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Reading poetry aloud with your children helps them fall in love with words and gives them the tools they need to become enthusiastic readers.
By emphasizing the sound and rhythm of language, poetry builds children’s phonemic awareness, or sensitivity to the smallest sounds of speech, laying a foundation for reading and acquiring new vocabulary words and concepts.
A poem can be a fun, short, tasty morsel to share with children. Introducing very young children to poetry exposes them to the sounds and rhythms of language, piquing interest in words and learning to read. For older children, poetry is a great vehicle for learning how complex thoughts, humorous ideas, deep emotions, or entire narratives can be expressed with a few carefully chosen words.
Poetry is also part of cultural identity and one’s shared culture—just try to count how many times you’ve heard references to “Humpty Dumpty” or “Jabberwocky.”
