Poetry

Do you have a favourite poem? I'd love to know! Tell me what your favourite poem is (you might even want to type it out as a comment) and why you like it so much. It might be by a famous poet, or not; I just want to know what you like!

I've just had an idea for a new project!!

Our Poet Tree

This term we will be doing lots of work with poetry. These pictures are of our new display- it shows our favourite poets and poems- we can add to this whenever we find a new one we like!

Today Miss Benn had a fantastic day at a course led by Michael Rosen; one of St. George's class' favourite poets! We'll be doing all sorts of fun activities and improving our reading and writing through poetry.

Star Poems

This week, we read this fantastic poem by James McGonigal.

We asked lots of questions about the poem and we liked that there was no right or wrong answer to them.

Have a think about these questions:

Does this poem remind you of anything that has ever happened to you or someone you know?

Does this poem remind you of anything you have ever read, seen on TV, seen in a film or heard in a song?

Are there any questions you would like to ask anyone or anything from the poem?


Some children used pastels to show what the poem made them think and feel.

By Abel

By Antonio

By Sofia

By Amelie

By Ella W.

Some children wrote some fantastic poems of their own, inspired by the poem we read together. Click the pictures to make them bigger and easier to read:

By Ella F.

By Sonny

By Aoife

By Jack

By Joseph

One group of children collected pictures, colours and symbols from magazines to make a montage to represent the poem. I'm sure you'll agree it looks quite spectacular!

By Agatha, Michael, Jacob, Calum, Anna and Cassea.

Another group of children spent time looking through a whole collection of poetry books from our poetry box and found many poems that were somehow connected to 'Little Star'. Some were about stars, some about the sky, or night, or space...

They made a super anthology (collection of poems) for the poetry section of our book corner. Well done Jonathan, Luke, Marielle, Chelsea and Eliska.

The final group put on a 'Poetry Show' for us and performed 'Little Star'. They used decided who would say what, then added sound effects, actions and repetition to make a very impressive performance of the poem. Well done Rosa, Gabriel, Giulia, Rhiannon, Nathan and Pearl!

New Poetry Podcast!

Today we read a fantastic poem by Ian McMillan called 'Ten Things Found in a Wizard's Pocket'.

We thought of some more things we might find in a wizard's pocket and made a poem of our own.

To listen to the podcast of our class poem,
'Things Found in a Wizard's Pocket' (after McMillan), please click here!

http://podcast.lgfl.org.uk/channels/2105201St-Georges-Class.xml

We are hoping to do lots more poetry podcasts in the next few months, so stay tuned!

Kennings

Last week, as part of Friendship Week, St. George's class wrote a class Kenning poem about what a friend is. * COMING SOON to the blog as a new podcast! *

A Kenning is an interesting form of poetry that uses only 2 words on each line, with the second word ending in -er. It gives you lots of clues about the subject of the poem, by telling you what it does, or likes or looks like, but it doesn't tell you what the poem is actually about.

Can you be a super Kenning detective and work out what these poems by St. George's class are about?

Antonio's Kenning:

Night flyer,

Blood drinker,

Cave sleeper,

Black skinner,

Fast flyer,

Loop flyer,

Noise maker,

Fruit eater.

What am I?

Abel's Kenning:

Fast runner,

Spot wearer,

Prey hunter,

Rainforest creeper,

Water devourer,

Beautiful viewer.

What am I?

Sofia's Kenning:

People helper,

World creator,

World protector,

Heart maker,

Love creator,

Nature maker,

People carer,

Argument breaker.

What am I?

Ella W.'s Kenning:

Night breaker,

Dawn maker,

Light creator,

Heat giver,

Tan maker.

What am I?

Aoife's Kenning:

Sister hater,

Lego lover,

Top-bunk sleeper,

Good fighter,

Skate boarder,

Leg grabber,

Star-Wars watcher,

Promise breaker.

What am I?

Calum's Kenning:

Good scorer,

Bicycle kicker,

Sweden player,

Tattoo wearer.

What am I?

Chelsea's Kenning:

Great runner,

Good thrower,

Super pole-vaulter,

Awesome triple-jumper,

Spectacular hurdler,

Excellent shot-putter.

What am I?

Our Class Kenning

As promised... here is the Kenning we wrote and recorded as a class for Friendship Week.

The title of our Kenning is 'Friend'. We used the microphone to record our lines and put them together to create this super poem.

To listen to our poem click here!

http://podcast.lgfl.org.uk/channels/2105201St-Georges-Class.xml

A Shock for Johnny! Kaspar Poetry

 Source: Harper Collins- Michael Morpuro- Kaspar Prince of Cats

Last week in Kaspar Prince of Cats, we were all shocked to read that the Countess had died in an accident. Of course the main character of our story, Johnny, was much more shocked. We imagined that we were Johnny and thought about how he felt in the moment when Freddie told him about the accident. What does he feel? Where in his body? How could we describe the feeling in his tummy? What did his hands feel like?

We worked together to write a poem. The children offered ideas for lines for the poem and we wrote them on strips of paper. Then we made a ladder with the strips of paper and moved them around until we felt that it was in the correct order and our poem was finished.

