Teaching Space

Teach the world's best poetry

Poetry is best enjoyed and taught by hearing it out loud and now that so many children are learning from home, we’ve brought together some resources to help you inspire your class about the importance of poetry and the fun to be had in exploring it.

We gathered resources here to help you teach poetry. There are activities for all key stages, built around Poetry Archive recordings and offering lively, engaging ways of working with poetry.

We've also included links to some of our favourite organisations who also provide support for teaching poetry so you should find resources to answer all your questions.

Glossary

Limerick

A poem of five lines and a very recognisable rhythm. Many limericks begin ‘There was a … and many are nonsense rhymes.

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Getting started with the poetry archive teaching space

The Children's Poetry Archive can be a fantastic place to support teaching poetry. To inspire you, we've put together a few resources with suggestions that can be used with any poem in the website.

Listen

The more we listen to poetry, the more we become tuned in to the way meaning is conveyed through sound.

Try these activities centered around listening.
Learn

Learning a poem helps us to better appreciate and understand it and gives us a feel for its rhythms.

Here are some ideas of how to get children excited in learning poetry.
Write

Most people find writing poetry enhances their  knowledge of how it works.

These exercises and activities are focused on writing.
Perform

Performing a poem is one of the most effective ways to explore its music and its meaning.

This resource has activities all around performing.
The poetry-friendly school

A poetry-rich school environment is the best way for children to develop their knowledge and appreciation.

Here are some tips on how to bring more poetry into your school.
Mission

This fun guided activity by Laura Mucha walks you through her step by step journey to writing a poem. 

Follow along and write your own poem.

Looking for more teaching materials?

We have more teaching resources for you to explore, including Classroom Materials that offer lively plans and activities and engaging ways of working with a particular poem and Classroom Collections, our curated collections that provide new and exciting ways to explore poetry.

Latest resources
Resource
Children’s Poetry Archive Challenge 11

Our world if full of fantastic animals, insects, birds and fish who keep us company, make us smile and behave in strange ways at time. ...

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Activity
Easter Children’s Challenge

Easter Egg hunts are great fun. This Easter Children’s Challenge is all about hunting for the answers in poems. See how many you can ...

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Activity
Children’s Challenge: Christmas Special

This challenge takes our younger poetry fans deep into the winter season, an ideal challenge for the Christmas holiday. And they can ...

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Resource
Children’s Challenge: Spooky Special

This challenge takes you on a tour of strange things and happenings. To find the answers, all you have to do is search through our ...

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Learning Resource
John Mole: Nothing Personal

Age groups: 11-14, 9-11

Exercise Suitable for Key Stages 3 and 4 John Mole’s poem ‘Nothing Personal’ takes the listener and ...

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Resource
Children’s Poetry Archive Challenge No 8

Age groups: 11-14, 5-7, 7-9, 9-11

This challenge takes you on a tour of the natural world and all the beautiful things we see around us. To ...

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Resource
Children’s Poetry Archive Challenge No 7

This challenge is all about being in school. To find the answers, all you have to do is listen to each of the poems. This is just for ...

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Resource
Children’s Poetry Archive Challenge No 6

Age groups: 11-14, 5-7, 7-9, 9-11

This challenge is all about poems to do with hopes and dreams. To find the answers, all you have to do is ...

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Activity
Children’s Poetry Archive Challenge 5

Age groups: 5-7, 7-9, 9-11

This challenge takes you on a tour through all sorts of poems about all sorts of things. To find the ...

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