A few decades ago, most children arrived at school already familiar with classic folk tales, nursery rhymes, and well-loved poems. Today that’s less common. Kids often know every lyric from their favorite movies or shows, but many have never heard The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.
And yet, poetry — both classic and contemporary — still offers something deeply valuable. Here’s why it’s worth making space for it.
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 are drawn to rhythm and rhyme. Explore anthologies, revisit classic collections, or look for favorite authors who also write in verse. Read poems aloud — and let kids memorize a few just for the fun of it and the skills they gain along the way. 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
Other articles by HVP News Reporters