Since Robert Frost encouraged our founder Marie Bullock to “get poetry into the high schools” in the 1960s, we’ve been assisting teachers in bringing poetry into the classroom. Here, you’ll find poetry lesson plans, poems for kids and for teens, essays about teaching, a calendar of teaching resources for the school year, a glossary of poetry terms, and more. Our lesson plans, most of which are aligned with the Common Core, have been reviewed by our Educator in Residence with an eye toward developing skills of perception and imagination. 

Read more about Teach This Poem’s impact. 

Lesson Plans by Theme

Find poetry lesson plans organized by theme, occasion, and class subject, including lesson plans featuring poems about social justice, the environment, and many other topics.

Dear Poet 2024

Every National Poetry Month we present Dear Poet, a multimedia education project that invites you

Lesson Plans for Winter and the Holidays

Celebrate winter and the holiday season in the classroom with this selection of lesson plans feat

Politics: Poems for Kids

Read the following poems about politics, elections, and government by poets like Elizabeth Alexander, Richard Blanco, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, and more.

Food: Poems for Kids

Read a selection of poems about food that are appropriate for young people like “Tamales on Christmas ” by Christian Robinson, “This is Just To Say ” by William Carlos Williams, and more.  

Winter: Poems for Kids

The following poems explore the themes of winter, snow, and cold weather like “[‘Tis the first snow—]” by Matsuo Basho, “London Snow” by Robert Bridges, and more.