Making up your own number poems can get your class off to a quick poetic start. List items in the classroom or on the playground that can be counted. Begin with one item and count to ten (or start with ten and go backwards), such as:
One teacher's deskDo any of the items rhyme? Where might they go in a poem? In what order will you use the items? Which ones go together? What other words can we add to better describe the items? How might we tie it all together for the poem's end?
Two open doors
Three shelves of blocks
Find a nice collection of counting poems and finger plays at Fingerplays, Action Poems, Nursery Rhymes, and Songs.
Find more activities for early childhood classrooms in these archives:
Sue LaBella, Education World's early childhood editor, is a former teacher who loves writing activities and poems for young children. She lives in Connecticut with her family and her bulldog named Daisy.
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Activities by Sue LaBella
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