Does anyone have any favorite books of poetry for young children (7 and under)? We’ve done “A Child’s Garden of Verse” and “Now We Are Six” and “Poems Children will Sit still for.”
I’m planning on going back to “A Child’s Garden of Verse” and picking some favorites to ‘play’ with a bit – memorizing, reciting, etc., because at first we were just getting into the habit, so we just read a poem or two every few days, straight through the books. I’d love some suggestions for what to do after that, though. I’ve been looking in the bookfinder, but it’s hard to know where to start.
We’ve enjoyed the Poetry for Young People series. Some of the titles have abridged poems, but others do not. We enjoy them greatly. We also like to purchase the inexpensive Dover Thrift Editions of poetry by particular poets. These are not abridged and have lots and lots to choose from. We enjoyed Emily Dickinson, Walter de la Mere, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg to name a few.
We include poetry in our fine arts class at co-op. We also read poems several times a week, just choosing one to enjoy. Next year we’re going to add poetry tea time one day per week ala Bravewriter style. I think it will be a fun addition.
We simply read the poems aloud and enjoy them and my kids pick one to memorize per term.