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Short Poems for 1st/2nd graders


Koerarmoca
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Well, we have a few anthologies that have short poems - I'm not home, but I think the Random House one we like was edited by Jack Prelutsky.

 

But here's a vote for one of my favorites-

There's an eyeball in the gumball machine

Right there between the red and the green

Lookin' at me as if to say,

"You don't need any more gum today."

- Shel Silverstein

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Well, we have a few anthologies that have short poems - I'm not home, but I think the Random House one we like was edited by Jack Prelutsky.

 

But here's a vote for one of my favorites-

There's an eyeball in the gumball machine

Right there between the red and the green

Lookin' at me as if to say,

"You don't need any more gum today."

- Shel Silverstein

 

 

 

Lol.

 

Besides Shel Silverstein, you can try a collection of Robert Louis Stevenson. The one where the kid's shadow walked off without him was a hit with my weird 6yo.

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Some other shorter poems they memorized were:

Love - Shel Silverstein

The Little Man - Hughes Mearns

Winter Moon - Langston Hughes

Long Gone - Jack Prelutsky

 

Obviously my choices tend toward the humourous. Christina Rosetti has some other nature-inspured poems if that is what your dd prefers. I'm assuming you were referring to FLL1....

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My dd and I have loved Robert Lewis Stevenson's Child's Garden of Verses. He remembered what it was like to be a child. So much imagination and seeing all thru a child's eyes.

 

The Swing

My Shadow

Land of Counterpane

 

I don't know how short you are looking for, but one option is doing only one stanza or doing one per week till finished.

 

Here is

 

My Kingdom

 

Down by a shining water well

I found a very little dell,

No higher than my head.

The heather and the gorse about

In summer bloom were coming out,

Some yellow and some red.

 

I called the little pool a sea;

The little hills were big to me;

For I am very small.

I made a boat, I made a town,

I searched the caverns up and down,

And named them one and all.

 

And all about was mine, I said,

The little sparrows overhead,

The little minnows too.

This was the world and I was king;

For me the bees came by to sing,

For me the swallows flew.

 

I played there were no deeper seas,

Nor any wider plains than these,

Nor other kings than me.

At last I heard my mother call

Out from the house at evenfall,

To call me home to tea.

 

And I must rise and leave my dell,

And leave my dimpled water well,

And leave my heather blooms.

Alas! and as my home I neared,

How very big my nurse appeared.

How great and cool the rooms!

 

 

A shorter poem,

 

Autumn Fires

 

In the other gardens

And all up the vale,

From the autumn bonfires

See the smoke trail!

 

Pleasant summer over

And all the summer flowers,

The red fire blazes,

The grey smoke towers.

 

Sing a song of seasons!

Something bright in all!

Flowers in the summer,

Fires in the fall!

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The Eagle by Tennyson

The End by A. A. Milne (who has many other good poems for kids)

All that is gold does not glitter by Tolkien (from The Lord of the Rings)

 

They also have enjoyed doing the color poems form Hailstones and Halibut Bones.

 

A good anthology is Forget Me Not by Mary Ann Hoberman

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The Little Turtle

 

There was a little turtle.

He lived in a box.

He swam in a puddle.

He climbed on the rocks.

 

He snapped at a mosquito.

He snapped at a flea.

He snapped at a minnow.

And he snapped at me.

 

He caught the mosquito.

He caught the flea.

He caught the minnow.

But he didn't catch me.

 

from Helen Ferris, Favorite Poems Old and New. This is a wonderful poetry resource for kids and is available used for very little money.

 

Core Knowledge also has good poems. They publish separate grade-level poetry books; the poems are also in the Need to Know books.

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The Little Turtle

 

There was a little turtle.

He lived in a box.

He swam in a puddle.

He climbed on the rocks.

 

He snapped at a mosquito.

He snapped at a flea.

He snapped at a minnow.

And he snapped at me.

 

He caught the mosquito.

He caught the flea.

He caught the minnow.

But he didn't catch me.

 

from Helen Ferris, Favorite Poems Old and New. This is a wonderful poetry resource for kids and is available used for very little money.

 

Core Knowledge also has good poems. They publish separate grade-level poetry books; the poems are also in the Need to Know books.

 

 

My 1st grader memorized this poem this year. She loved it. :)

 

Anything that you can add some sort of action to is a huge hit here. I've pulled poems from Shel Siverstein books, google searches, and from the AAR/AAS readers.

 

Another favorite here is:

 

Hula Eel

 

Take an eel,

Make a loop,

Use him as a hula hoop.

Feel him twist and twirl and spin,

Down your ankles, round your chin,

Tighter, tighter, tighter yet,

Ain't an eel a lovely pet?

Hey- answer when I talk to you-

Don't just stand there turning blue!

- Shel Silverstein-

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My 1st grader memorized this poem this year. She loved it. :)

 

Anything that you can add some sort of action to is a huge hit here. I've pulled poems from Shel Siverstein books, google searches, and from the AAR/AAS readers.

 

 

 

So did my dd. I love easy poems for that age group. Here is another (a little bit of a twist, like your hula eel):

 

The Purple Cow

 

I never saw a purple cow,

I hope I never see one;

But I can tell you, anyhow,

I'd rather see than be one.

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