I absolutely love poems. I always have. When I was a wee girl, I loved poems before bed. As a moody teenager, I loved those deep poems which now make me cringe, and as an adult, I love all things airy, light, and nature filled.

Poems are fabulous for children to hear and to create as well. This blog post has 5 poem ideas for kids that every grade one student should have a go at. These 5 poems are available to you as pretty printable posters, as my gift to you, below. 

These poem ideas for kids are taken straight from my Grade One Literacy Curriculum. One page a day, 15 minutes a day, and those core skills are done! If you have a deep quality over shallow quantity view on education, you are going to love my math and literacy curriculum bundles, meeting every expectation in the curriculum.

These 5 poems each work on slightly different skills and offer children a wide variety of literary experiences. Whether they are practicing their rhyming skills, counting syllables, counting words, or focusing on beginning letter sounds, phonological awareness is getting learned and practiced again and again. Not to mention all the vocabulary building that is taking place! Swoon.

Here are 5 poem ideas for you to try with your Grade One, or any young child!

Acrostic Poems:

An acrostic poem is when a word or person’s name is written vertically down the side of a page. These letters are used to begin each line of the poem. The acrostic, which usually does not rhyme, is written to describe the chosen word or person.

Cinquain Poems:

A cinquain is a second poem idea for kids! It is a five line poem that describes a person, place, or thing. The rules for writing a cinquain poem are the following:

• Line 1 = one word (noun)
• Line 2 = two words (adjectives)
• Line 3 = three action words (verbs)
• Line 4 = four word sentence (describe a feeling)
• Line 5 = one word (synonym-another word meaning the same thing)

Limericks:

A limerick is a funny rhyming poem. The first, second, and fifth lines rhyme, while the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other. These poems are always a hit with kids!

Concrete Poems:

A concrete poem takes the shape of the subject. The poet uses words and imagery to get his or her message across to readers. 

Haiku Poems:

A haiku poem is a three line, non-rhyming poem. The rules for a haiku poem are as follows:

• The first line has 5 syllables.
• The second has 7 syllables.
• The third line has 5 syllables

And there you have them! 5 fun poetry ideas for kids to explore and play with. Never underestimate the power of doing fun activities like these. There is so much learning taking place under the surface.

Once you do one of these poems with your little one, share it below in the comments. I would love to read your child’s poetry!

If you would like to print off some pretty posters to help you and your child as you are learning about poetry, you can download all 5 right here. They are available to you in both full colour and printer friendly. And they are completely free!

Grab yours Printable Poem Posters here.

Thank you so much for reading,

xo

Sarah