Poetry is a perfect instrument to develop memory, the sense of rhythm, creativity and sensitivity In the kids. For children to be able to enjoy it, it is necessary that they learn it in the most efficient and stimulating way possible. This is not difficult, as it seems that children are especially open to learning poetry.
All experts, and by this we mean educators and poets recommend that the approach to poetry be done through play. If we already recommend you some books For the little ones, now we want to give you certain recommendations so that they start reading them or learn their poems.
Poetry and childhood, the perfect symbiosis
You could say that poetry arises naturally in the child. It seems like the ideal childhood companion. Boys and girls learn to play with language with nursery rhymes, tongue twisters, and riddles, all of which are poetry. With these stanzas rhythmic patterns, typical of our language, are incorporated.
When you start reading books to your children, you will realize that most of them are poetry, or at least verses. Coming Soon the child will be able to repeat, even before learning to read these phrases. When they begin to read they will seek this same facility, and then with age will come prose, but they will hardly ever abandon poetry.
Another advantages of poetry in childhood is interpretation, recite it. Saying a poem aloud implies the expressiveness of the body, managing the tone of voice, posture. This declamation of poetry does not have to imply a public exhibition, which for some children is counterproductive, but rather a fun game at home. Each member can read a poem and say it to the others.
Tips for learning and teaching poetry
As we have pointed out, learning certain poems must be done from the game, in the case of the little ones, and in an environment conducive to enjoyment, in the case of any age. Poetry can be learned while doing something else, helping in the kitchen, taking a walk ... Also as if it were a game, you start by saying a verse to the child, he or she continues, then you and so it becomes a conversation.
Learning is more natural through aural route, therefore the reading of the poem by the child himself must be after he has heard it. This is not always possible, but this would be the most natural way. If the child listens first, he will already have a first impression, much of the magic of poetry is in its evocative and sonorous power, and it will surely react to some stanzas.
The Children's poems should be short. Sometimes the value of some poems, such as tongue twisters, is in the sound effect they produce in children, they are only interested in poetry for its musical power. They are sounds adjusted to the musical that will help to cultivate the sense of rhythm and rhyme.
Help children understand poetry
To recite a poem memorizing is not enough, there is a work of diction and interpretation. If you want a child to recite a poem first, they must have assimilated and understood it. It is essential that we ask the child if he has grasped the story. No matter how old the child is, and whatever poetry it is, it must make sense to him.
Children learn poetry if we read the text with them several times, aloud and calmly. In this way, he will become familiar with rhymes and word games and will discover their internal construction. It is very important that the poem is presented as a whole. Children should not be forced to memorize the poem if they are not naturally inclined to do so. Many children end up disenchanted with poetry because works that do not interest them were imposed on them by heart.
If the child is going to memorize poetry, and then say it, it is important that let's help you express what you feel when you say it. It is about establishing correspondences with their experiences, for this we can ask them to draw a picture of the poem, this will be their first personal translation of the text.