Online Poetry Games for Kids

Why not celebrate National Poetry Month this April with some online poetry games? National Poetry Month honors poetry and its place in American culture. Since 1996, the Academy of American Poets has sought to unite libraries, publishers, literary organizations, booksellers, and, of course, poets for this special month.

Kids can join in on the fun and unleash their inner poet by playing with word magnets, word puzzles, and riddles and learning how to write haikus, limericks, and funny poems. Here are three websites that offer games and activities for kids.

Poetry for Kids

Poetry Kids is a wonderful resource for young poets who want to celebrate National Poetry Month. They offer poetry lessons for aspiring poets and have a list of funny poems for poetry lovers. For those who want to write their own poetry, the website has a rhyming dictionary that gives you multiple suggestions based on syllables.

There are plenty of free flash games to keep kids occupied too. The game Poetry Magnets lets kids make their own poetry based on random words. Poetry Word Search teaches kids poetry vocabulary such as acrostic, haiku, and limerick. Other available games are not directly tied to poetry but aim to increase kids' vocabulary skills such as Thesaurus Tangle, Alphattack, and Fowl Words.

Giggle Poetry

Giggle Poetry offers hundreds of free poems for kids to read and rate. The website also encourages kids to write their own poems and gives tips on how to craft different types of poetry. Text-based games such as fill-in-the-blank, riddles, and tongue twister poems are fun, but there's not much replay value.

While Poetry for Kids has more sophisticated interactive games, Giggle Poetry's strength is in its extensive resources and tools for kids aimed to exercise their creativity. The website even has a Poetry Theater section where kids can act out scripts that have rhythm. Kids can also read interviews and ask questions to published poets in the Ask the Poet section.

Imagine Songs

Imagine Songs is a website run by teacher and poet Joe Thompson. Kids can amuse themselves with Mad Libs about pirates, recipes, and fables, or play with word magnets and a word search. Thompson also lists his works on the website, which include funny and serious poems, animated poetry, skits, and fables.

As Imagine Songs is more of a personal website, it doesn't quite have the polish of Poetry Kids or Giggle Poetry. But for those who are looking for a simple design with classic poetry games will enjoy this site.