Verse poems about growing up11/3/2023 Don’t aim for perfection, go for expressiveness. It doesn’t have to rhyme or scan, and can be as simple as a list of ‘things’ (see the ‘Happy Poem’ activity further down). I know this fills some of you with dread, but it is much, much easier than you would imagine, and children are always full to the brim with words and ideas you’ll be the scribe. It’s essential they see themselves as published authors. Rotate displays - try shape poems for a fortnight, then writing by one poet, then haikus.Ĭelebrate all kinds of poems, and especially the children’s own work. Put up a display - somewhere prominent in the classroom (say, by the door, so children see it every time they leave the room). At the end of the week, ask the class which poem they enjoyed best, and read it all over again! Poetry display Nothing done in the name of poetry is a wasteĪ poem every morning is a fabulous drip of the good stuff - of literacy - for building vocabularies and word stores, and widening children’s experiences, as well as broadening their knowledge and understanding of language, grammar and syntax.Ībove all, it’s a really fun and lovely ritual. What did you like about the poem? What was your favourite part and why? Were there any words you liked or didn’t understand? How did the poem make you feel? How could we perform it? Could we write one like this? Could we illustrate it on a giant poster? Try a whole range, including nursery rhymes, and use them as discussion points. These could be topic-centred, or about the seasons or feelings. Try reading a poem to your class every day. Here are some practical ideas (derived from my book, Let’s Do Poetry in Primary Schools, published by Bloomsbury) for bringing poetry into EYFS and KS1 classrooms. Whatever topic you are doing right now, you can be sure there will be poems available to help you fully explore and express that subject matter. There are poems available on every subject under the sun. They don’t need persuading they instantly respond to and absorb its music, its magic, its brevity and intensity, its hypnotic and infectious rhythms, rhymes and repetitions.Īnd they also delight in its playfulness, its humour, and its unique way of looking at the world anew and afresh. So why do I consider poetry a gift? First, children love it. Cummings creates in the poem "In Just," full of hop-scotch and jump-rope and rain, all "mud-luscious" and "puddle-wonderful.Clearly as a children’s poet I’m wholly biased but I see poetry as a gift for the early years sector.Īnd contrary to what I’ve been told in the past - that poetry is irrelevant, difficult, scary - I’d say that a great many practitioners now heartily concur that it is a wholly creative, flexible, vital, dynamic, fun and cross-curricular medium. Take, for example, the springtime world E.E. Their talk, mild variation, chilling theme,Īnd finally, of course, poems about childhood can be just plain fun. People have filled the room he lies above. Would let their wisdom be the whole of love. Sometimes a poet writes of childhood as a time of happiness, or sometimes as an uncomfortable period in which the child cannot yet live side-by-side with adults, as in James Merrill’s "The World and the Child," which describes the sweet pain of a child who lies in bed, separated from the adults, longing to be loved: Of Wheat they always or never had together. "It turns out you are the story of your childhood," Matthews wrote, "and you're under constant revision." In the poem, Matthews tries to reveal the contradictions that arise when one tries to remember the details of a far-off time: In "A Happy Childhood," William Matthews captures another aspect of one’s early years: that not all memories are true. In "A Replica of the Parthenon," for example, Mark Doty recounts a game he and a neighbor girl played without understanding the profound meaning of what they were doing: In these works, poets document remembered people, places, and pastimes with an attention that children have for the world before ritual and maturity strips life of its daily magic. "Childhood," said English poet John Betjeman, "is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows." Indeed, poems about childhood seem colored by innocence and naiveté, memories that make the rooms of a house more grand, the shadows near the bed at night more horrifying.
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