Poetry is one of my FAVORITE tools to use in first grade because there are so many literacy skills that you can hit with a simple poem! A short, engaging poem can become repeated reading practice, a fluency activity, phonics and high frequency word practice, vocabulary work, partner reading, and even an independent literacy station.
I especially love that poems are short and approachable for beginning readers. Students can read the same poem several times without it feeling like a huge task, and each time we revisit it, we can focus on something different.
🎯 Here are six ways I use poetry in my first grade classroom!
1. Shared and Repeated Reading
One of the simplest ways I use poetry is for repeated reading. I do a “Poem of the Week” in my classroom, so students work with a poem each week. Read more about my Poem of the Week routine HERE! When we begin a new poem, I usually read it aloud first while students listen and follow along. Then, we read it together as a class.
Throughout the week, we focus on different literacy activities with the poem. Because students become familiar with the words and rhythm, they are able to read with more confidence each time.
Repeated reading is especially helpful for beginning readers because they aren’t starting from scratch every time they pick up the text. They already know what to expect and can focus more of their attention on reading smoothly and accurately.
When I taught Kindergarten, we read an alphabet poem every day and kids had their journal to practice the familiar poems. Color word poems are also perfect for Kindergarten or the beginning of 1st grade because they are full of high frequency words that kids need to know!
2. Fluency Practice
Poetry is perfect for practicing reading fluency! Poems naturally lend themselves to reading with rhythm, expression, and phrasing.
With my poem of the week routine, we do “Fluency Fun” on Thursdays and it is a class favorite. We might pay extra attention to punctuation, emphasize certain words, change our voices for each line, and more! Because the text is short and familiar, students can concentrate on how they are reading instead of putting all of their energy into figuring out the words. If you’re looking for more ways to build fluency, I shared some of my favorite first grade fluency activities here.
3. Phonics and High Frequency Word Practice
A familiar poem can also become a quick and easy way to practice phonics skills and high frequency words.
We might search the poem for words with a phonics pattern we are learning, circle or highlight high frequency words, look for rhyming words, find words with a certain vowel sound, or notice familiar word parts.
I love doing this with a poem students have already read because they get to see the phonics skills we’re learning inside real, meaningful text. If you would like to see phonics activities, I shared five fun and easy phonics activities here.
4. Vocabulary
Poetry gives us lots of opportunities to talk about new vocabulary without needing a separate vocabulary lesson.
If we come across an unfamiliar or interesting word, we stop and talk about what it means. We can use the other words in the poem, the illustrations, or our own background knowledge to help us figure it out.
Sometimes we discuss other words that could have been used instead (great for synonym practice) or act out a word to help students understand its meaning.
These quick conversations help students build vocabulary while also teaching them to pay attention to the meaning of what they’re reading.
5. Partner Reading
Once students know a poem well, it becomes a great text for partner reading.
Partners can take turns reading the entire poem, alternate lines, or even read it together. Because we’ve already practiced the poem as a class, students are usually much more confident reading it with a friend. I love to hear students discussing the vocabulary we’ve learned or doing some fun fluency activities that they’ve learned from our poem of the week routine.
6. Poetry Station
Our Poetry Station is part of our literacy stations routine and always a hit with kids. They get to use our big poem charts independently or with a partner. Adding fun pointers ups the excitement!
By the time a poem makes its way into our poetry station, students are already familiar with it. That makes it a great independent activity because they aren’t being asked to tackle a completely new text on their own.
Students can reread familiar poems, practice reading fluently, look for words and phonics patterns they recognize, and enjoy favorite poems again. I’ve often written on the poems with dry erase marker as we worked on them, so they will still have that information to work with, as well.
I love that our poetry station gives students meaningful independent reading practice while reinforcing skills we’ve already worked on together.
Poetry gives beginning readers a short, manageable text they can become successful with…Best of all, my students enjoy it! 😍
Happy Teaching!
Jennifer ~ Practical Primary Teacher 🍎🍏
🍎 More 1st Grade Classroom Tips You May Enjoy…
Easy Poem of the Week Routine for Primary Classrooms
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