Need ideas for poetry readings

[SereneHome]

I would like to start doing some poetry reading during our circle time and would love some suggestions.

 

I would prefer that they rhyme, at leas at first.  My boys are 3, 4 and 6, but I am mostly gearing it towards the older two.

 

Thank you!

[ByGrace3]

We use the Sonlight poetry recs. I buy one per year, and they have always been a hit. 

[TheAttachedMama]

For very little kids, I *LOVE* to introduce poetry with nursery rhymes.  So that would be my starting point for your children.   For one thing, in order to be culturally literate, you need to be familiar with mother goose rhymes.   But more importantly, many nursery rhymes can be 'sung'--which gives children a gentle introduction to the melodic rhythm of language in poetry....and some of the stranger phrasing we hear in poetry!   So I think familiarizing children with a book of mother goose poems gives them a foundation where they can learn to LOVE poetry.

 

There are so many great Mother Goose books out there...so choose anyone that you like.   My personal favorite is Syliva Long's Mother Goose.  This is a very gorgeous, well-made book that you will probably hand down to grandchildren.  It has very traditional rhymes mixed with lesser known rhymes...but what really makes this book neat is the illustrations.  She gives such GORGEOUS depictions of these classic rhymes in some non-traditional ways.   For example, the words in the nursery rhyme "rock a bye baby" can be sort of scary for children.   But in HER version, the cradle in the illustration is a nest in a tree for baby birds.  When the cradle 'falls" the baby birds leave the nest and learn to fly.   I mean....how cute is that idea?!  :)   The book is full of things like that.  The illustrations are also very detailed, so even if you read this book again and again your children will still spot new 'things' in the pictures to look at.

 

And, If you don't know the 'tune' to some of the Nursery Rhymes, I highly recommend the CD "Wee Sing Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies".  My children listened to this during their nap/quiet time for YEARS.  They loved it to pieces.  It connects all of the mother goose rhymes into a fun story that the kids can listen to.  Again, this will be a very loved CD for kids your age.   You can also play this in the car.   

 

After your kids are use to the melodic rhythm of poetry, I would then start introducing them to other poems that delight children.  You still probably want to only read these poems for enjoyment.  You don't want to make poetry feel like work at this point.  You want to give them time to learn that poetry is a delight and pleasure.  (So save the repetition and memorization for later.)  In this phase of the game, I would look for books filled with HIGHLY interesting poems in beautifully illustrated books.  (Your kids are still very young, so they will need a book that delights their visual senses as well as their auditory senses.)   An example of a book like this would be "Here's a Little Poem".   It was compiled by Jane Yolen (author of Owl Moon), and she did a GREAT job of choosing poetry that even very young kids can relate to and love.  The book is generously illustrated and will appeal to everyone in your family. 

 

After that, you can feel free to introduce and read any poetry book that appeals to you.   After awhile, my kids and I started working through IEW's Linguistic Development through poetry memorization.   He does a GREAT job of choosing poems that appeal to a appeal to little kids. 

 

 

  I would read poetry when the kids were eating their snack.  (A full mouth keeps children quiet and gets them to sit still longer.  ;)  )  We called it our poetry tea parties.  :) 

[SereneHome]

Thank you.

 

We've been reading a book by Jack Prelutsky and they seem to like it.  But may be I should go back to something more simple

[forty-two]

I second the recommendation to start with nursery rhymes.  I've been reading them since my oldest was three, and everyone gets a kick out of them.  In fact, *I've* vastly increased my sensitivity to rhythm and language, and general ability to have fun with words :thumbup:.  I used to be pretty much tone deaf to the sound of poetry, which cut me off from at least half of the poetry experience; it lessened my enjoyment of poems I could make sense of, and made me give up entirely on more difficult to understand poems - without being able to appreciate the sound of the poem, there was no hook to grab me to encourage me to read and re-read to increase my understanding of the poem. 

 

And nursery rhymes are great to start with because they have a very strong rhythm.  I *liked* nursery rhymes and wasn't intimidated by them like I was with "regular" poetry, and as what I liked about them was their fun rhythm, I refused to give up on a difficult rhyme.  Instead I kept experimenting, trying new ways to read it until I fell into a good rhythm (and as it turns out, that's an essential skill in reading "real" poetry).  Plus, unlike "regular" poetry, you're downright *encouraged* to exaggerate the rhythm into a nice sing-songy feel ;) - makes the rhythm nice and obvious, even for tone-deaf neophytes like me ;).  (My dds have some auditory processing difficulties, and dd8 in particular has hard time hearing rhythm; I've noticed she's become more sensitive to rhythm lately, making up her own nursery rhymes, and I think all the years of listening to me read them has helped her a lot.)

 

And now, after several years of nursery rhymes, I find that I can appreciate the more subtle rhythms of "regular" poetry.  In fact, on some nursery rhymes that were always hard to find a sing-song rhythm to, I find that I actually *prefer* how they sound read normally, instead of exaggerated into a sing-song.  This is *huge* for me, because for the longest I couldn't hear *any* rhythm unless it was exaggerated into a sing-song.  I've found that starting with nursery rhymes (which I didn't even do for poetry reasons, but for cultural literacy reasons, and because I had fond memories of them) has been the best way to introduce *me* to poetry as an adult.

 

ETA:  We have half a dozen nursery rhyme books, but our two favorites are Opie & Wells' The Very Best of Mother Goose and Gyo Fujikawa's Mother Goose.

[Lilaclady]

If you can get A A. milne's " once they were young "and "now they are six" poems. They are great for that age group.

[AK_Mom4]

Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses"

[SereneHome]

Thank you very much for all the suggestions