Poetry isn't all serious odes and tragic ballads. It can also be fun and games, and make your kids laugh themselves silly.
The joy of these poetry games is that they take the pressure off learning about writing poems, and can open up new avenues to learn about poetic devices, expose kids to new vocabulary, and boost their creativity.
All of the poetry games can be adapted for large or small groups, for families at home, for library story time activities, or for the classroom during National Poetry Month.
1. Four Line Rhyme
Participants create a rhyming poem line by line. The first person states a simple sentence that becomes the first line of a poem. The next person adds on a line that rhymes in which the last word rhymes with the last work of the previous line. Continue for at least four lines, or for a predetermined number of lines.
Make it more challenging: Each line of the poem must follow a set meter such as ba-bum-ba-bum-ba-bum.
Variation: Decide on the poem's theme ahead of time.
MORE: Word Games for Kids
2. Mixed Bag Poems
Write random words on slips of paper and place them in a paper bag. The words should cover a wide range of parts of speech–verbs, nouns, adjectives, conjunctions, etc. Each player draws a set number of words and creates a poem using only those words. They can use punctuation as desired.
Variation: If you are playing this with a large group of kids, preset 20-30 random words in separate envelopes to pass out to individual kids.
Variation: Players can trade words with others.
MORE: Poetry Reading Challenge
3. Hidden Verse
On a sheet of paper, the first player writes a single line to start a poem. That person then folds down the paper to cover the line so no one else can read it. The next player writes the second line of the verse, folds the paper over to hide the line and passes it to the next player. Continue on until everyone has had a chance to write a line, or for a predetermined number of lines. Unfold the paper and read the entire poem out loud!
Variations:
- before beginning, decide the subject of the poem
- decide on a poetic form. For example, a haiku or a sonnet.
- make it rhyme by predetermining a rhyming word. For example, the final word of every line must rhyme with "tree".
- each person can see the immediate line before theirs, but nothing earlier. For example, person 1 will not fold the paper but person 2 will fold the paper so person 3 can see person 2's line, but not person 1's.
4. Spine Poem
Spine poems are when you create a poem by stacking books so the titles on the spines create a poem. To turn this exercise into a game, have all the participants choose a book for every other participant.
For example, if four people are playing, player one chooses four books and passes one out to each player. Player 2 then chooses another four books and passes one out to each player, and so forth until all players have four books. Then, each player creates a spine poem from their titles!
Variation: Place a number of books in a large box. With eyes closed, each player draws a set number of books from the box and creates their spine poem.
MORE: How to Create a Spine Poem (with examples)
5. Funny Flips Poetry
This poetry game is an adaptation of our Funny Flips word game. First create the Funny Flips game. Next, kids will write poems using only word combinations found by flipping their Funny Flips. They must resist the urge to use the words in any order they want. They must be used only as they are revealed by flipping.
Tip: this works best if you don't explain how they will use the Funny Flips to create poems until AFTER kids make their own Funny Flips game. Otherwise, they will plan ahead and where's the fun in that?
Variation: Each person uses someone else's Funny Flips to create their poem.
6. Picture Poetry
Find a picture that speaks to you. It can be in a book, or a painting you saw in a museum, etc. Illustrations from wordless books work really well for this. Write a poem about that picture. It can reveal feelings evoked by the picture, or be more descriptive.
Variation: If playing this with a large group, you can assign everyone a picture. After everyone has written their poem, line up the pictures in full view. The poets then read their poem and others try to guess which picture it matches.
Variation: Using the same picture, write poems in different forms. For example, write a haiku, acrostic and limerick about the same picture.
MORE: How to Read Wordless Books
7. Poetry Bingo
Grab our printable Poetry BINGO cards to motivate your kids to read and write poetry over the course of a few days or few weeks.
8. Poetry Mad Libs
Poetry Mad Libs is a game in which players insert words corresponding to specific parts of speech into a poem. The catch? They don't know what the poem is about until they are done filling in the blanks? We have several printable poetry Mad Libs for kids of different skill levels, or kids can make their own.
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