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Rhyme Time: National Poetry Month Activities for Students
Christy Walters
March 1, 2025
‘Twas the first day of April when all through the halls, teachers read rhymes that bounced off the walls. They introduced their students to National Poetry Month activities and cheered at how easy it was to plan the festivities.
The students were eager, sitting up at their desks while teachers shared curated articles, videos, and text sets. The lessons were perfect, and the students engaged. Your class can be, too. Just try it today!
Did your students know singer Taylor Swift and poet Emily Dickinson are actually distant cousins? Is it a coincidence that they both became famous for sharing their thoughts and feelings through rhymes? Students can decide for themselves by exploring these resources:
First, share an article about how Ancestry.com proved that Swift and Dickinson were distantly related.
Next, have students watch an interactive video on nature vs. nurture to understand the difference between inherited traits and environmental influences.
Have students answer the compelling question, “To what extent are successful writers born or made.” Students may answer this question through a writing activity, debate, or another creative presentation.
Discover how poets bring change through their writing
Many poets use writing as a way to share their thoughts and feelings on the change they wish to see in the world. Dive into their causes and viewpoints by exploring the following topics:
See how South Korean poet Moo-Dae has shared his public poetry on Korean streets and subways for over 30 years.
Explore how Texas poet Robert Blanco combined city murals and poetry to speak up about racial injustice in his state in 2019.
Discover a neverending poemembedded into the cobblestones of streets and sidewalks in Oudegracht, Utrecht, Netherlands.
See how authors explore their identities through poetry
Students can learn a lot about poets from their biographies, but also from reading the works they write. Use these resources to examine the concept of identity through poetry:
Watch interactive videos to learn more about the lives of poets like Maya Angelou and Emily Dickinson.
Discover how musicians can also be poets by reading about Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize in literature.
Read about former National Youth Poet Laureate finalists and what their experiences and identities contribute to the field of poetry.
[Read fun, engaging, and insightful poems](id-poems)
Use the month of April as a chance to help students dive deeper into the intricacies of rhyme:
Not all poems have to be short, four-line rhyming stanzas! Introduce students to narrative poetry and novels in verse with these novel study selections:
Let students listen to poems rather than read them. Try selections like:
“Surplus” by Phil Kaye
“The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
“Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
[Learn how to write poems](id-write)
What makes poetry such a unique writing style? Students can discover how poets create their works and learn how to write some themselves.
Discover how poets play with language
Poetry can be one of the most playful types of writing. Teach your students more about the different types of wordplay and forms poems can take:
Explore how poets play with language through mood and tone, shape poems, and similes and metaphors in song lyrics.
Discover the different forms poetry can take through well-known works like William Shakespeare’s sonnets or “The Great Colossus” narrative poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.
Give examples of silly, wild wordplay with funny poems like Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky.”
Try writing a haiku
Assign a haiku project to encourage students to practice different types of creative writing:
Share an article about the history of the haiku and its significance to Japanese culture.
Use the resources included to teach students how to write a haiku poem and follow the 3-5-7 syllable rules.
Provide sample themes to spark students’ interest as they write. Common haiku topics include friendship, loss, challenges, love, and courage.
Develop a found poem
Poetry can exist in the everyday language that surrounds us through something called found poetry. Show students how to discover and organize this type of poem with the following lesson:
Introduce the concept of “found poetry,” which encourages people to look for poems in everyday writing, like recipes and receipts.
Share examples of different types of found poetry, like newspaper blackout or erasure poems.
Ask students to create their own found poem digitally by copying and pasting a text into a new document. They can also create a found poem offline using a newspaper or magazine article, or the pages of an old, no-longer-usable book.
Read about poet Bob Raczka and the process he uses to create children’s poetry.
Explore the how-to article on how to write a shape poem.
Ask students to pick a concrete object to write about, like a pet or a favorite toy. Then, ask them to write and sketch a shape poem on the topic.
Assign a poetry research project
Students don’t have to write poems to get more writing practice. You can assign a poetry research project to help them build non-creative writing skills. Choose from research topics like:
Poems often cover themes of self-reflection, identity, feelings, and change. Have students deep dive into the themes that appear in poetry with activities like:
Discover the impact of poetry
Many poets use this craft to express their thoughts and feelings during challenges. Teach students about the impact poetry has on people and society as a whole by:
Watching poet Cleo Wade’s TED Talk to see how bravery, expressed through poetry, can change the world.
Seeing how poet Naomi Shihab Nye has used her passion for environmental activism to create art.
Discovering young people like Alyssa Gaines and Amanda Gorman, who are changing the world with their words as National Youth Poet Laureates.
Learn more about how poet and teacher Naomi Shihab Nye inspires young people to explore nature and the everyday world around them through poetry.
[Discover the historical context and significance of poetry](id-ss)
Poetry has always been a popular creative outlet. But it’s been more prevalent in some eras and with some cultures and subcultures than others. Get into your Tortured Poets era with the following lessons on historical periods:
The Harlem Renaissance
In the 1920s, the Harlem neighborhood of New York City was buzzing with great artists, musicians, writers, and poets. Build background knowledge about the rise of poetry, especially Black poetry, during this era with articles on topics like:
How the end of World War I led to an artistic boom during the Harlem Renaissance.
Discovering how the Harlem Renaissance developed the community atmosphere necessary to create and produce such a large body of artistic work.
Learn more about jazz pioneers like trumpeter Louis Armstrong and how the rhythm of jazz music wove its way into the poetry of this era.
The 1920s
The Harlem Renaissance boasted many different types of creatives, but writers and poets were a special group of their own. Explore more about the literary works of these and other 1920s writers with resources like:
A biography about writer and poet Zora Neale Hurston and her role as a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
An interactive video about poet Langston Hughes’ contributions to art and literature.
An article that explores how the opening of the National Museum of African American History in 2016 brought Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too, Am America” back into the spotlight.
There’s more poetry to explore…
You don’t have to save all your poetry lessons for April. With Newsela ELA, you can explore these and other great resources any time during the school year.
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