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115 Top Picks for Poem of the Day

Are your kids not interested in reading? Are they showing more interest in watching videos on the tablet than picking up a book and reading? Sadly, this is becoming the norm. There are lots of parents and teachers that are looking for solutions to get kids excited to read. This, friends, is why I’m so excited to share with you the Poem of the Day.

I have written about poetry notebooks, seasonal poems, and poetry activities, but never before have I shared how to do a poem of the day. Here’s a look at how I got started doing a Poem of the Day with my kindergarten, first, and second grade students, a comparison to a Poem of the Week, the benefits of poetry, and a list of poems that will make you an awesome teacher – and your kids…rock star readers!

How I Started Poem of the Day

Back in 2002, when I was a first year kindergarten teacher, I knew I wanted to teach the kids my favorite nursery rhymes.

Being a new teacher is overwhelming, because you are told what to teach and when to teach it. If you want to incorporate your own lessons, such as poetry for elementary kids, you’d have to figure it out on your own. That’s exactly what I did! I found nursery rhyme posters, put them on binder rings, and hung them on my front chalkboard. Yes, when I started teaching, there were still chalkboards. ? Each day, or every few days, I’d flip to the next poster, and teach the kids a new poem.

After my first year teaching, I quickly realized how well the kids responded to nursery rhymes and easy poems for kids. They were excited to learn a new poem, eager to participate in shared reading, and I’d hear them retelling the nursery rhymes throughout the day. I even had parents thanking me for making learning to read fun for their kids. When kids are given traditional books when learning to read, they often feel excited but quickly become frustrated and give up. There was something different about my lessons when I used poetry. I knew I needed to feed off the positive energy, and do more with poetry in the classroom. That’s when I started keeping a routine, and using poetry to teach early reading skills on a regular basis.

Poem of the Day vs. Poem of the Week

Depending on factors, such as parental support, class size, classroom behaviors, and my daily kindergarten schedule, I would alternate poem of the day to poem of the week. I love doing Poem of the Week, because it helps the younger kiddos become more familiar with the poem. Familiarity is important when learning how to read, because it builds confidence, and helps kids work through the challenging words.

Here is a look at how my schedules differed from Poem of the Week to Poem of the Day.

Poem of the Week

Monday

Introduce poem * Identify and discuss words/letters we know * Echo read (line by line)

Tuesday

Shared reading activity * Vocabulary – Introduce 1-3 new words * Incorporate hand motions and/or body motions

Wednesday

Read aloud with movements * Mini-lesson: Rhyming words, vowels, sight words, etc. * Follow up activity to reinforce mini-lesson

Thursday

Student-led read aloud with movements * Build a Poem – my favorite pocket chart poetry activity!

Friday

Students add printable poem to poetry notebook * Color and/or draw a picture (on the back) to illustrate the poem * Buddy read * Lucky Listener: Take poetry notebooks home/return on Monday

Poem of the Day

When doing a poem of the day, I would introduce a new poem every 2-3 days. The positive with doing a new poem every few days is the novelty. The kids are constantly excited for the new poem, and never get bored with the same one day after day.

Could you do a new poem every day? Yes. However, especially with the younger kids, I recommend spending a couple days on a poem. Remember. the more familiar they are with the poem, the more confident they will become as readers.

Every day or so, I would make sure to do at least 2-3 of the following activities:

shared reading
echo reading
letter/word hunts
practice concepts of print
highlight sight words
buddy read
build a poem
illustrate to surprise (they had to draw a “super good” illustration on the BACK of the poem. It had to be good enough to surprise their partner, or lucky listener. We were looking for the wow factor, not rushing to be done.)
make up movements
sing the poem
mini-lesson
cloze reading/writing

As you can see, the activities are very similar when you compare the two poetry options. It truly is just a matter of preference. If you’d rather take more time on a poem, do it!

Do the routine that works best for you!

Either way, you can keep the poems in a 3-ring binder, or folder, so the kids will have an awesome poetry notebook at the end of the year. Fridays were the fun days, because they got to take the poetry notebooks home, and read the poem(s) to a lucky listener.

Fortunately, with e-learning, or distance learning for kids, is on the rise, a poetry notebook is a easy-to-assemble reading tool for any household. Let’s now take a look at the benefits of using poetry to learn to read.

Benefits of Using Poems for Kids

First off, if you haven’t tried using poems for kids, yet, try it! I promise you will quickly see the benefits of using poetry with kids.

