Reading Level: Grade 3

Poems suitable for reading by 8-9 year olds.

Examine any Fire Hydrant


Examine any fire hydrant.
This is what you’ll see:
Inside it’s full of H2O.
Outside it’s K9P.

The Candy Cane Collector

Hello, my name is Hector.
I’m a candy cane collector.
I collect the finest candy canes
from all around the world.

My candy canes are quite a sight.
While some are dark and some are light,
they’re mostly colored red and white,
and all of them are swirled.

A few of them are blue or green,
or purple, pink, or tangerine,
or pumpkin-hued for Halloween,
or rainbow-colored too.

I go to countries far and near
to buy them all and bring them here,
three hundred sixty days a year;
it’s what I like to do.

I tour the world on ships and planes,
and buses, bikes, and subway trains
because collecting candy canes
has always been my mission

I hope you’ll come and see someday.
I’ve set them out. They’re on display.
And, best of all, I have to say,
they’re all in mint condition.

A Tiny, Spiny Dinosaur

A tiny, spiny dinosaur
was racing through my house;
a tiny, spiny dinosaur
no bigger than a mouse.

That tiny, spiny dinosaur,
it leapt up on my bed.
It punched me in the stomach
and it hit me on the head.

It chased me from my bedroom
and pursued me down the stairs.
It knocked the TV over
and it broke a pair of chairs.

I don’t know where it came here from
or how it got inside.
The only thing I know is that
I need a place to hide.

I’ll have to catch that dinosaur
before it gets too late.
But, oh, it found my brother’s room…
I guess that I can wait.

I Didn’t Do It

I’ve heard that you can’t get in trouble
for something that you didn’t do.
My mother said that was correct.
My teacher confirmed it was true.

I’m guessing they must not have meant it;
imagine my shock and dismay
when I found out I was in trouble
for not doing homework today.

Try to Lick Your Elbow

Your elbow’s pretty hard to reach,
although it’s awfully near.
Just try to lick your elbow,
or to put it in your ear.

You cannot reach your elbow
with your shoulder or your nose.
It’s practically impossible
to touch it with your toes.

Your elbow won’t go near your neck,
your forehead, or your eyes.
If you could touch it to your spine,
I think you’d win a prize.

I tried to lick my elbow once,
and I came pretty close.
But then I stopped and realized,
like, OMG! That’s gross!

Cheese Breeze

Whenever I eat dairy,
it makes me have to toot.
You might think that sounds scary.
I think it’s kind of cute.

A sip of milk, some butter,
a tiny bit of cheese,
will make my tummy flutter
and cause a “bottom breeze.”

An ice cream cone or custard,
some yogurt or some ghee,
and then that noise you just heard…
That probably was me.

You might think I’m unlucky.
You might think it’s unfair.
But I don’t find it yucky;
it’s just my dairy air.

I Don’t Watch TV

I don’t watch TV.

I mean, who’s got the time?

I only watch YouTube,
and Netflix, and Prime,
and Hulu, and Crackle,
and Roku, and Tubi,
and Vudu, and Hoopla,
and Yahoo, and Mubi,
and Google, and Apple,
and Vimeo too,
and Disney, and PopcornFlix.

That’s all I do.

There’s so much to stream!

It might seem like a crime
to not watch TV,
but, then, who’s got the time?

My City

Here’s a little ditty
that I wrote about my city,
which I think is very pretty
and I think is very nice.

All the people are appealing.
There is such a friendly feeling
that is calm and spirit-healing.
I would call it paradise.

You can walk around the park, it
is just over by the market.
In the day or after dark, it
is a lovely place to be.

All the trees and all the flowers
have such soul-restoring powers.
You can walk around for hours,
so I hope you’ll come and see.

If you visit for a while
you are sure to get a smile
so that, mile after mile,
you will want to walk some more.

I expect you’ll like our city,
which is nice and very pretty
There is just one little pity;
you may find your feet get sore.

I Have a Bunch of Batteries

I have a bunch of batteries
I need to give away,
and if you’d like to have them,
you can get them all today.

I didn’t want to throw them out.
They’re yours to take instead.
I probably should warn you, though,
these batteries are dead.

I have a lot of tiny ones.
A few of them are large.
And you can have them all right now,
completely free of charge.

An Echo in My Room

There’s an echo, echo, echo,
in my room, my room today.
It’s an echo that I wish,
I wish, I wish would go away.

It’s a problem, it’s a problem,
for no matter what I do,
if I make a sound, a sound,
the echo, echo makes it too.

When this echo, echo, echo,
started, started yesterday,
I was not amused, was not amused.
It’s not okay, okay.

Now I must be silent, silent.
I’m afraid, afraid to speak.
If I’m talking, if I’m talking,
it might last, might last all week.

It’s annoying, but it seems, it seems,
it’s here, it’s here to stay.
It’s my parrot, it’s my parrot
saying everything I say.