How to Add Poetry to your Library in 10 minutes or less

Let’s celebrate National Poetry Month, but let’s make it quick and easy for busy school librarians like you!

Read a poem

This one’s a no-brainer, right? Read a poem on your morning announcements. Read a poem before each lesson. Read a poem, show students the book cover, and watch them check it out and read it on their own! Have a stack ready to go at the start of each day, so you have more poetry books to read from as students check them out. Please Bury Me in the Library, by J. Patrick Lewis, is one of my favorites because all of the poems relate to books and reading.

Butcher Paper Poetry Center

Stretch a length of butcher paper across a library table. Write a prompt on it with a marker. “Write a poem about an animal.” Add related poetry books and markers for your students. Stand back and watch the students’ creativity take over. Some students will just copy a poem from a book. Some students will write their own poem. Both are excellent learning activities, made even more fun because students get to use colorful (washable) markers.

Whisper Phone poetry center

Put whisper phones and poetry books on a table, with my free Whisper Read to Self Center sign. Watch students smile as they whisper poems to themselves. If you don’t have enough poetry books, use the Epic app (free during the school day). They’ve got plenty of poetry books there, including read-alongs where students can see the words and hear the narration at the same time.

Poetry Bulletin Boards

Write favorite poems on butcher paper, laminate them, and display them (year after year). I print mine in a large font and glue the words on to butcher paper. It doesn’t take much time to get poems in front of student (and teacher) eyes and once it’s done, you can reuse them each April. I like to place butcher paper poems in the hall outside the library, too, so that students and teachers can read and enjoy more poetry on their hallway travels.

Poetry Creation Station

@SEJHLibrary shared this idea and picture on Twitter. Let students cut words out of magazines and put them in a basket. Then they can choose words and glue them to printer paper to create their own poems! (Keep the trash can nearby for scraps!)

Roll the Dice, Write a Poem!

Rachel Lynette created this free printable poetry activity: Write a Poem by Rolling Dice. Students roll dice, then write that number of syllables on the line. It’s a fun way to help jump start their poetry writing! And we all know that dice make any learning activity more fun, right?

Display your Poetry Books

How easy is this? Take those poetry books off of your bookshelves and display them! Get those gorgeous covers out there where everyone can see them–on your checkout desk, on top of book shelves, in windows. I’ve even put food poetry books on top of the serving line in the school cafeteria (after asking our friendly cafeteria manager for permission first)!!

Set the Poetry Books Free

Some librarians allow each student an extra checkout in April if the extra book is a poetry book. After all, what good are they doing, sitting on the shelves? Students get excited about the privilege of checking out an extra book, and this happiness will spill over into their enjoyment of poetry!

Check Out Poetry Books to Your Teachers

Help your teachers to expand their poetry horizons beyond Shel Silverstein. When they ask for books about changes to the earth’s surface, add Volcano Wakes Up by Lisa Westberg Peters and illustrated by Steve Jenkins.

When they are studying inventors, add a copy of Incredible Inventions, poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, to the stack of resources. Whenever teachers ask for books on a topic they are studying, see if you can add a poetry connection to their studies.

Poetry Listening Center

Poetry books, CDs, headphones, and a CD player–if you’ve got those, you can set up a poetry listening center. Students can listen to poetry after they’ve checked out their books. When you hear the poet read his or her own work, it really adds depth to the listening experience!

Additional Resources

• Poetry Writing Template Lift the Flap Library Lessons
• Poetry Writing Simile Poems Quick as a Cricket
• Poetry Tasting Library Centers

Photo credit for flying books:Nathan O’Nions Bookworm via photopin (license)

Happy poetry reading!