Read these nature poems for kids with your child to inspire their curiosity of both our planet and poetry.
Planet Earth is the only place that we know for sure is habitable for life in the Universe. It is a very special place. The world celebrates Earth and raises awareness of its need for protection on Earth Day every year, on 22nd April. This year (2020) was its 50th anniversary.
April is also National Poetry Month in the U.S., introduced to raise awareness and appreciation of poetry.
Combining poetry and nature is a great way to celebrate both the art of language and our planet – on Earth Day or any day of the year. It’s also a great way to encourage your child’s curiosity in the world around them. Make it part of your daily routine to read a poem together.
I’ve selected twenty of the best nature poems for kids that celebrate our planet and its diversity of life. They include winter poems, spring poems, animal poems, poems about plants and poems about the sea. Most of the poems are short and easy to read. All of them are great poems for kids.
Reading poems with your child
You can read poetry anywhere – all you need is your imagination to enjoy a poem. But if you can get outside and read nature poems for kids in nature, it will add a wonderful extra dimension that will help your child connect the words of the poem with the natural world around them and see nature in a new light.
If you don’t have a garden or can’t get outdoors then sitting by a window is also good. You can also match the poem to the season or weather. Reading a poem for kids about rain is perfect on a rainy day!
How to read a poem aloud
When you read each poem aloud, speak slowly and pause at the punctuation, rather than at the end of each line.
What to notice when reading a poem
Encourage your child to pay attention to what they notice when you read each of the following poems for kids.
Talk about using language as art.
- What images does a poem conjure up?
- Does the poem remind your child of anything?
- How do they feel when they listen to the poem?
- Did they find anything exciting or surprising in the language of the poem?
- Did they notice any unusual sounds?
- Can they identify any rhyming words?
- Were there any words they didn’t understand?
- Is there a message in the poem?
- What do they think inspired the poet?
Read the poem more than once. Did your child notice anything new with each reading?
Talk about the themes in the poems and discuss how we can take better care of nature.
Follow your child’s curiosity – do some research into the topics that interest them – and encourage them to write their own nature poems for kids!
Share your experience reading poetry with your child by leaving a comment below and enjoy!
20 of the best nature poems for kids
I'm Glad the Sky is Painted Blue
Anonymous
I’m glad the sky is painted blue,
And the earth is painted green,
With such a lot of nice fresh air
All sandwiched in between.
The Crocus
Walter Crane
The golden crocus reaches up
to catch a sunbeam in her cup.
The Secret Song
Margaret Wise Brown
Who saw the petals
drop from the rose?
I, said the spider,
But nobody knows.
Who saw the sunset
flash on a bird?
I, said the fish,
But nobody heard.
Who saw the fog
come over the sea?
I, said the sea pigeon,
Only me.
Who saw the first
green light of the sun?
I, said the night owl,
The only one.
Who saw the moss
creep over the stone?
I, said the gray fox,
All alone.
Trees
Sara Coleridge
The Oak is called the King of trees,
The Aspen quivers in the breeze,
The Poplar grows up straight and tall,
The Peach tree spreads along the wall,
The Sycamore gives pleasant shade,
The Willow droops in watery Glade,
The Fir tree useful timber gives,
The Beech amid the forest lives.
The Wind
James Reeves
I can get through a doorway without any key,
And strip the leaves from the great oak tree.
I can drive storm-clouds and shake tall towers,
Or steal through a garden and not wake the flowers.
Seas I can move and ships I can sink;
I can carry a house-top or the scent of a pink.
When I am angry I can rave and riot;
And when I am spent, I lie quiet as quiet.
The Ferns
Gene Baro
High, high in the branches
the seawinds plunge and roar.
A storm is moving westward,
but here on the forest floor,
the ferns have captured stillness.
A green sea growth they are.
The ferns lie underwater
In a light of the forest’s green.
Their motion is like stillness,
As if water shifts between
And a great storm quivers
Through fathoms of green.
