Poetry in Elementary Blog Hop! It may not look or feel like Spring here in Chicagoland, but it’s time to get prepared for poetry month, which begins on Tuesday in the U.S.A.

After you read my post, make sure you check out the 14 other teacher bloggers who have shared their thoughts on poetry as well. Click “Hop over to the next stop” at the bottom of my post to get to the next blog.

I have chosen to blog today about 15 fun poetry ideas for kids because playing with poetry is fun!

1. Read poetry together. No analysis. No work. Just reading it.
2. Reread a favorite picture book. A quality picture book often will have poetic text: rhythm, rhyme, and metaphor. We can learn a lot about poetry by reading picture books.
3. Listen to poetry. It’s really fun to find an author reading his or her own poem. Listening to music counts for this too!
4. Look up a poem for a special occasion. What poem will you read at Dad’s birthday dinner next week? Easter afternoon? Plan ahead.
5. Memorize poems. I will never forget two poems by Robert Frost that I memorized in school. Make the memorizing a game!
6. Make up your own poems throughout the day. For example, I made up a poem for my toilet training daughter that starts…”Tinkle, tinkle, little tot….”
7. Metaphor Monday. Make an extra effort to speak with metaphor, even at the risk of the cliche. (I am as hungry as a lion! It’s raining like a leaky faucet!)
8. Have a rhyming day. My son went through a stage of being the “rhyming boy” where he would rhyme. all. the. time. Real words, fake words. It was all delightful for him. I think the rhyme-all-day challenge would be a great challenge for a kid.
9. Try something new. Haiku? I must admit, I am not as familiar as I wish I was. Time to read it and figure out the patterns.
10. Keep a poem in your pocket. April 17 is Poem in Your Pocket Day. Why not keep a different one in your pocket each day of the month?
11. Write a “book cover” poem. Go through your books and look only at the spine of the books. Can you put a few of them in order to write a poem?
12. Find a poem. Using a magazine, newspaper, or even book, find a poem by looking at the first word on every line. Turn pages until you find a “found poem” that you like! If possible, cut out the words and glue them to a separate sheet of paper: your found poem.
13. Finish the poem with a new ending. Find a poem you really like and change it to your own. For example, when my son found Prelutsky’s poem “I Ate Too Much” (not in the public domain so I cannot link to it) at Thanksgiving, he wrote his own poem with the foods he loved to eat!
14. Play with rhythm and meter. Although elementary kids may not understand iambic pentameter, they do understand meter and rhythm! Drum to a beat, march around the room and make the poems you read, recite, and listen to fun!
15. Get an awesome, kid-friendly poetry anthology easily accessible for kids. What is that, you say? You need one? Look no further! I’m giving one of my favorites away!

What other ideas do you have for making poetry fun this month?

If that is not enough, I have a freebie for you too. I’ve been working on a kindergarten poetry unit (Picture Book Poetry), which uses picture books to introduce common poetic concepts.

I have a product for Introduction to Rhythm (my shop, TPT) and Introduction to Rhyme (my shop, TPT).  I recently added Picture Book Poetry: Introduction to Metaphor (my shop, TPT) and put them all together for a low price bundle (my shop, TPT).

These introductions include lesson plan ideas (annotated book lists), worksheets to practice the concepts (syllables, rhymes, and comparisons), and brief ideas for writing silly poems. My freebie for you is part of the writing exploration portion of those products! I hope you enjoy exploring poetic concepts with your little ones! It is so much fun!

Get the Picture Book Poetry Sampler when you sign up to become a Line upon Line Learning VIP.

Do you want more poetry ideas? Hop over to the next stop!

The following teacher bloggers are also participating in this poetry hop. Make sure you see what ideas they have! Many also have freebies to celebrate the beginning of poetry month next week!

Comprehension Connection | Learning Chambers | BigTime Literacy | Ms Jordan Reads | Practice Makes Perfect | Burke’s Special Kids | Houseful of Chaos | Reading & Writing Redhead | Create Dream Explore | Mrs Plemon’s Kindergarten | This Literacy Life

Image credits: Pippalou. Graphics for blog hop courtesy Kari Bolt.