Tomorrow Tuesday 21 March is World Poetry Day – a day for appreciating and supporting poets, and for reading and writing poetry. It’s time to open your favourite book of children’s poetry and read your favourites to your children.
Poetry is a wonderful tool for learning language. When children listen to or recite poetry, they are learning the rhythms and sounds of language, exploring ideas and how to express them, expanding vocabularies, deepening understanding in nuances of meaning, and having fun with thoughts and their expression.
Children are exposed to rhythm and rhyme from their earliest days through nursery rhymes, chants and songs as well as the text of picture books. It is important for children to have opportunities for appreciating and exploring poetry into and throughout their school years. Our Australian Curriculum places poetry firmly into the literature strand of English teaching each year. But it is not necessary to relegate poetry just to a poetry unit of work when stipulated by the curriculum. Poetry, rhymes, chants and songs can be easily incorporated into the daily class program. World Poetry Day should be an unnecessary excuse.
Continue reading for teaching ideas: Celebrating World Poetry Day on 21 March – readilearn
Norah Colvin 
I’ll plan to read a poem tomorrow – thank you!
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Great!
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I think poetry has become much more accessible to children “these days” than when I was a child. Poems were so serious and hard-to-understand – the ones I was taught. Now, poetry expresses so many feelings in so many wonderful (poetic) ways.
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I agree with you, Pam, about poetry being more accessible. I think a lot of poetry was ruined in school by over-analysis, but I never lost the joy for it, thankfully.
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I totally agree, poetry is a wonderful way for children to expand their understanding of language. The rhythms and rhymes involved in poetry could also be very helpful to kids that wanted to pursue music, and give them a big jump start in that area as well.
Thank you for the interesting post, I enjoyed it!
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That’s very true about music, Gary. Thank you for your comment.
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You’re very welcome. I always support the arts in school, it’s very important in my eyes.
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I’m in total agreement on that. 🙂
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A lot of kids love poetry. It’s an effective way for them to communicate. I’m glad many schools promote it.
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I am too, Jacqui. Poetry can be a powerful form of communication in so many ways.
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