Listen, My Children: Poems for First Graders

Poetry is a unique genre in that it allows the poet to defy the rules of conventional writing. Listen My Children is a book that contains poems geared specifically towards first graders although anyone may enjoy them.  

Table Manners by Gelett Burgess is one that employs a rhyming technique evidenced in every other line. It is a method that is catchy and amusing particularly when read aloud. Beyond that it is a teaching poem in that it is warning young readers not to be a Goop for they have poor table manners. It also ends with a question that encourages self-reflection on one’s own manners.

Thanksgiving Day by Lydia Maria Child is another poem in this piece that contains a particular literary technique. In this selection the author employs the use of repetition. For example, the phrase, over the river and through the wood is repeated in the first line of each stanza. 

Descriptive language is another great approach used in children’s poetry that allows readers to create mental pictures or draw on experiences by way of words that appeal to the senses. The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear provides great models of this technique. In the line a beautiful pea-green boat for example, readers are able to imagine a craft with a precise color.

There are endless benefits that result from reading poetry to children, although some of them may not be visible. For example, poetry allows students to depict aspects of their lives using gimmicks giving purpose to their writings. Exposure to poetry also encourages speaking and listening skills, which are two of the four language domains that are often neglected in language arts. Finally, because of the less stringent writing formality, poetry is a genre more accessible to English language learners. Ultimately, poetry exposure enhances student success.

Reader Response Questions

1. How did that poem make you feel?

2. Did you hear any rhyming words?

3. What descriptive words did you hear that help you imagine a picture in your mind?

Motivational Activities

1. The teacher can review several writing crafts and types of poems and the children can choose a model and create their own.

*Writing crafts: alliteration/simile/hyperbole/onomatopoeia/ repetition.

*Poem types: color poem/wish poem/acrostic/cinquain/haiku/ diamante/alphabet poem

Sample haiku poem:

Flowers bloom again

In many vibrant colors.

Spring is in the air. 

2. The teacher can create a special pulpit or chair and conduct a poetry reading with students volunteering to read their work.

Listen, my children: poems for first graders.. (2001). Charlotesville, VA.: Core Knowldge Foundation.