How to Teach Poems to Children

How to Teach a Poem to Children

1. Read the entire poem or rhyme once through.

2. Discuss the meaning and any new vocabulary.

3. Identify the rhyming words together.

4. Encourage the children to clap along to the rhythm as you read the poem again.

5. Then, pause before the rhyming words, letting the kids fill them in.

6.  Further learning with older children:
     - Find all the words in the poem that begin with ___ letter or sound
     - Choose a word in the poem.  Ask a child to tell you what they hear at the beginning, middle, or end of the word
     - Find words that rhyme with _____
     - Ask a child to find words that contain the vowel _____

Teaching Tips

• Use poems to introduce themes.  Ask the children, "What theme will we be covering this week?"
• Take the nursery rhymes, finger plays, and songs very slowly at first and wait for the child to do the action before moving on.  This is crucial for the child to learn the poems.
  
  
• Make actions simple.  The younger the child the less actions needed.
  
  
• Make activities interesting - sing or talk in big and little voice, faster and slower, softer and louder, add instruments.
  
  
• Stop songs in the middle to repeat a hard line or action, talk about the meaning, or for whatever reason necessary to help the child learn it.
  
  
• Stop on rhyming words and have the child fill in word.
  
  
• Count the number of times a word is in a song, rhyme, or finger play.
  
  
• Sing throughout the day - just because the child is not singing out loud with you does not mean they are not singing in their head
  
  
• Make sure the child uses his or her pretty voice to sing - yelling is not singing
  
  
• Say the poem or rhyme using different voices - high, low, big, small, etc.

Discover More Ideas

• Tips for Teaching Children to Sing and Move 
• Bible Songs and Motions
• Preschool Active Games

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