April is National Poetry Month, but poetry is forever, so whether you are reading this post during National Poetry Month or not, it is time to start your life long love of poetry. Long time readers (hugs and kisses for you!) know I am a poetry fanatic. It’s sad really, how much I try to convince you that you should also embrace poetry. But I can’t stop. This year, instead of a guided poetry month challenge I’m merely instructing (okay, I’m bossing you around) you to memorize a poem with your kids.
Just one.
You can do it.
It’s actually not as hard as you think. In fact Amy, of Sunlit Pages, as collected all her genius tips for how to memorize poetry with kids just for you here, and today I’m supplying you with a few extra suggestions of classic poems for kids to memorize.
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If you ever memorized a poem as a kid I bet you can remember part or all of it today. A memorized poem lives with you forever.
In fact, I want to make it so easy for you, I’ve collected 5 classic poems for kids (AND YOU, TOO) to memorize and even created a handy-dandy printable for you. Just fill in your email below and we’ll send it right to you.
Oh, and don’t forget that poetry is one way your kids will remember peaceful bedtime moments FOREVER. (<— click on that link to read about what I mean!)
Poems included:
- “My Shadow” by Robert Louis Stevenson (1915)
- “A Bird Came Down” by Emily Dickinson (1891)
- “The Owl and the Pussy-cat” by Edward Lear (1871)
- Passage from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (c. 1590)
- “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll (1871)
My favorite books (affiliate links) with poems perfect for memorizing:
More Poetry Resources
- 8 ways poetry calms kids
- How to memorize poetry with kids
- Poetry reading challenge (perfect for beginners). This is a great resource if you want short poems to memorize and help you get to know poetry before you try to memorize a long poem.
- Poetry writing challenge: Learn to write poems (perfect for beginners!!)
More Modern Classic Poems for Kids to Memorize:
If you want poems that are slightly more modern, you will find links below to a few of my favorites that are still under copyright. Since I am deathly afraid of violating copyright laws, the printable includes only poems that are in the public domain. I’ll let the owners of the websites linked below worry about copyright laws.
The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash (1936) – This was a BIG hit with my kids.
Maggie and Milly and Molly and May by e.e. cummings (1956)
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (1978 – best for older kids!)
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein (1974)
This is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams (1962)
Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes
Ode to My Socks by Pablo Neruda
Here’s my last challenge for you. After your child has memorized his or her poem, or (ever better!) after you have memorized it as a family, record your family reciting the poem with Sound Cloud. Won’t that be a super awesome souvenir for your family!
ashley donati booktomato.net says
Getting my kids to recite poetry is on my to do list, especially after reading this! I had a teacher in elementary school that recited Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Swing” every single day to us while we worked. I can recite it to this day! His book, A Child’s Garden of Verses is just wonderful. Thank you for refreshing my memory of how important poetry is in our lives. 🙂
Mary Lynne Foster says
In first and second grade in my school each child has a ‘poetry notebook”, a three ring binder, and almost every week we put one or two poems in it and choose poems to read aloud together. They end up with between 30 – 50 poems. I have certainly memorized several of them! Some years I have used Voicethread to video them while they are reading their favorite poem, alone or with a friend. Voicethread displays a photo of the poem and a little video pops up showing them reading it. People with access to the link can leave comments.
My own favorite memorized poem is Jabberwocky.
Erica MomandKiddo says
I love the idea of a poetry notebook.
Lise says
Great list! My daughter loves to memorize poetry, and her first memorized-by-choice poems was from Shakespeare when she was four. (As opposed to nursery rhymes, and such, which she learned just from hearing them.) She’s 7 now and has memorized “The New Colossus,” most of “Paul Revere’s Ride,” “Old Ironsides,” and more–and those were all her own choices. (“Mama, I need to learn that one.”) She’s working on Jabberwocky now, and has already got “My Shadow,” “The Owl and the Pussycat,” and “Maggie and Milly and Molly and May.” The cool thing is, she’s made me realize that it’s lots easier to do than I’d thought. I’ve memorized them all right along with her (well, except Paul Revere; that’s more than my old brain can manage!) and am loving having them all right there at the tip of my tongue. We love quoting from them at just the right moment to each other.
Erica MomandKiddo says
Wonderful! I was just saying to my son that it is easier for me to remember the poems I learned as a kid than the poems I am learning now as an adult!
Denisse says
At what age do you suggest they learn Still I Rise by Maya Angelou? There is a paragraph in there I wouldn’t like to hear my 5th grader reciting! 😮
Erica says
Hi Denisse, I think the poem is appropriate for ages 12 and up. I realize I stuck it in there between poems for much younger kids, so it seems a little incongruous! Also, every parent has their own ideas of what is appropriate or not.