Wonder Poems for Kids | National Poetry Day 2026 | Wonder Our World

To celebrate National Poetry Day 2026 and its theme of Wonder, I have brought together eight of my wonder poems for kids, inspired by the natural world, science, curiosity and the extraordinary things around us.

These poems move from the simple joy of going outside and noticing tiny creatures to questions about rivers, animals, stars and the fragile ecosystems that support life.

Together, they celebrate the Wonder Our World theme by encouraging children to look more closely, ask questions and appreciate what is already here.

The final poem, For Now, has its own dedicated blog post where I share the story behind the poem and some simple lesson ideas and resources for using it with children.

If these poems inspire any writing of your own, or if you use one of my poems with a class, I’d love to hear about it. You can share in the comments or get in touch by email.

Wonder Poems for Kids for National Poetry Day

Let’s Go See Outside

Let’s leap from our beds, throw those dull curtains wide

Let’s dress in a second and go see Outside

Outside watched through windows, the day we were born

She showed us the sunshine, the moonlight and dawn

Outside saw us fall and rise up with new scars

above blades of grass, underneath dying stars

Let’s run with her wind and go bathe in her breeze

Let’s roll down her hills and go climb up her trees

Let’s dance in her rain and go paddle her brooks

Let’s seek out her crannies and go hide in her nooks

Let’s doze with her daisies, go sail on her clouds

Let’s dangle our wishes on her dappling boughs

Let’s grace her with giggles, go smudge her with smiles

Let’s skip a new moment down her blossomed aisles

Let’s leap from our beds, throw those dull curtains wide

Let’s dress in a second and go thank Outside

Parkour The World

When I grow up, I will parkour

around the world, my dreams on tour

I’ll jump from my hot air balloon

and dive through clouds below the moon

I’ll land on top of Blackpool Tower

and pirouette for half an hour

From there I’ll take a leap of faith

and sail the wind to Big Ben’s face

I’ll swing upon his minute hand

Let go, laché to other lands

across the channel, somersault

land on the Louvre and rainbow vault

and like a dove’s white feather, fall

to skim the ghost of Berlin Wall

through time and space I’ll onwards march

to spin in Colosseum’s arch

Then tic-tac off a pyramid

to surf the Nile with hippo kids

Next double twist above Red Square

do all the things I’d never dare

I’ll back flip on the Taj Mahal

then soar above Uluru’s gnarl

I’ll leapfrog on Moeraki’s Stones

and feel their magic seize my bones

I’ll King Kong up the Empire State

Wear Cuban cars like roller skates

I’ll Machu Picchu, Iguazu

I’ll Blarney Stone, I’ll Fairy Pool

I’ll climb a sunbeam to the sky

and back in my balloon, I’ll sigh

at all the wonders far beneath

and how our stay on Earth’s so brief

When I grow up, I will parkour

around the world, my dreams on tour

Click for Parkour The World lesson activity sheet.

Rainbow Seconds

Just A Bee 

I’m just a bee

I buzz around 

I nest in hives

or underground

I’m just a bee

I rarely sting

I do not buzz

with boastful wings

I’m just a bee

I know no spite

A zillion friends

and me in flight

I’m just a bee

I fertilise

the blooming world

beneath our skies

I’m just a bee

I don’t see red

I nectar-hunt

and pollen-spread

I’m just a bee

A busy bee

No time to see

how you need me

Chameleon Kid

I wish that I had

a chameleon’s tongue

It’s twice as long

as its body!

Its tip

more than quick

accelerates

superglue-wet

faster than a fighter jet

Imagine that!

A lick and a splat

A split-second prong

The pranks you could play

as friends become prey

and the fun

you could have

with your tongue

Where Do Streams Stop?

yesterday

as spring sprinkled diamonds

between the ripples

of the stream

Mum said

Take off your socks

Go for a paddle

a minnow

nibbled the slippery moss

between my toes

and then disappeared

under a rock

Mum, I asked

as I upturned the rock

seeing the minnow dart off

where do streams start

and where do streams stop

Dying, Dying Massive Star

Dying, dying, massive star How I wonder what you are Up there forging energy Battling with your gravity Hydrogen and helium Burning outward, keeps you firm But Hydrogen, alas, runs out Your core collapses thereabouts But not before, beneath your shell You’ve one more story left to tell You burn so hot, you’re on your knees A hundred million degrees Nuclei of helium Fuses but your time has come Oxygen and carbon’s birthed Like your ancestral stars made Earth

Carbon fuses into more Elements, another four Sodium, magnesium Neon, aluminium A million years you’ve been alive But in a second you must die You’re out of fuel, your core implodes Your outer layer then explodes Universe’s biggest flare A supernova bright and rare Injecting planets, not yet told With platinum, with silver, gold Remnants of you then evolve To neutron stars or jet black holes One a star corpse ever bright One a speck devouring light Dying, dying massive star How I wonder what you are Will you in a billion years Create new planets far from here

For Now

The sun, the air, the atmosphere

The moon: her gravity

The mountains, plains, the clouds, the rain

The wind: his westerlies

The birds of prey, the bats, the cranes

The western honeybees

The butterflies, the dragonflies

The forest and her trees

The sloths that hang, orangutans

The elephants, gazelles

The bison, wolves, the beavers’ pools

The termites, earthworms, cells

The ocean’s show of ebb and flow

The whales, the sharks, the kelp

The plankton, krill, a trillion gills

For now. Unless we help

All Poems by Mark Bird

Parkour_The_World_Classroom_Ideas.pdf

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