How to Celebrate National Poetry Month with Kids
- stefankarlsson
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
National Poetry Month is here! April is a wonderful opportunity to introduce kids to poetry in playful, low-pressure ways. Whether you’re a teacher, librarian, or parent, this simple guide offers easy ideas for sharing poetry with kids while foregrounding creativity and exploration. Here are a few simple ways to celebrate poetry — in April or any time of year.
Read Poems Aloud
Poetry is at its best when shared aloud. When kids hear a poem read aloud—or when they read it aloud themselves—they tune their ears to the sound, rhythm, and music of language. Try reading a poem or two aloud to model expression and pacing, then invite kids to perform a poem in their own way!
If you’re looking for poems to share, I highly recommend The Dirigible Balloon—a free webzine edited by the poet Jonathan Humble featuring children’s poems from around the world. Consider doing a daily poetry reading from The Dirigible Balloon. If you’re not sure where to start, you can search by theme or click the SURPRISE button. You can also find over 20 of my poems there!
Throughout April I’m sharing daily poems for kids on X/Twitter and Bluesky. Follow along for more reading inspiration!
Simple Writing Activities
When it comes to writing activities for kids, exploring poetic forms is always a handy place to start. Haiku, acrostics, concrete poems, and even “silly sonnets” give young writers helpful structures to lean on. Poetic forms help kids build confidence as they follow the specific rhyme scheme, syllable count, or shape.
That said, some of the most engaging poems grow out of a child’s own world. Invite kids to write from the perspective of their first favorite toy, compose a letter to the last animal they saw, or describe the view from their bedroom window as if they’ve never seen it before. Writing prompts that explore the young writer’s daily life encourage attentiveness, curiosity, and imaginative empathy.
Make It a Game
Here are a few ways you can make poetry writing into a scavenger hunt-style game!
Language Hunt: Send kids on a scavenger hunt for words/phrases found around the classroom (or your home). For example, they might write down book titles, words written on snack packages, phrases written on posters––anything they can find! Once they have a good stock of language, piece together the phrases into a poem.
Nature Walk: Invite kids to take their notebooks on a nature walk and write down any interesting things they see in as much detail as possible. For example: a crow prodding a peanut shell with its beak, a sign for a lost cat named Marshmallow stapled on a telephone pole, a muddy footprint on the sidewalk, etc. When they return from their walk, they can select their favorite notes as lines for their poem.
Collage Poem Activity: Pass around a stack of books. Invite kids to flip through them and write down their favorite phrases or sentences. Once they have a list of 10 or more phrases/sentences, piece together the words into an original poem. (Note: this style of collage poem is called a cento.)
Make It Crafty
Grab some glue sticks, markers, old magazines, any craft supplies you have—and make a poetry zine! Pairing poetry writing with crafting is a wonderful way to encourage creativity and break down the imaginary barrier between poetry and visual art. Here’s a quick guide on how you can fold a zine from printer paper, and you can find some zine-spiration here and here. I’ve written about my own experience working on a poetry zine here.
There are plenty of ways you can pair writing with art-making. For example, you can invite kids to write a short poem about their own fantasy world: imagine the terrain (is it a forest? is it snowy?), who lives there (are there giant bugs? dragons?), and what happens there (do people fly? is everyone asleep?). Then ask them to draw a map of their world. Here’s my own simple version of this activity as an example.
Alternatively, you might show kids a poem like Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” then ask them to invent their own magical creature. They can write a poem describing their monster’s unique features then draw the monster in action!
Make It a Challenge
Many poets use National Poetry Month as an opportunity to write a poem every day throughout the month. Personally, I prefer to do a Poem-Idea-a-Day challenge, because it’s more realistic for me to jot down some notes for a poem as opposed to a complete draft. You can read about my experience with these types of challenges here.
Leading a daily poetry writing challenge can be a great way to encourage ongoing creative activity, but as with all suggestions in this blog, I recommend keeping it light and avoiding any penalties. The point is not to force a poem every single day but to promote ongoing curiosity and engagement.
I love the approach of poet and picture book author Jessica Whipple, who uses Poetry Month as an opportunity to “visit” poetry each day. She writes: “Visiting a poem is: reading someone else's poem, beginning a new poem, finishing a poem, tweaking even just a word, looking at a poem not knowing how to improve it.” This gentle approach shifts our focus away from the end product of a polished poem and redirects us to revel in the creative process itself. How might you visit a poem today?
Watch and Listen to Poems
Poetry comes alive through voice and performance. Short poetry videos can be a fun way to introduce rhyme, rhythm, and wordplay, especially for reluctant readers or busy classrooms. If you’re looking for ready-to-share options, I post children’s poetry videos on YouTube. Each video blends imaginative writing with engaging visuals and is designed to be family-friendly and useful in the classroom. Here’s a sample poem below!
More Poetry Resources for Teachers, Librarians, and Parents
Here are a few children’s poetry resources that I enjoy reading:
Brian Moses’ Welcome to the Ssssssnake Hotel blog is packed with imaginative poetry prompts, lessons, themed poetry anthologies, guest poet features (you can read mine here!), and Brian’s brilliant poems. A highly recommended resource for young writers and educators!
Kenn Nesbitt’s Poetry4Kids website is a treasure trove for educators! You’ll find poetry lessons, games, podcasts, information about famous children’s poetry, a rhyming dictionary, and (of course) Kenn’s hilarious poems! I’ve turned to Kenn’s website for years and always find it incredibly helpful.
Shaun Jex’s children’s poetry blog features thoughtful and fun posts on poetic forms along with themed poem compilations. Shaun updates the blog weekly, and it’s always a pleasure to see where his attention goes next!
And of course (shameless self-promo incoming!) you can always sign up for my email newsletter at the bottom of this page for more children’s poetry updates!
Keep It Playful!
Use this blog as a springboard for exploration, and feel free to experiment. Ultimately, just have fun! Remember that there are no rules when it comes to how you approach poetry. Let kids be their weird, whimsical, deep, and mysterious selves, and let poetry be for them a place to explore imaginative possibilities without fear of judgment.
Thank you for reading! You can find more of my poems for kids here on my website or here on YouTube. If you’d like to support the blog, consider ordering a zine, buying me a coffee, or signing up for my newsletter below. Stay tuned for more children's poetry blogs coming soon.
Happy Poetry Month! :)
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