Poems are songs that uses rhythm and language to express ideas, feelings and meanings
Here you will find poems for both young and old, many are favourites from my childhood and teaching days.
Several have been set to music by others and myself.
This collection; it’s a great way to:
- increase verbal skills, expand vocabulary and horizons
- interact with a partner or groups and understand turn taking
- learn to follow or synchronize actions with each other
- learn to start and stop and discover the value of rules
- use children’s natural response to rhythm and rhyme
- sharpen listening skills
- improve memory
- continue the tradition of children’s verse from this and other countries
- be creative, there are many opportunities change words or actions, add verses, use different voices or change roles
- above all to have lots of tremendous fun – even the most timid child will follow the rhyme and with the group soon begin to join in
YouTube playlist: Poetry corner – poems and rhymes for young children – YouTube
‘Singing games for children’ website pages:
In the lists below you will soon find links to:
‘River of song’ website pages for each song including lyrics, sheet music and chords plus a YouTube link to each song.
More links will be added as time permits especially where they are absent from my old website. Let me know if I need to give priority to music that you would appreciate. In the meantime use the links taking you to Singing Games for Children.
new indicates that you can only find this song here rather than my old website.
Love this song / poem: 💖 and so many others you can find below!
Music by Dany Rosevear ♪♫ – only recently begun to add
Poetry please!
A
A Bonny Boat Margaret Johnson ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / hand play / lullaby
A carol for Christmas Eve new
YouTube PDF
A goblin lives in our house Rose Fyleman
YouTube PDF fairy friends
A growing rhyme
YouTube PDF
A hundred furry kittens / The wish
YouTube PDF early Spring poem
A little bird’s song Margaret Rose
YouTube PDF poem / hand play
A little green frog
YouTube PDF a summer poem
A little lovely dream ♪♫
YouTube PDF Hindu cradle song / poem / lullaby
A little seed Mabel Watts
YouTube PDF a Spring hand play
A million little snowflakes ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / winter /
A wise old owl sat on an oak
YouTube PDF poem
After my bath new
YouTube PDF hygiene / baby play / Aileen Fisher
Afton Water new
YouTube PDF Scottish folk song / lullaby / Robert Burns
Alms for Autumn /
Spindlewood, spindlewood Rose Fyleman
YouTube PDF an Autumn poem
An egg for Easter Irene F. Pawsey
YouTube PDF a Spring poem
Apples in the attic
YouTube PDF Autumn
‘Are you going to golf sir’
YouTube PDF call and response
Autumn morning new ♪♫
YouTube PDF Autumn / weather
B
Baby seed song Edith Nesbit
YouTube PDF Spring / lullaby / poem
Bed in summer
YouTube PDF
Bluebells Rodney Bennett
YouTube PDF Spring poem
Boa constrictor
YouTube PDF hand play / poem / Shel Silverstein
Boats sail on the rivers ♪♫
YouTube PDF Christina Rossetti
Bread and milk for breakfast ♪♫
YouTube PDF bird / winter / Christina Rossetti
Busy little ants ♪♫
YouTube PDF minibeasts / poem
C
Calico Pie
YouTube PDF
Caterpillar new
YouTube PDF Christina Rossetti
Cats sleep anywhere Eleanor Farjeon ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / cats
Cherry blossom Elizabeth McKinnon
YouTube PDF Spring / poem / hand play
Christmas Eve
YouTube PDF Marion Edey
Come here little robin ♪♫
YouTube PDF bird / winter
Come little leaves George Cooper 💖
YouTube PDF Autumn / colour / seasonal
Crocuses
YouTube PDF
D
Dad and the cat and the tree Kit Wright 💖
YouTube PDF comic story / poem
Daffodowndilly A. A. Milne
YouTube PDF a Spring hand play / poem
Daisy, daisy, open your eye
YouTube PDF summer
Dandelion clocks (2)
YouTube PDF summer / speech / finger play
Dandelion, yellow as gold new
YouTube PDF Easter / poem / colour
Down in the earth H. Henley ♪♫
YouTube PDF Spring / colour / flowers
Duck’s ditty Kenneth Grahame
YouTube PDF summer / poem / birds
E
End of summer
YouTube PDF
F
Fairies Eleanor Farjeon ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem
Fairy shoes Annette Wynne ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem
Falling snow
YouTube PDF winter poem / movement
Ferry me across the water
YouTube PDF call and response by Christina Rossetti
Five little owls in an old elm tree
YouTube PDF
Four ducks on a pond
YouTube PDF
Four little birds
YouTube PDF
Friends/ Flicker / Looking up through a tree
YouTube PDF new songs for a better world / community
G
Garden fairies Wilhelmina Seegmiller
YouTube PDF summer / poem
Getting up Lillian McCrea
YouTube PDF action play / hygiene
Give me holly Christina Rossetti
YouTube PDF round / Christmas
Goodnight
YouTube PDF
Grandma’s pussy cat 💖
YouTube PDF call and response / action
Grasshopper Green
YouTube PDF
Poetry please!
