It’s so much fun to see students exploring new ways to use words and learn vocabulary. That’s why poetry is so exciting! We’ve put together this list of sweet first grade poems for kids to use in your classroom or at home. You’ll find great options of various lengths for all reading levels. Your students will love them!
1. First Grade Rocks by Lusine Gharibyan
“There’s a lot to do!”
2. The Car Trip by Ruth Donnelly
“Not on a plane! Not in a ship!”
3. My Lunch by Kenn Nesbitt
“A candy bar. A piece of cake.”
4. Play by Lill Pluta
“I jump. I shake.”
5. Apples, Apples by Liana Mahoney
“Growing on a tree.”
6. High Diddle Diddle by Unknown
“The cat and the fiddle.”
7. Happy Thought by Robert Louis Stevenson
“The world is so full of a number of things …”
8. There Was an Old Man With a Beard by Edward Lear
“Who said, ‘It is just as I feared!’”
9. Baa Baa Black Sheep by Rudyard Kipling
“Have you any wool?”
10. Buzz, Buzz Bumblebee by Ruth Donnelly
“In the grass. / Fly away.”
11. Opposite Day by Kenn Nesbitt
“The day to do things / in the opposite way.”
12. There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe by Mother Goose
“She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.”
13. Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne
“When I was One, I had just begun.”
14. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by Jane Taylor
“How I wonder what you are!”
15. The Purple Cow by Gelett Burgess
“I never saw a Purple Cow.”
16. Colors by Rebecca T. Besser
“Red, blue, yellow, and green.”
17. Scarecrow by Lauren Shirk
“Made of hay.”
18. Deep Sea Dance by Kenn Nesbitt
“Down on the ocean floor …”
19. Jelly Beans by Valerie Danoff
“Belly, belly, belly beans.”
20. Bow Wow Wow, Meow Meow by Kenn Nesbitt
“My dog and cat are friends somehow.”
21. How Not To Have To Dry the Dishes by Shel Silverstein
“If you have to dry the dishes …”
22. The Lion by Hilaire Belloc
“The Lion, the Lion, he dwells in the Waste …”
23. The Crocodile by Lewis Carroll
“How doth the little crocodile / Improve his shining tail …”
24. The Little Turtle by Vachel Lindsay
“He snapped at a mosquito.”
25. I Heard a Bird Sing by Oliver Herford
“In the dark of December …”
26. Pizza, Pizza, I Love You by Kenn Nesbitt
“And I hope you love me too.”
27. The Owl and Raccoon by Debra L. Brown
“There once was a silly raccoon …”
28. Guess What I Am by Team TEFL
“I am yellow …”
29. Four Seasons by Andrew Frinkle
“Dan likes spring.”
30. Farewell First Grade by Donna
“Bye, bye classroom.”
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