Exploring Poetry with Young Children

Book excerpt: With the increased focus on children’s language in Early Years education, poetry can be a valuable tool in enhancing speaking, listening and communication. This book provides parents and practitioners with a guide on how and where to start with using poetry with children. Combined with practical suggestions on finding and using poems with children of differing ages and language ability, it also offers advice on how to encourage children to create and develop their own poems. Exploring Poetry with Young Children includes an anthology of a wide range of poems to use with children based on their everyday experiences, ensuring that adults can enhance the learning experience as it happens and enrich the language development of the children in their care. Divided into two parts, this book covers: the nature of poetry and why it can be such important part of our well-being; ways of using and sharing poetry with babies and toddlers; how to share poetry with children as they become confident users of language; the rhyming aspects of verse and ways in which these can be used to develop children’s phonic awareness; the importance of establishing a poetic awareness in young children. This will be an essential guide for all Early Years practitioners, students and parents who are interested in using poetry to develop the speaking, listening and communication skills of young children.