Poetry for Kids

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. One of the things that I enjoy most about writing poems is playing with words—especially when a word sounds like something else entirely. Today’s poem is one of those where the idea came from imagining a mix-up… the kind of mix-up that might happen if you were shopping for... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. Sometimes a poem begins with just a sound—two words that almost rhyme, or a funny phrase that gets stuck in my head. That’s what happened with today’s poem. I started playing with the sounds of two familiar words, and before long, I found myself wondering, “What if there were... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. The seasons are changing, and it feels like winter is finally over—but spring hasn’t really started yet. Where my sister lives, people like to say they have only three seasons: summer, winter, and mud. I always thought that was a funny way to describe this in-between time of year,... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. I wanted to write a poem about nature in the springtime, especially for young reader… kids in first grade. Spring is such a fun season to explore the outdoors—you never know what kinds of animals or colors you might see! So I thought it would be fun to create... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, I thought it would be fun to write a poem about the tradition of trying to catch a leprechaun and find his pot of gold. Many kids set leprechaun traps, hoping to outsmart the tricky little creatures. But I started wondering—what if, after... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. A publisher recently asked me to write a fun poem for first graders that would help build phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, recognize, and play with sounds in words. They wanted something that would show how syllables and sounds can be changed, moved around, and combined in new ways.... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. Have you ever dreamed about not getting any older and just staying young forever? I know I had that thought once or twice when I was a kid. But what if that wish actually came true—but not in the way you expected? This poem plays with the idea of... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. Valentine’s Day was coming up, and I had been trying for days to think of something funny to write about—but nothing seemed quite right. Then, in the middle of the night, I woke up from a sound sleep with the ending of this poem suddenly clear in my head.... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. The first time I ever saw a cow, I was about three years old. My father took me to a dairy farm, and I remember standing right next to a wooden fence, face to face with a huge cow. I was completely surprised! For many years afterward, my dad... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. When I was 11 years old, my school took the sixth graders on a field trip to the mountains where there was snow. Many of the kids brought sleds or inflatable tubes to ride down the hills, and I brought a tube as well. At first, I was too... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. I wanted to write a poem about the feeling of not fitting in, a theme that many of us can relate to at some point in our lives. Having recently written a poem about a misunderstood snake, I decided to switch things up and tell the story from the... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. Today I’m sharing a poem inspired by one of the more unusual pets my family had when I was a kid—a boa constrictor! Our boa was a wonderful pet—gentle, calm, and friendly—but I know that many people find snakes scary, even harmless ones. That got me thinking: what if... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. I’ve always loved cheese. Today, as I was eating an especially cheesy pizza for lunch, the idea of an artist creating entire sculptures out of cheese seemed irresistibly whimsical and delicious. There has been a long tradition among children’s poets, such as Colin West in the UK and Jack... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. Today I’d like to share a fun new holiday poem with you. With Christmas just around the corner, I found myself wondering how many days were left until the big day. The phrase “I’m Counting the Days until Christmas” popped into my head, and I loved the rhythm of... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. I grew up in a part of California where it never snowed, but every now and then my parents would take me and my brothers to the nearby mountains in the wintertime to play in the snow. We loved building snowmen and throwing snowballs at one another. Later, when... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. With Thanksgiving just around the corner here in the US, I wanted to write a fun poem about the holiday that captures the feeling of overindulging at a big family feast. Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude and togetherness, but it’s also a time when we often eat more... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. A couple of years ago my friend, the children’s poet Janet Wong, asked if I would contribute a poem to an anthology she was creating with children’s literature professor Sylvia Vardell called Things We Feel. She gave me several photos to choose from as inspiration, and I particularly liked... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. As a student, I remember being so tired in school some days that I would fall asleep at my desk and the teacher would have to wake me up. I was never so tired in the morning that I went to school in my pajamas or bedsheet or blankets.... Read more »

Welcome to Poetry4kids. I’m Kenn Nesbitt. With Halloween just around the corner, I wanted to write a poem about the holiday. I had already written a poem about spooky monsters called “The Monsters’ Thanksgiving,” so this time I thought it would be fun to come up with a poem about trick-or-treating. I imagined creating a... Read more »

Ideas for poems can come from lots of different places. Sometimes when I write a poem, the idea starts with a single word or a phrase. In this case, I was thinking about the upcoming holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Halloween made me think of monsters, including Frankenstein’s monster, which made me think of “Frankenstein’s Thanksgiving.”... Read more »