Name poems are a wonderful introduction to poetry for kids! Seven-year-old Emma has always liked poetry. She saw name poems and started writing a few of her own. Like many children, sweets, sugar, and candy all rank highly in her life!
Name poems are one of the simplest forms of poetry to try, because the only “rule” is that each line start with a letter of the name.
Do your kids like poetry? Do you have any favorite poetry activities for kids?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
This is very creative. Anna writes acrostics sometimes, but she prefers prose for now. Did Emma write these notes – her writing skills are quite impressive for 7!
Yes, Emma wrote them. Soon her handwriting will be better than mine!
This is a great idea! A lot of the craft of poetry is coming up with solutions that fit within a structure. This is a great introduction to that, and very personal! I can imagine illustrations, home-made books, and framed poems.
Very cute! How’d Johnny like his poem? Did Emma do one for herself? We’re still working on basic spelling with J. I think we might try to find just adjectives that start with each letter of his name.
He thought it was pretty neat. Emma hasn’t done one for herself – I think I should do one for her. She is working on writing one for every member of her class, and that is going to take her a while!
I love your simplified idea of adjectives that start with each letter of J’s name!
What a great idea! Love it!
Hey, my daughter has been writing these this week! She called them acrostic. She has been writing them with animal names. These would make great Valentines!
I think that is the technical term for any poem where the lines spell out words. It’s such a fun way to get started with poetry!
Your kids are as sweet as sugar candy too! Love the name poems by Emma!
Neat! I wrote name poems growing up but didn’t have a name for them until now! :)
I think they can also be called acrostic poems, but that just refers to poems that spell any word, not names :)
What a great idea this is! I am going to try it with my kids. They both like poetry and I think they will enjoy doing this. I hope you’ll consider sharing this on HammockTracks. I host a month long link up called, Look What We Did. -Savannah http://hammocktracks.com/buttons/
I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of poetry, so I haven’t really introduced it to my kids much yet.
Emma has always loved poetry. And I quite like it – my dad writes poems, and so does one of my sisters.
Those poems are super sweet! My 5 year old has started composing poems too, lately. They don’t rhyme but they are full of imagery and all seem to involve floating or clouds in some way. Since he’s new to the whole spelling thing, they also involve a certain amount of translation. I’m loving it!
So cute! Kid poetry is the best.
How great to be called sweet like sugar candy!
Those poems are actually pretty darn good. The repeating words/ideas are sophisticated. Emma and I will have talk poetry!
She would love that. She has always had a thing for poems.
I forgot about name poems – what a wonderful way to start writing poems. My girls love to be read poems and I’m going to remember this for when they are a bit older.
It’s such an easy way to get started writing poetry!
Love this – plus April is National Poetry Month!
Ooh I didn’t know that! Perfect!