It's National Poetry Month!

There are countless ways to celebrate National Poetry Month with your child during the month of April. Here are a few ideas.

For young children or children who have never written poetry before, you may want to begin by exposing them to the world of poetry. I would suggest starting with rhyming books like Mother Goose or Dr. Seuss. Did that rhyme?

Some of my favorite Dr. Seuss stories are Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat and the Hat, and Oh, The Places You'll Go, but there are plenty more to choose from. Help your child identify the rhyming words in the books you read together. This will help prepare children to write their own rhyming poetry one day.

For children in upper elementary or middle school, you may want to start with writers like Jack Prelutsky or Shel Silverstein, two well-known authors of children's poetry. Jack Pelutsky has written books like The New Kid on the Block, It's Raining Pigs & Noodles, and A Pizza the Size of the Sun, all of which I keep in my own classroom library.

Shel Silverstein has written favorites like A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Runny Babbit, Falling Up, and The Giving Tree. He also has a website you can visit for additional resources to use with your child.

You can also encourage your children to express themselves creatively through poetry. There are many forms of poetry, some more difficult than others for children to write. I would suggest starting with a couplet or an acrostic poem.

A couplet is simply two lines of rhyming poetry. An acrostic poem, sometimes called a name poem, uses the letters in a topic word to begin each line. Each line of the poem relates to or describes the topic. For an example of an acrostic poem, visit www.gigglepoetry.com and click on Poetry Class.

Looking for a few more poetry web sites to check out with your child? Here are a few great sites to visit. Please feel free to share any additional sites you come across.

1. www.poets.org

2. www.readwritethink.org

3. rhyme.poetry.com

4. ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/newpoem.htm

5. teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/index.htm

6. www.rif.org/kids/readingplanet/gamestation/poetrysplatter.htm

7. www.poetry4kids.com