Poetry

Booktrust promotes poetry in many ways, particularly aiming to help children and young people to enjoy it and teachers to be confident teaching it. We review poetry books for adults and children, have a list of useful poerty links and a couple of writing tips.

Whilst many picture books are poems rather than prose and children love nursery rhymes and songs, their enthusiasm for poetry tends to drop off by the time they reach secondary school – a situation reflected in recent Ofsted reports. Booktrust aims to help address this issue.

Michael Rosen, while Children’s Laureate from 2007–09, produced the Poetry Friendly Classroom. He said:

Teachers sometimes ask me, ‘‘what's the best way to get children writing poems?" One of the first things I suggest is to create a poetry-friendly classroom. It’s about making a classroom a place where poems are welcome. It’s about pleasure, stimulation, feeling, curiosity, wonder and fun and children finding their own voice.

The Poetry Friendly Classroom resources include videos of Michael giving tips for teachers. It also includes tips and resources from poets who are experienced at working in schools, a book list and information on working with poets in schools.

Michael also developed the Perform a Poem website with Booktrust and the London Grid for Learning. This is an e-safe site for children in London Schools to upload performances of their own poems or of them reading poems they like. Anyone can access the site and watch the videos but only schools in London can upload videos. There are some inspiring and entertaining performances from primary school children across London and extra resources for teachers including tips from Michael on how to get children writing.

Booktrust is involved in the Poetry and Young People Project, an initiative that aims to engage more young people in poetry reading, writing and performance and attract new audiences to the art form.

Our bookgifting websites include poetry games.

On the Booktime site you can play a Rhyming Game. Booktime is the national free books programme for reception-aged children. All you have to do in the Rhyming Game is find the rhyme to complete lines from well-known poems and nursery rhymes. At the Booktime site, you’ll also find ten poems selected from The Booktime Book of Fantastic Poems - with audio, animations and games that really bring them to life.

Did you know that babies and children who have the pleasure of hearing stories and rhymes get a flying start when it comes to learning to read by themselves?

There's also loads of rhyming fun that you can have with your child on the Bookstart website. Have fun with Bookstart's interactive rhyming activities!

The Boy on the Bus music and song activity.

Have fun with your child as you join in with the song. Remember to listen out for the noises of all the animals!

Play The Boy on the Bus activity

Fun with Rhymes

Listen or readalong to some of your favourite rhymes, including 'Humpty Dumpty' and 'This Little Piggy'.

Play the Fun With Rhymes game

And if you love these, there are more fun rhyming games you can play by joining the free online Bookstart Bear Club. Head along to a Rhymetimes event at your local library to join in the fun.

Booked Up, which provides a choice of books for children when they arrive at secondary school, always includes a poetry book in the selection. This year it is Pumpkin Grumpkin by John Agard, published by Walker Books, an amusing and bemusing selection of poetry from around the globe brought to life with quirky illustrations by Satoshi Kitamura, including classics such as 'The Jabberwocky' and contemporary nonsense poems like 'The Computer’s First Proverb'.

Last year Booktrust produced a leaflet Learning About Children’s Books and Poetry, illustrated by David Lucas, which has been very popular. Whilst written for trainee teachers, the information, tips and booklists are also helpful to parents and carers.

Here on the Booktrust site you can find reviews of adult and children’s poetry books, booklists and teaching sequences linked to some of our favourite poetry books. These include Michael Rosen’s wonderful A-Z of Poetry, also produced while he was Children’s Laureate.