Poetry Reading Challenge for Kids (Week 3)

Our easy-breezy poetry reading challenge for National Poetry Month continues for a third week with a funny poem to enjoy with your kids.

If you missed the introduction to the challenge, you can read all the details in the first Poetry Reading Challenge for Kids post, but the only detail you need to remember is to simply read the poem out loud once a day! And if you missed week 2 you can catch up any time with the Emily Dickinson poem.

Edward Lear

Diverging wildly from Dickinson, this week's poem by Edward Lear will tickle your funny bone. Edward Lear was a 19th century British poet best known for his nonsense rhymes and limericks.

The popularity of his poetry is a good reminder that poems do not always have to be deep and meaningful to be significant and enjoyable. In fact, nonsense rhymes serve an extremely useful purpose. Think of all those nursery rhymes that have been handed down through the generations.

Get a printer friendly pdf copy here ---> Edward Lear poem (I've been posting each poem above our dining table so we don't forget to read it every day.)

When I was a kid I had a book of Edward Lear's nonsense rhymes. It was filled with limericks that made me giggle. I don't remember most of them, but "There Was and Old Man with a Beard" is one that I can still recite from memory.

You may be familiar with Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat", a poem I also memorized as a kid. It's funny that I can remember things I learned as a kid more easily than things I memorized as an adult. More reason to introduce poetry to your kids right now!

Up Next: Week 4 of the Poetry Reading Challenge. Can you guess who the featured poet will be?

Extension Activities

While the only requirement of the poetry reading challenge is to read the poem out loud once a day for 7 days, this week's poem's begs for further activities.

• Memorize the limerick
• Write your own limericks (keep it clean, please!) based on you and your kids. "There was a young boy from New York...."; or "There was an Old Mom with a book..."
• Read more about Edward Lear
• Read "The Owl and the Pussycat",
• The Gutenberg Project has free digital copies of the works of Edward Lear. Some of them even have illustrations.

MORE: Funny poems for kids

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