Children Love Poetry

The first graders I teach at the French International School in Washington, DC, love poetry. Every year, I am thrilled to see that no matter what anybody says about memorizing poetry, kids lap it up! And they adore the freedom of expression that it gives them once a poem is learned by heart.

Last week, these 6-year olds joyfully and raucously recited Dorothy Aldis's poem "Everybody Says." It goes like this:

Everybody Says

by Dorothy Aldis

Everybody says

I look just like my mother

Everybody says

I'm the image of Aunt Bee

Everybody says

my nose is like my father's

But I want to look like ME!

Dorothy Aldis (1896-1966) was a children's literature author and poet.