Words in motion

playful environment. Young children need plenty of opportunities to build their vocabulary and experiment with new words as they learn to communicate effectively with their peers.

Words convey meaning, inform, inspire, and define cultures. The right words can start and end wars, they can be used to influence populations, or simply to entertain generations. Whether written or spoken, words connect us. We revere great writers and orators for their ability to ignite our emotions and to unlock our imagination. From the moment a young child puts together a sentence or picks up a book and begins to make sense of the printed word, they hold the key to a world of possibilities.

There are so many ways to play with words that will capture a child’s attention and build their vocabulary, none more so than to rhyme them.

World Poetry Day, on Friday 21 March 2025, is an ideal opportunity to celebrate poems and rhymes. It’s also a perfect moment to remind ourselves that poetry is much more than just words on paper found between the dusty covers of a book, favoured by academics and the older generation.

Established by UNESCO in 1999, with the aim to promote linguistic diversity through poetic expression, World Poetry Day emphasises the significance of poetry and the ways in which it fosters creativity and innovation – both of which are to be found in the characteristics of effective learning in the EYFS.

A baby’s first and most enduring interaction with words and language is often nursery rhymes, spoken or crooned to them by their main carers. These simple early rhymes are often handed down through generations as new families recall their earliest memories and connect with their baby in a shared experience. The repetition of the words, a familiar voice, and anticipation of the next word means that the baby is never just a passive recipient of the nursery rhyme and will soon be joining in with their own sounds and gestures.

Who could ever forget Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy?

There’s a reason why rhyming books continue to be staples in early years book corners. Classics such as Hairy Maclary (celebrating his 40th anniversary in print) invite children to join in as they recall that Bottomley Potts is covered in… wait for it… SPOTS! And that Schnitzel Von Krumm had a very low… TUM! It’s the rhyming element of the sentence that sticks in children’s minds as they delight in getting it right.

It's a pleasure to hear a child and their family member walking in the woods together, reciting lines from another favourite as they chant together: “Silly old fox, doesn’t he know, there’s no such thing as a…”. There will be very few people involved with children who won’t know how to finish that sentence!

How can we celebrate World Poetry Day 2025?

Make a week of it. Try these ideas, the headings may not rhyme perfectly, but you can fill each day with rhyming activities on a theme:

Fun day Monday – see how many rhyming activities you can do today, for example, jump, jump and land with a thump! When handwashing, encourage children to rub their hands together as they wash, wash, splish, splash, splosh. In the home corner children could stack the shelves with pots, pans, tins and cans.

Foodie Tuesday – rhyme as many foods as you can. Maybe snack time could become ‘snack attack’ and you could offer a nice apple slice, or carrots crunchy – crisp and munchy.

Silly day Wednesday – Make up words to rhyme with anything and everything – children love to do this anyway; they’ll leave you standing when it comes to their imagination. The sillier the made-up word, the better! Some of our most enchanting story characters are made-up words – didn’t you know, there really is no such thing as a Gruffalo!

Word play Thursday – Play rhyming I-spy: I-spy with my little eye, something rhyming with…?

Poem Friday – Somewhere along the way, children lose contact with the poetic written word as they move from nursery rhymes to rhyming stories and other forms of literature. There are some excellent collections of classic poetry for children – for example, Pick and Mix Poetry by Julia Donaldson contains poems for every occasion. I particularly like this one that expresses the wonder of a dandelion, even better if children are holding a dandelion at the time:

O’ dandelion, yellow as old,
What do you do all day
I just wait here in the tall green grass
Til the children come to play
O dandelion yellow as gold,
What do you do all night?
I wait and wait til the cool dews fall
And my hair grows long and white.
And what do you do when your hair is white
And the children come to play?
They take me up in their dimpled hands
And blow my hair away!

There’s so much to explore in this simple poem – new words to explain and, of course, the firsthand experience of holding a dandelion and blowing gently to dislodge the seeds. But don’t forget that poetry is also expressed through spoken word performances, rap, and even graffiti.

Make it count, make it last, don’t give up on poetry too fast!!