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Children’s Poetry Activities

Looking for ways to have fun with poetry besides just reading it? Here are poetic activities that you can use at home or in the classroom to celebrate holidays, have parties, make crafts, and more.

Holidays

Classroom Activities and Parties

Arts and Crafts

Worksheets

Other Activities

Celebrate Martin Luther King Day with Poetry

Poetry Activities for Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an incredible orator, harnessing the power of words rather than weapons as he lead this country on its road to civil liberty.  In fact, many of his speeches have the power of poetry, using some of the same conventions writers use when composing poems: alliteration, personification, simile, repetition, metaphor, and even rhyme.  So, what better way to celebrate Martin Luther King Day than with words?

Here are some examples of poetry based activities you can do to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. on the third Monday of each January…  or any time you feel so inspired!

Bouncing Brianna

Each morning Brianna goes bouncing to class.
She bounds on the playground and springs in the grass.
Her gallop is more of a jump than a jog.
She leaps like a rabbit. She hops like a frog.

Her teachers dislike it, except at P.E.
when Bouncing Brianna can spring like a flea.
She’s always the best at gymnastics, it’s true;
the pole vault, the high jump, and trampoline too.

It’s crazy to watch her on basketball courts,
and yet there’s a reason she’s awesome at sports.
We know why she hurdles and bounces off walls:
For breakfast she always eats hard rubber balls.

A Fish in a Spaceship

A Fish in a Spaceship

A fish in a spaceship is flying through school.
A dinosaur’s dancing on top of a stool.
The library’s loaded with orange baboons,
in purple tuxedos with bows and balloons.

The pigs on the playground are having a race
while pencils parade in their linens and lace.
As camels do cartwheels and elephants fly,
bananas are baking a broccoli pie.

A hundred gorillas are painting the walls,
while robots on rockets careen through the halls.
Tomatoes are teaching in all of the classes.
Or maybe, just maybe, I need some new glasses.

Don’t Bring Camels in the Classroom

Don't Bring Camels in the Classroom by Kenn Nesbitt

Don’t bring camels in the classroom.
Don’t bring scorpions to school.
Don’t bring rhinos, rats, or reindeer.
Don’t bring mice or moose or mule.

Pull your penguin off the playground.
Put your python in a tree.
Place your platypus wherever
you think platypi should be.

Lose your leopard and your lemur.
Leave your llama and your leech.
Take your tiger, toad and toucan
anywhere but where they teach.

Send your wombat and your weasel
with your wasp and wolverine.
Hide your hedgehog and hyena
where you’re sure they won’t be seen.

Please get rid of your gorilla.
Please kick out your kangaroo.
No the teacher didn’t mean it
when she called the class a “zoo”.