4 activities to spark your child’s interest in poetry

Poetry is full of rhythm, imagery, and sounds. It can be quite moving—or, on the contrary, baffling. Some claim that learning to enjoy poetry is like choosing shoes: the trick is to find the style that suits you best. But how do you go about doing this with your child? One way is to head to the library and have your child select a few books of poetry at random. Ask them to read a few excerpts without worrying about making sense of the poems, just to see what catches their attention:

• Do they like the rhythm of the passages?
• What about the sounds and rhymes they contain?
• Do any lines make them think of pretty images? 

Once your child has settled on a book, encourage them to read it from beginning to end. They should try to simply enjoy the flow of the words without thinking too much about their meaning.

Poetry can be read privately, of course, in one’s head. But your child can also see how it feels to sing or read lines of poetry out loud. Suggest that they play with the following aspects:

• Emotion
• Pauses
• Intonation
• Etc.

When poems are read aloud by their authors or talented performers, something magical happens. Whether understated or punchy, poetry can arouse all sorts of thoughts and feelings. Today, thanks to the Internet, you can listen to selected poems whenever you like by looking them up online. There are even websites such as Voix d’ici, an audio library of French-language Quebec poetry. Try planning family listening sessions complete with popcorn, hot chocolate, and other comforting snacks! Afterward, discuss the poems with your child and ask them questions:

• What rhyme did you like the most?
• What do you think this poem was about?
• Was there a stanza (equivalent to a paragraph in poetry) that you particularly liked?
• What emotions did you feel?
• Etc.

Like music by our favourite bands, poetry has the power to transport us to imaginary worlds and alternate universes. Invite your child to draw how they felt after reading a poem, much in the way they might try to sketch their dreams upon waking. You can offer the following suggestions:

• Use colours that match the emotions you felt
• Include a word that summarizes the poem
• Draw the season the poem evokes
• Etc.