10 Easy Ways to Teach Poetry in Your Homeschool

Published:
January 24, 2025

Sarah Shelton

Contributor:
Sarah Shelton

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Using poetry in your homeschool can be a fun way to spark creativity and help your kids develop a love of poetry. It’s not just about rhymes and rhythms, it’s about enjoying beautiful words and learning how they can create pictures in our minds or stir emotions.

poetry in your homeschool with mom and 2 kids reading at table

How to Teach Poetry in Your Homeschool in 10 Simple Ways

Adding poetry to your homeschool day is a simple way to make language arts studies more engaging and meaningful.

You don’t need to be a poetry expert to teach it! Reading poems aloud, exploring how they sound, and even trying to write a few together are great ways to build an appreciation of poetry. With a little creativity, your lesson plans can turn poetry into an exciting part of your homeschool routine, sparking curiosity and fun along the way.

1. Start With Reading Aloud

  • Read poems together to expose your children to the rhythm, rhyme, and beauty of language.
  • Choose age-appropriate poetry from classic poets or a contemporary collection of poems.
  • Reading a poem at the beginning of the day or adding it to your morning time, is a great way to incorporate poetry into your homeschool day.
  • Discuss what they liked or felt after hearing the poem.
  • Ask simple questions like: “What do you think this poem is about?” “How does it make you feel?”

2. Memorize Short Poems

Have your poem selections be fun poems or nursery rhymes for younger children. Practice reciting them together. Poetry readings out loud will help with memory and public speaking skills. You can choose to memorize an entire poem, or just a portion of one.

3. Poetry Tea Time

Poetry tea time is a special time to gather to enjoy tea (or any favorite beverage) and snacks while reading and appreciating poetry together. It’s a way to make poetry fun, approachable, and a shared family experience.

How to create a poetry tea time:

  • Set up a cozy atmosphere with snacks and tea, apple cider, or hot chocolate.
  • Use a nice tablecloth, candles, flowers, or even fancy teacups to make the event feel special. The setting helps make poetry time stand out from regular lessons.
  • Gather a variety of poetry books. These can range from classic poets like Robert Frost, Robert Louis Stevenson and Emily Dickinson, to playful children’s poets like Shel Silverstein or Jack Prelutsky.
  • Children can take turns reading aloud or simply listening to the poem being read to them.

4. Write a Poem

Writing a poem is a fun introduction to poetry. Decide what you want to write about. It could be something meaningful to you like : love, nature, friendship or something playful like a rainy day, or a favorite animal.

Start with easy poems such as:

  • Acrostics: Write a word vertically and create a line for each letter.
  • Rhyming Couplets: Write two lines that rhyme.
  • Haikus: Focus on syllables (5-7-5).

5. Read Poems That Children Can Understand

Reading poems that children can understand is a great way to spark their love for language and creativity. Simple poems with fun words and familiar ideas make it easy for children to connect and enjoy. Rhymes and rhythms grab their attention, while themes like nature, play, and imagination keep them curious.

  • Books like A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson share everyday moments kids relate to, like playing outside or watching the rain.
  • Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends adds humor and silliness, making poetry feel like a fun adventure.
  • Collections like Favorite Poems of Childhood offer timeless classics that are perfect for introducing kids to the magic of poetry. When kids understand and enjoy poems, they start to see how beautiful and playful words can be!

6. Incorporate Poetry that Relates to Other Homeschool Subjects

Poetry naturally weaves itself into any Language Arts curriculum, but it is very easy to incorporate it into other homeschool subjects as well. 

Handwriting and Copywork

Poetry selections make for a great opportunity for your children to practice their handwriting through the use of copywork. As your children are copying the poem they will hone in on their handwriting skills and learn grammar and proper letter formation.

Homeschool Giveaways has a great selection of free poetry copywork packs including: Christmas Bells by Hendry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Foolish Fir-Tree by Henry Van Dyke and Stanzas of Freedom by James Russell Lowell. Be sure to use the links below to get your free copies today!

Music Appreciation

Poetry can be brought into any type of music study. Pick a popular or favorite song and have your students analyze the song lyrics. This is a wonderful way to get older children to get excited about poetry.

Many colleges have created their own English and Humanities courses that analyze the lyrics in Taylor Swifts music. Whether you like her or not, she is quite the poetic genius!

History 

There are so many poems that have been written about historical events. An example is Paul Revere’s ride as told by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.

Are you learning about the life and death of Abraham Lincoln? Try having your high schoolers memorize “O Captain! My Captain!” which is about the death of Abraham Lincoln written by the famous poet Walt Whitman.

7. Learn about Famous Poets

A great start to teaching poetry is by learning about well-known poets by doing a poet unit study. Choose a poem and read about their life, then pick a selection of their works to study over a set period of time.

We’ve designed our poetry unit study bundle to learn one poem a week from one author for 9 Weeks. Learn about 3 poets and 9 of their poems for 27 weeks!

Product Image

27 Week Poetry Unit Study Bundle

Are you looking to add a poetry unit with multiple authors into your lessons? Then bundle & save with our 3-pack poetry unit covering Potter, Tennyson & Dickinson.

8. Create a Poetry Basket

Having a poetry basket laying around is a great way to immerse your children in poetry. Fill a basket with great collections of books of poetry. Let your children explore and pick poems to read, connect with the items, and inspire discussion or writing.

Here are some of our favorite poetry books for a poetry basket:

9. Play with Poetry Games

  • Magnetic Poetry: Use magnetic poetry kits or create your own word tiles.
  • Fill in the Blank: Leave key words out of poems and let your kids add their own ideas.
  • Poetry Mad Libs: Do your kids like the Mad Libs word games? You can create your own with poems. Have your children replace words in a famous poem with silly substitutes in a Mad Lib style.
  • Common Words That Rhyme With You Printable Games – Many songs and poems are directed at a person, so they may usually end with the word “you”. If your children are wanting to try writing poetry, song lyrics or a jingle, they may want some help looking for a list of words that rhyme with “you”. 

10. Use Our Favorite Poetry Resources

Teaching poetry doesn’t have to be hard, and thankfully there are a bunch of resources available to help you out on your journey.

Here are some of our favorites websites:

Final Thoughts

As we said at the beginning, you don’t have to be a poetry expert to teach it. Take the time to add nursery rhymes, song lyrics or different authors’ poems into your homeschool lessons. We’re sure you’ll find poetry that you and your kids enjoy!

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