Since 1996, Americans have celebrated National Poetry Month throughout the month of April. Reading, writing and reciting poetry is a great way to inspire children's interest in words and wordplay, rhyme and rhythm, meter and metaphor.
With these great tools for teaching poetry, April doesn't have to be the cruelest month in your classroom.
The best poetry lessons and activities
NaPoWriMo: 30 poems in 30 days
Inspired by the popular NaNoWriMoThis site is dedicated to encouraging poets to try writing a poem a day during the month of April.
GiggleVerse
Home to “the funniest children's poems in the universe,” this site encourages children to read by providing them with new fun poems every day of the week, both on the website and by email. Categories range from animals and holidays to “gross tales” and “cautions” (tragic stories with funny morals).
The Children's Poetry Archive
A truly wonderful site for children to explore and learn to love poetry. The Children's Poetry Archive is aimed at children ages 4 to 16 and includes a searchable database of recorded poems, arranged by subject, poet, age, and glossary. Resources for teachers consist of listening, learning, writing and performing poetry. Be sure to check out simple ideas to make your classroom a poetry friendly place.
Word Mover: create your own “found” poetry
What is “found” poetry? It's a great way to create something new from existing text. Just as an image collage combines existing images in new ways, the found poetry format allows poets to remake existing texts in ways that can illuminate, enhance, and expand meanings. Not sure how it works? Check out this informative example of Poets.org. Then try Word Move Interactive, an easy-to-use online found poetry tool. Choose your word bank and then start composing.
Teen Ink: poems written by teenagers
Teen Ink online magazine specializes in publishing creative works produced by teenagers. Select existing poems for your students to discuss and analyze. Or assign students to write and submit articles to the website. Submissions are reviewed and only the best are published. The bar isn't set too high, though, so it's a reasonable goal for an aspiring teenage poet. The short videos offer sensible guidance to children on how to evaluate their own work and how to deal with rejection (an inevitable consequence all writers must endure).
Poets.org Materials for Teachers
Explore a diverse collection of lesson plans, essays, reading guides, and class discussion questions. Your teen students will benefit from Poetry for Teens, a collection organized by topics including love and relationships, politics and social justice, mental health, and other topics that speak directly to young people.
Prestwick House Lesson Plans
From educator-led publishers Prestwick House, these free downloadable lesson plans feature notable poetry by Bob Dylan, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, and William Shakespeare. Lessons are aligned with CCSS and include discussion points, questions, handouts, posters, and graphics. Easily access the lessons directly below:
Poetry Worksheets and Free Printables
From Education.com, these poetry activity worksheets can be sorted by grade, popularity, title, or relevance and include how to write an acrostic, limerick, haiku, cinquain, and other types of poems.
Magnetic Poetry Online Fun
Creative word games don't get any easier than this. Simply open the magnetic poetry site for kids and arrange the digital word “magnets” using the drag and drop interface. Don't you like the word bank? No problem, just click “load more words”. Save your poem as a .png image file. Looking for a wider range of words? Choose between Nature, Geek, Happiness and Original. This type of poetry writing allows everyone, including children who are not natural writers, to express themselves with language. Also check out this similar site, Play magnetic poetry.
Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization, offers a wealth of free online poetry and poetry teaching resources. Explore poems, both text and audio, by topic, author, or audience (such as children, teens, or adults). He educators section provides articles and guides that illustrate selected texts, helping teachers focus on key points of teaching. Resources for teach poetry online add value to this poetry site.
Poetry4kids.com
Author and former children's poet laureate Kenn Nesbitt's multimedia poetry site offers not only a diverse selection of searchable children's poetry, but also poetry writing lessons, a rhyming dictionary, videos, podcasts, free online events “continuous learning”, virtual author visits, and much more. Check out Nesbitt Youtube channel also!
Favorite Poem Project
Explore a collection of poetry lesson plans, organized by grade (interdisciplinary, too!) and ideas for school poetry events.
Video Collection: The Art of Poetry
Library of short lectures and conversations from The Art of Poetry, a massive open online course by Robert Pinsky. Filter by themes, poets and poems. A good, quick way to discuss topics like “What's cool?” and “Freedom and Meaning.”
National Poetry Month
Extensive and up-to-date poetry teaching resources include: How to Celebrate National Poetry Month in the Virtual Classroom: Dear Poet, a multimedia educational project; and more.
rhyme zone
More than just a rhyming dictionary, RhymeZone allows users to quickly and easily find words, phrases, synonyms, antonyms, definitions, letters, homophones, and more, to make their poems shine like a meandering horizon. Do you need to go deeper? Try the advanced search, which provides details on metrics, parts of speech, and rare words. A remarkably simple and free tool that will be invaluable to poets and singers around the world.
Readworks.org Poetry Resources
Research-based lessons and activities for K-12 students. Full and free access to educators with registration. He teacher's guide provides step-by-step methods for using site activities wisely.
poetry out loud
Try this fun and dynamic way to introduce poetry to students through the excitement of the spoken word and competition. Everything teachers need to implement the Poetry Out Loud program is provided at no cost, from lesson plans to making their program accessible.
Shel Silverstein Learning Resources
Lessons, activities, and a Common Core-aligned teaching guide about the works and world of beloved children's poet and author Shel Silverstein.
Teaching poetry with exemplary students
Excellent article by author and high school English teacher Elizabeth Jorgensen in which she shares ideas and examples for teaching poetry to high school students and inspiring them in the process.
Reading Rockets: National Poetry Month
A wealth of resources to celebrate National Poetry Month. Watch videos of well-known poets reading aloud and explore topics such as writing poetry with English learners, using poetry to teach reading, and exploring haiku, sijo, and cinquain.
TeachersFirst Poetry Month Editor's Choice Resources
A well-curated set of the best poetry teaching lessons, organized by grade. Be sure to check out Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem lesson, as well as the Random Poem Generator and The Interactive Raven.
Digital Library of Living Poets
From creators of TeachLivePoetsThis digital library provides an easy-to-navigate database of selected living poets, their spoken and written work, and links to their websites.
