Readers in Action

For Educators

Tips for Classroom Reading
Tips for Books of Excellence
Tips for Developing Poetry Experiences

For younger children

• Play with the sounds of words and rhymes (baa, ma, pa, ha)
• Use puppets to act out the rhymes
• Have children fill in the missing word: “Wee, Willie, _____”
• Have children draw their own pictures based on selected poems
• Make a list of the words that rhyme in each poem
• Create a homebase poem with the group
• Provide tape recordings of poetry readings in the listening center
• Provide rhyming word cards in the writing center
• Invite parents to be guest poetry readers

For older children

• Have children recite poems
• Have children create their own poems
• Create a classroom poem with all children contributing
• Have children bring in song lyrics to compare to poetry
• Develop a project to introduce the different forms of poetry (e.g., haikus or limericks)
• Tape-record children reading their poems
• Compare different poets
• Make a book of favorite poems
• Have a poetry contest