When Will Small Arrive?

We have been enjoying Levi Pinfold's 'Black Dog' this half term and we're nearly at the end of the book! Today we wrote a fabulous poem about  the Hope family waiting for Small to return, after she ignored their advice and went outside after the enormous black dog.

Firstly, we considered what the members of the Hope family might be thinking:

Then, we used these ideas to write a poem together. We used our favourite ladder technique; lots of children offered ideas for lines and we worked together to refine them, making them even better. Once we had enough lines, we blutacked them all over the board and looked at them all closely.

Next, we organised the lines into an order we were all happy with, before splitting them into verses and changing the punctuation where necessary.

Finally, we came up with a super title for the poem.

Here is the fantastic final poem:

When Will Small Arrive?

A huge black terror arrived at the door,

The world stops.

A minute of silence,

Waiting for Small's bones to return.

Behind the battered barricade,

Uneven blankets drooping from the ceiling,

Worry lingers in the atmosphere.

At the crack of dawn, the Hopes wait quietly,

Spines tingling from the unwanted winter,

The hungry horror circles like a vulture looking for prey,

Small for starters, Maurice for main and Adeline for afters.

A cold chill numbs the family,

The black figure arrived as silently as winter came.

Tick tock goes the clock, when will Small arrive?

By St. George's Class