Mud
Polly Chase Boyden
Mud is very nice to feel
All squishy-squash between the toes!
I’d rather wade in wiggly mud
Than smell a yellow rose.
Nobody else but the rosebush knows
How nice mud feels
Between the toes.
Until I Saw the Sea
Lilian Moore
Until I saw the sea
I did not know
that wind
could wrinkle water so.
I never knew
that sun
could splinter a whole sea of blue.
Nor
did I know before,
a sea breathes in and out
upon a shore.
The Rain Has Silver Sandals
May Justus
The rain has silver sandals
For dancing in the spring,
And shoes with golden tassels
For summer’s frolicking.
Her winter boots have hobnails
Of ice from heel to toe,
Which now and then she changes
For moccasins of snow.
First Snow
Marie Louise Allen
Snow makes whiteness where it falls.
The bushes look like popcorn-balls.
And places where I always play,
Look like somewhere else today.
Beyond Winter
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Over the winter glaciers
I see the summer glow,
And through the wild-piled snowdrift
The warm rosebuds below.
Maytime Magic
Mabel Watts
A little seed
For me to sow…
A little earth
To make it grow…
A little hole,
A little pat…
A little wish,
And that is that.
A little sun,
A little shower…
A little while,
And then – a flower!
Hurt no living thing
Christina Rossetti
Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.
Green Stems
Margaret Wise Brown
Little things that crawl and creep
In the green grass forests,
Deep in their long-stemmed world
Where ferns uncurl
To a greener world
Beneath the leaves above them;
And every flower upon its stem
Blows above them there
The bottom of a geranium,
The back side of a trillium,
The belly of a bumblebee
Is all they see, these little things
Down so low
Where no bird sings
Where no wind blows,
Deep in their long-stemmed world.
A Dragonfly
Eleanor Farjeon
When the heat of the summer
Made drowsy the land,
A dragon-fly came
And sat on my hand,
With its blue jointed body,
And wings like spun glass,
It lit on my fingers
As though they were grass.
Fireflies in the Garden
Robert Frost
A Wee Little Worm
James Whitcomb Riley
A wee little worm in a Hickory nut
Sang, happy as he could be,
“O I live in the heart of the whole round world,
And it all belongs to me!”
Fishes' Evening Song
Dahlov Ipcar
Flip flop,
Flip flap,
Slip slap,
Lip lap;
Water sounds,
Soothing sounds.
We fan our fins
As we lie
Resting here
Eye to eye.
Water falls
Drop by drop,
Plip plop,
Drip drop.
Plink plunk,
Slash splish;
Fish fins fan,
Fish tails swish,
Swush, swash, swish.
This we wish …
Water cold,
Water clear,
Water smooth,
Just to soothe
Sleepy fish.
The Sandpiper
Frances Frost
At the edge of tide
He stops to wonder,
Races through
The lace of thunder.
On toothpick legs
Swift and brittle,
He runs and pipes
And his voice is little.
But small or not,
He has a notion
To outshout
The Atlantic Ocean.
The Eagle
Alfred Tennyson
Join the discussion
Did you and your child enjoy these nature poems for kids? What was their favourite? Did anything in the poems surprise them? Do you know any other nature poems for kids that should be on this list? Let me know in the comments below!
Related posts
Encourage your child’s curiosity about nature with these related posts – most of them include hands-on activities:
- Learn about the evolution of flowers and the amazing ways they entice their pollinators.
- Find out what life needs to survive and what it means for a world to be habitable.
- Learn why DNA is so amazing and how it encodes the blueprint of life on Earth.
- Read my selection of the best science jokes for kids and how to use jokes to engage their curiosity about the world
i love this. i don’t like like this, i love this
love it
love all these
mud
nice
very nice!!!!!!!!
hello these are all great
mud man mud
I like “A Wee Little Worm”
cool
I lovely poem of Nature Peoms
Very helpful for collage
This is very nice…. I love this all
I love each one
I still like the wind the most
i love the eagle one fav