Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States, was born on May 16, 1804, in Billerica, Massachusetts. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children”s play has intrinsic developmental and educational value.
from Today in History.

Poets have always known what Peabody taught and have exploited the intrinsic developmental and educational value of children”s play in words and poetry for as long as there has been speech. Think back to what originally sparked a love of poetry and words in you, and chances are that you”ll find a nursery rhyme or a poem written just for children. From Mother Goose to Dr. Seuss, nearly every one of us has memories of poetry dating back to earliest childhood. We graduate to playground rhymes and silly songs and rhyming wordplay and eventually, for those whose love of words isn”t killed by the demands of academics, into writing and appreciating full-blown adult poetry.

Celebrate the birth of kindergarten by returning to the scene of your childhood poetry with one of these excellent books of poetry for children. And while you”re busy reawakening your inner poetic child, share the joy of silly and pretty words with a child that you love. Children”s poetry was made to be read aloud and chanted.

The Random House Book of Poetry for Children has been a perennial favorite since its first printing in 1983. Featuring poems by such diverse poets as Emily Dickinson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and Shel Silverstein, this book is a must have for any child”s bookshelf.

Poetry Speaks to Children, a poem and CD duo is a highly praised collection of poetry for children. The illustrations are lavish and beautiful, but the true treasure is the CD that features the likes of Robert Frost reading “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” and Roald Dahl reading “The Dentist and the Crocodile”.

I Invited A Dragon for Dinner is more contemporary than the others, and far more silly – which makes it fun to read aloud and even more fun to hear. The poems are from 23 authors who won a nationwide contest, and the illustrations by award winning illustrator Chris Demarest. How can you not love a poem that starts with…

One mouse moved into my house
I did not mind
I let him stay but now I find

His mother”s in the parlor
And his father”s on the stair
His sister”s in the pantry
And his brother”s in my chair…
(Mary Ciotowski, Mouse House)