H
Harvest new Lydia A. Coonley
YouTube PDF seasonal / school assembly
Harvest time Florence Mary Hoatson
YouTube PDF Autumn
Heltery – skeltery ♪♫ new
YouTube PDF poem / harvest / rabbits
Here are grandma’s glasses a hand play
YouTube PDF
Here we come a-piping (2)
YouTube PDF poem / late spring
Hiawatha a poem
YouTube PDF
How doth the little crocodile Lewis Carroll ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / comic hand play
How doth the little busy bee Isaac Watts
YouTube PDF poem / minibeasts / summer / better world
How much wood would a woodchuck
YouTube PDF
Hundreds of stars / Only one Mother ♪♫
YouTube PDF
I
I can’t see the wind
YouTube PDF Spring / movement
I found a tiny snowdrop Christina T. Owen ♪♫
YouTube PDF Winter / Spring / poem
I know a little butterfly
YouTube PDF
I know a little cupboard Walter de la Mare 💖
YouTube PDF poem / Lavender Lane / food
I know a little hamster
YouTube PDF
I know you little
YouTube PDF
I love to sit in silence ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / for a better world / community
I met a little Elf man once John Kendrick Bangs
YouTube PDF poem / hand play / size
I wish I lived in a caravan
YouTube PDF
I’d love to be a fairy’s child Robert Graves
YouTube PDF poem
If I could be a fairy now Edith Mitchel
YouTube PDF poem
If you should meet a crocodile
YouTube PDF action rhyme
In a hickory nut
YouTube PDF
In a milkweed cradle new
YouTube PDF weather / late summer hand play
In my little garden
YouTube PDF
It’s Halloween / Tonight is the night Harry Behn
YouTube PDF a Halloween poem
J
Jack Frost ♪♫ new
YouTube PDF winter / poem
Jack Frost is about!
YouTube PDF Winter
Jolly October (2) Wilhelmina Seegmiller
YouTube PDF Autumn / poem
Jump over the moon
YouTube PDF action song / Kate Greenaway
Juniper, Juniper
YouTube PDF
K
Kind hearts are the gardens ♪♫
YouTube PDF songs for a better world
Kings came riding ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / Nativity
Knock, knock, knock, knock
YouTube PDF
Poetry please!
L
Lady Moon new
YouTube PDF lullaby Richard Monckton Milnes
Leaf buds Aileen Fisher
YouTube PDF Spring poem
Little by little an acorn said
YouTube PDF Autumn
Little lambs Eleanor Farjeon
YouTube PDF a poem / seasonal
Little drops of water / Little things
YouTube PDF new poem / hymn / better world
Little things or Little drops of water new 💖
YouTube PDF Elizabeth Payson-Prentiss.
Little seeds we sow in Spring Else Holmelund Minarik
YouTube PDF Spring poem
Looe
YouTube PDF
Look at your hat!
YouTube PDF
Lullabye, lullabye
YouTube PDF
M
Mice 💖 ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / hand play / Rose Fyleman
Minnie and Winnie
YouTube PDF
Mix a pancake 💖
YouTube PDF Spring / Christina Rossetti
Moby Dick 💖
YouTube PDF Summer / whale / poem / R.C. Scriven
Monday’s child
YouTube PDF
Morning has broken Eleanor Farjeon 💖
YouTube PDF school assembly / Spring / poem
Mousie, mousie Rose Fyleman 💖
YouTube PDF poem / hand play
My singing bird 💖
YouTube PDF Irish poem / Edith Wheeler / folk / birds
Mud
YouTube PDF
My Lady Spring 💖 ♪♫
YouTube PDF Spring / poem
O
October’s party George Cooper ♪♫
YouTube PDF colour / Autumn / weather
Ode to a goose new Luò Bīnwáng
YouTube PDF China
Old John Muddlecombe
YouTube PDF
On the Ning Nang Nong
YouTube PDF poem Spike Milligan 💖
One day I saw a a downy duck
YouTube PDF
One for sorrow, two for joy
YouTube PDF birds / number ♪♫
One-eyed Jack the pirate chief
YouTube PDF
Only my opinion
YouTube PDF
Only the moon man knows Mildred Plew Merryman 💖
YouTube PDF lullaby / poem
Poetry please
P
Picnic tea David Harmer
YouTube PDF Summer / poem / minibeasts
Pretty cow
YouTube PDF
Pussy willow Aileen Fisher
YouTube PDF Spring
Pussy willow we love you Clara Belle Baker
YouTube PDF Spring poem
R
Rain of leaves new
YouTube PDF Autumn / colour / weather
Rat-a-tat-tat / Grandma’s pussy cat 💖
YouTube PDF call and response / action
Red in Autumn
YouTube PDF
S
Sampan
YouTube PDF Chinese poem and hand play
Seal lullaby Rudyard Kipling ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem
Seeds that twist and seeds that twirl new
YouTube PDF Autumn poem and hand play
Sing a song of washing up Elizabeth Gould
YouTube PDF poem / cleaning / helping out
Sing, little bird
YouTube PDF poem / weather / bird
Six little mice 💖
YouTube PDF number / hand play / poem
So silently new
YouTube PDF Winter movement / transition
Someone came knocking Walter de la Mare 💖
YouTube PDF poem / Halloween
Something told the wild geese
YouTube PDF
Song of the bugs ♪♫
YouTube PDF summer
Snowdrop lift your tiny head
YouTube PDF winter / spring
Snowdrops, snowdrops ♪♫ 💖
YouTube PDF Spring / winter / poem
Spirit of the summertime / Song
YouTube PDF new William Allingham
Spring song / Frogs leap
YouTube PDF Spring / weather / hand play
Squirrel Nutkin F.B. Wood
YouTube PDF Autumn poem
Stars of the summer night Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
YouTube PDF poem / summer / lullaby
Sun and moon ♪♫ Charlotte Druitt Cole
YouTube PDF
Sweet and low Alfred Tennyson
YouTube PDF a lullaby and poem
Swift things are beautiful
YouTube PDF
Swing high, swing low
YouTube PDF
Poetry please!