Along with my personal experiences and opinions, I’ve also gathered facts from google scholar to show why you, too, should start integrating poetry, today!

Silly poems make kids laugh. Laughter releases serotonin in our brains, which makes us feel better and reduce stress.
Build communication
Increases listening skills
Build vocabulary
Builds expressive and receptive language skills
The rhythm in poems helps kids be more aware of their feelings.
Poems can guide classroom management (i.e. transitional poems)
Shared readings of rhyming poems increase confidence in reading (Stange and Wyant, 2008)
Poems increase the kids desire to read more
Increases student engagement
Poetry fosters a positive learning environment
Builds understanding of and ability to hear rhymes and produce rhyming words
Encourages writing in a non-judgmental way
Encourages creative thinking

Year-round Poems for Kids

Whether you’re looking for an entire collection, seasonal poems, or ideas for poetry notebooks, here is a peek at some of my favorite poems to get kids excited to read.

I’m so excited to share with you what I’ve been working on for years. Yes, it’s true; I’ve been collecting and writing simple poems for kids for years. But, it wasn’t until recently that I worked on bundling all of the poems into one year-round Poem of the Day collection.

Back to School Poems

Color Poems

When teaching kids about colors, I wanted simple poems that incorporated the spelling of the color words, and examples of colored objects. This way, the kids can make a better connection while reading or singing color songs.

Fall Poems for Kids

Fall is my favorite season of the year. These poems about autumn cover everything from apples to a Thanksgiving handprint poem.

Christmas Poems

Winter Poems for Kids

Valentine’s Day Poems for Kids

St. Patrick’s Day Poems

Spring Poems for Kids

Mother’s Day Poems

Easter Poems for Kids

Animal Poems

Summer Poems

Printable Nursery Rhymes

End of the Year Poems and Songs

The links to these end of the year graduation poems and songs are exclusive to the Poem of the Day Bundle. You can view the poems using the links provided inside the resource.

ABC Kindergarten Graduation
Pre-K Graduation Alphabet Rap
Kindergarten Graduation Alphabet Rap
First Grade Graduation Alphabet Rap
Pre-K Graduation: We Will Rock You
Kindergarten Graduation: We Will Rock You
First Grade Graduation: We Will Rock You
End of Year Poem to Students from Teacher

Poem of the Day Bundle

Oh, my goodness, I am so excited I can barely contain myself. Seriously, while typing this, I’ve had to delete and rewrite my thoughts several times. I don’t want to sound like I’m shouting off the rooftops for you to grab your Poem of the Day collection….but GET YOUR KIDS EXCITED TO READ! Whatever that takes. Poems, books, magazines, whatever. My sweet friend, Hanna from My Literacy Space, just posted a meme that fits perfectly with this blog post. It says “A child who reads will be an adult who thinks!”

If you’re as excited as I am about using poetry to get kids wanting to read and building fluency, then grab your POEM OF THE DAY BUNDLE, today! ???

My printable poems sell for $1.99 a piece. With 115 poems included, this bundle is worth $230!

Not only will you get the 115 printable poems, you will also be getting the links to the poems being read aloud on YouTube. These are unlisted links. They cannot be seen unless read on this post, or using the links provided in your Poem of the Day Bundle.

Poetry Packet Reviews

“Simple poems that are relative to the time of year are hard to find. This is a treasure! Now I have poems that I can use throughout the year and with various activities. We will read them over and over!’

(Cynthia R)

“Poems are a great way to build fluency in the classroom!”

(Stevee T.)

“You are my go-to resource person for poems for our poetry books. The students are so excited each week to see what new poem we are going to add. Thanks for the great variety!”

(Cristina S.)

Get Your Poem of the Day Year-Round Bundle

There are two ways in which you can purchase your poems for kids. If you purchase directly from Little Learning Corner using the “buy now” button below, you can pay using PayPal or a credit/debit card over our secured system.

Or, if you already have an account on TPT, and would like to order through them, click the picture below.

Thank you so much for taking time to check out these poems of the day. I know your kiddos will love reading them; all while building fluency, language, vocabulary, and expression. Congratulations for choosing to keep learning fun!

Before you go, here are other blog posts you may be interested in:

All About Build a Poems

Daily Schedule for Poetry Notebooks

Poem of the Day

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115 Top Picks for Poem of the Day

115 Top Picks for Poem of the Day

How I Started Poem of the Day