National Poetry Month: Books for Children

April is National Poetry Month, which I think scares the heck out of a lot of teachers. Not me. Or at least not anymore.

I think most people have a deep-rooted fear of poetry. I’m guessing you’re already remembering some horrible class you had in high school where you were forced to read and understand a bunch of poems you thought were dumb. Been there. Oh, and another confession? I used to think poems had to rhyme. Total rookie.

I actually didn’t like poetry until I became a teacher. Now I love it and it’s one of my favorite writing units to teach. And (not lying) most of my students love it too. Why? Because it’s the one form of writing that’s without strict rules and who wouldn’t love that? The more I learned about poetry, the more I wanted to teach it. It just feels like an invitation for anything goes!

Selecting Books for National Poetry Month

For years, I scoured book stores finding amazing books for children that eventually became my teaching texts. If you’re a primary teacher, you need pint-sized poems for your pint-sized learners. The children need to see poems they can understand and that look like poems they could actually write.

There’s really no sense in planning your poetry lessons until you’ve settled on some mentor poets for your specific group of children. As you consider books for modeling, think: Will my students like these poems? Do these poems look like a style of poetry my young writers could emulate?

TEACHING TIP: Save rhyming and highly rhythmic poems for reading workshop. They’re great for developing phonemic awareness, but they’re rigid in design and difficult for most primary children to write. In my experience, they tend to keep children from writing creatively. Or even writing at all.

Ok, My Favorite Poetry Books for Kids

👆 Little Dog Poems by Kristine O’Connell George

Hands down, my favorite book for introducing my students to poetry is Little Dog Poems. My first graders LOVE this book of poems. Each page is its own poem, but they work together to tell the story of a typical day in the life of this little dog. It’s a super age-appropriate way to introduce my budding poets to concepts like:

choosing a small topic near and dear to your heart
the different forms, shapes, and lengths poetry can take
line breaks
white space
the creative use (or lack) of conventions, like capitalization and punctuation

Consider beginning with this text because there’s no single specific style throughout the book. Children will see that poems can take many forms. And because poetry is a genre that is typically shorter than personal narratives, you’ll find the children are prolific writers during this unit. As a matter fact, I usually start them out with blank half sheets of paper and they often write 2-4 poems per writing session. My struggling writers love this because the size of the paper implies the writing won’t be long and labor intensive.

(Sample Poems from Little Dog, Text Recommendation for National Poetry Month)

More Poetry Love

👆 Hi, Koo! A Year of Seasons by Jon J. Muth

Hi, Koo! is a collection of modern haiku, minus the traditional haiku rules. In the Author’s Note at the beginning of the book, Jon Muth explains the history of this poetic form and how it has evolved. Many modern poets no longer adhere to the strict five-seven-five pattern. He shares, “For me, haiku is like an instant captured in words. At its best, haiku embodies a moment of emotion.”

No longer does there have to be a certain number of syllables per line, and that’s why I like this book as a teaching text. It opens up another form of poetry to young writers. And notice how short and sweet they are. One literally reads: Eating warm cookies on a cold day is easy. I totally agree.

Actually, I don’t care what the temperature is.😊

(Sample Poems from Hi, Koo!, Text Recommendation for National Poetry Month)

💛 Silver Seeds by Paul Paolilli and Dan Brewer

When you’re ready to model something new, try acrostic poems. Silver Seeds is a great beginning choice for this form of poetry because the examples in this book are short. They’re the perfect pint-sized poems for young writers. The common thread throughout the book is nature and each page features a new acrostic poem about something found outside … the sun, clouds, trees, leaves, hills, etc. You’ll notice the “no rule” feature of this book is that each line doesn’t have to be a single word or a certain number of words. It’s up to the poet and what they’re trying convey.

(Sample Poems from Silver Seeds, Text Recommendation for National Poetry Month)

7 More Teaching Texts for National Poetry Month

To be honest, narrowing this list down to ten total books is a pretty big challenge for me. But, also being honest, I probably do most of my teaching from the three above. I just have a hard time with exclusion.😉

Someday by Eileen Spinelli
Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems, edited by Georgia Heard
A Writing Kind of Day: Poems for Young Poets by Ralph Fletcher
The Great Frog Race by Kristine O’Connell George
Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry, collected by Jane Yolen
Dogku by Andrew Clements
A Poem in Your Pocket by Margaret McNamara and G. Brian Karas

I highly recommend taking time to flip through other collections of poetry. There are so many! See what appeals to you. If you like a book, it’s easier to get your students excited about it, too.

A Few More Teaching Resources

This is one of my go-to resources when I’m planning my poetry unit. If you can get your hands on a copy, I recommend checking it out!

Happy teaching!