T a-q
Ten little tadpoles Rose Fyleman 💖 ♪♫
YouTube PDF Spring / number / poem
The adventures of Isabel Ogden Nash
YouTube PDF poem
The birdies’ breakfast new
YouTube PDF winter / poem / birds
The blind men and the elephant ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / points of view story
The bluebird song ♪♫ new
YouTube PDF Spring poem / seasonal
The clucking hen
YouTube PDF
The cold old house ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / mouse
The dream fairy Thomas Hood ♪♫
YouTube PDF a lullaby and poem
The early morning
YouTube PDF
The Earth is your Mother Leslie Marmon Silko
YouTube PDF better world / Native American / lullaby
The fairies / Up the airy mountain ♪♫ 💖
YouTube PDF William Allingham
The fairies’ lullaby ♪♫
YouTube PDF lullaby / William Shakespeare
The fairy ring (2) Margaret E. Johnson ♪♫
YouTube PDF Spring / poem
The garden year Sara Coleridge
YouTube PDF seasonal / poem
The harvest
YouTube PDF Autumn / Alice C. Henderson
The lark is up to meet the sun
YouTube PDF
The leaves had a wonderful frolic
YouTube PDF Autumn
The leaves’ party
YouTube PDF Autumn
The leprechaun or Fairy Shoemaker ♪♫
YouTube PDF Irish / William Allingham
The little plant Kate Louise Brown ♪♫ 💖
YouTube PDF a Spring poem and hand play
The little tune
YouTube PDF
The little winds they whisper
YouTube PDF
The mist and all Mary Tolbert
YouTube PDF November poem
The moon’s the North Wind’s cookie
YouTube PDF
The night will never stay
YouTube PDF
The Owl and the Pussycat
YouTube PDF Edward Lear poem / BBC Children’s radio / Lavender Lane
The prickly little hedgehog
YouTube PDF hand play / Autumn / creatures
Poetry please!
T
The robin Lawrence Alma-Tadema
YouTube PDF
The rose is red
YouTube PDF
The shiny little house Nancy M Hayes
YouTube PDF house cleaning / poem
The snake
YouTube PDF
The snow fell softly Rachel Field ♪♫
YouTube PDF winter / weather / hand play
The swallow
YouTube PDF
The swing
YouTube PDF
The tadpole
YouTube PDF
The wind came out to play
YouTube PDF Autumn
The playful wind
YouTube PDF
The woodpecker
YouTube PDF
The world is full of colour
YouTube PDF
There are big waves and little waves Eleanor Farjeon
YouTube PDF poem / summer / colour
There was a little robin
YouTube PDF
There’s a fox in a box 💖
YouTube PDF rhyming verse Barbara Iresom
This is the boat, the golden boat
YouTube PDF
Thistledown
YouTube PDF
Three jolly gentlemen
YouTube PDF
Three mice Charlotte Druitt Cole new
YouTube PDF food / number / poem
Time to rise
YouTube PDF
Tippety, tippety tin
YouTube PDF West Somerset pancake rhyme
To let
YouTube PDF
Poetry please!
U-Z
Under a stone where the earth was firm
YouTube PDF
Under the blanket
YouTube PDF
Walk fast in snow
YouTube PDF A Devonshire Winter rhyme
We have a secret, just we three 💖 ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / birds / tree
Welcome little robin
YouTube PDF
What do you suppose?
YouTube PDF
What does little birdie say?
YouTube PDF
When daddy fell into the pond 💖
YouTube PDF Alfred Noyes
When Mary goes walking 💖 ♪♫
YouTube PDF Autumnpoem by Patrick Reginald Chalmers / Reg Down
When you see a daffodil 💖
YouTube PDF Spring poem Aileen Fisher
Where my feet go
YouTube PDF poem summer seasonal
Which is the way to Fairyland? Eunice Close ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem
Whisky frisky squirrel
YouTube PDF
Wind ♪♫
YouTube PDF poem / Autumn / movement / weather
Who has seen the wind? Christina Rossetti 💖
YouTube PDF weather / Autumn / hand play
Who likes the rain?
YouTube PDF
Winter morning Ogden Nash
YouTube PDF winter / weather
Yellow the bracken Florence Hoatson 💖 ♪♫
YouTube PDF Autumn poem / colour
Getting there!