While your family is working and learning from home, why not
make your read-aloud times really special? Maybe you’re reading a classic
chapter book as a family, or a biography or nature books that open the door to
environmental learning. Whatever you’re reading, don’t forget to include some
rhymes and poems.
A few decades ago, children consistently knew classic folk
and fairy tales, nursery rhymes and various poems when they entered school.
Today that isn’t true. For a variety of reasons kids have become more focused
on popular contemporary songs and stories rather than classic literature. They
know all about Frozen or Lion King, but they aren’t familiar with The Old Woman
Who Lived in a Shoe.
READ MORE: Encourage early literacy, confidence and self-expression
But there are good reasons to make some time for poetry,
both classic and contemporary. Here are some of them:
1. Poetry can boost social/emotional growth
- Poetry is full of expression and
emotion. It can help a child learn how others think and feel.
- Reciting poems can build
community. It’s a bit like singing a song together, with all the rhythms and
rhyming words.
- Enjoyment of poetry can build
emotional resilience. Children can say, “I feel that way, too,” or, “Now I
understand why my friend was afraid.”
2. Response to poetry has a physical
component.
- Poetry is the most kinesthetic of
all literature. It is filled with rhythms and musical beats. It invites a
physical response.
- Reciting poems gives a child’s
mouth, tongue and breathing a good workout. It builds fluency and expressive
skills.
- Poetry is filled with patterns and
sequences; it has a musical quality that creates interaction.
3. Poetry can support and improve cognitive
learning skills
- Poetry builds and extends
vocabulary. It places new words in a quick context supporting access to
meaning.
- Poems build phonemic awareness
such as pitch, voice inflection, and variations in volume
- Poetry invites creativity and
self-expression. Children learn that reading is not just a list of rules to
follow, but a world of meaning.
- Poetry can improve both reading
and writing skills as children gain a deeper love of language.
- Poems can aid in memorization
skills. The structure of poems makes them easier to remember than longer
passages.
From the cradle on, children love poetry. Look for
anthologies of children’s poetry to get an overview of poets or search for your
favorite children’s authors as many of them have written verse as well as
stories. Read the poems to your children, but don’t forget to have them
memorize some of them for the valuable skills gained and the sheer fun of it.
Here are some children’s poetry favorites:
The Oxford Illustrated Book of American
Children’s Poems, edited by Donald Hall
Eric Carle’s Animals, Animals
A Treasury of Poetry for Young People, over
150 poems by six American Poets
Favorite Poems Old and New, over 700 poems edited
by Ellen Ferris
Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young by
Jack Prelutsky
The Original Mother Goose by Blanch Fisher
Wright
Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Ever
Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne
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