Here is the finished poem:

Shock

Oh no! Sadly a lady died,

I have goosebumps like a cold bubble bath,

I'm gasping for breath like the end of a marathon,

I can hear nothing but the thoughts in my head,

My heart beats hard like galloping horses' hooves,

I am shaking like a volcano about to erupt,

I feel hot like the burning rising sun,

The Countess is dead.

I fall to the floor like a popped balloon.

By St. George's Class

The children then worked with a partner to draw what they thought was happening in Johnny's mind when he heard of the Countess' death. Click on the pictures to make them bigger!

 

 By Sonny and Ella F.

By Cassea and Agatha

By Luke and Marielle

Each child then wrote their own poem to show how Johnny felt when he heard that the Countess had died. Here are some of the best of a fantastic collection!

 By Jack

By Eliska

 By Rosa

 By Rhiannon

 By Cordelia

 By Marielle

 By Nathan

 By Amelie

 By Ella W.

 By Calum

The Midas Touch

This week we received a very special message from King Midas! When we came into our classroom on Wednesday, an enemy of King Midas had hidden all of these gold objects around our room!

Once we had worked in teams to find all of King Midas' gold for him, we collected lots of adjectives to describe them, then wrote some poems about the King's favourite thing: GOLD!

Here are some super examples:

By Michael

By Anna

By Caitlin

By Jacob

 By Antonio

 By Luke

By Aoife

 By Cassea

 By Ella W.

By Calum

We read a great version of 'King Midas and the Golden Touch' by Charlotte Craft. We enjoyed the story and loved the beautiful illustrations by K. Y. Craft.

Source: Charlotte Craft, KY.Craft, Harper Collins

Halfway through the story, we stopped and thought about what Midas might be thinking and feeling at this point in the story. We made a 'role on the wall' diagram for Midas- here is an example:

Then we drew pictures to show what we would do if we had the Midas touch!

We read the rest of the story, then made Fortunately-Unfortunately graphs, to show how Midas' luck changes throughout the story. When things are good for Midas, the line on the graph goes up and when things go wrong, the line goes down. Here is an example:

On Friday, we imagined that we had the Midas touch and worked in groups to make a 3D collage of items that Midas might touch. We also thought about mixing textures and using the paper folding and shaping skill that we learnt from Licy and Philippa. 

Here are the collages, before they were touched by Midas!

Here they are after the Midas touch! Our gold collages:

What do you think?

The Magic Box 

Last week, we read one of Miss Benn's favourite poems, 'The Magic Box' by Kit Wright. We loved the images he uses and the way he plays with opposites. Some of the children really enjoyed the impossible things he puts in his box. After spending some time looking at this poem, we read some similar poems written by other children and shared what we liked most about them.

The Magic Box

I will put in the box,
The swish of a silk sari on a summer night,
Fire from the nostrils of a Chinese dragon,
The tip of a tongue touching a tooth.

I will put in the box,
A snowman with a rumbling belly,
A sip of the bluest water from Lake Lucerne,
A leaping spark from an electric fish.

I will put into the box,
Three violet wishes spoken in Gujarati,
The last joke of an ancient uncle,
And the first smile of a baby.

I will put into the box,
A fifth season and a black sun,
A cowboy on a broomstick
And a witch on a white horse.

My box is fashioned from ice and gold and steel,
With stars on the lid and secrets in the corners.
Its hinges are the toe joints of dinosaurs.

I shall surf in my box,
On the great high-rolling breakers of the wild Atlantic,
Then wash ashore on a yellow beach,
The colour of the sun.

by Kit Wright

To watch Kit Wright reading his poem, click the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/kit-wright-the-magic-box-poem-only/8837.html

We thought about the things we would like to put in a Magic Box- and Miss Benn brought out a Magic Box for us to look at. Then, we wrote some poems of our own, here are some great examples:

By Rhiannon

By Aoife 

 By Michael

By Jacob 

By Abel

By Eliska 

By Sonny 

By Joseph 

By Jack

 Leave a comment and share your favourite line or verse from your poem!



Aoife's Animal Poem Book

This week, Aoife spent some time at home writing and illustrating her own book of poems about animals. Look through her fantastic book below- use the arrows to flick through the pages! Well done Aoife!

Miss Benn's Poetry Adventure

As you all know, I was on a course today with Michael Rosen. I have discovered lots of exciting new poems and poetry games for us to try out in St. George's Class.

I heard lots of interesting ideas from the other teachers on the course and they were very impressed with all the wonderful poems you have written this year.

Here's a picture with the man himself, Michael Rosen, holding your book of 'Gold Poems for King Midas':

Michael Rosen liked your poems so much that he even signed the book for you- and left you a special message!

I hope you all have a lovely sunny long weekend- and come back next week ready for lots of new poems and poetry games- I can't wait!

 

The Midnight Sea

Yesterday, we read chapters 3 and 4 of Stone Mouse by Jenny Nimmo- we have enjoyed this book so far. In these chapters there were lots of great descriptive words and phrases about the sea. We collected these adjectives and wrote some phrases of our own onto strips of paper.

We tried to include different senses and we worked together to edit and improve the lines, adding alternative words or word orders.

We worked together to write 12 lines, then blutacked them to the board and moved them around (a lot!) until we found an order that we liked. The class decided that the sea should start calm, get stormy, then be calm again the next morning. Then, we discussed splitting the poem into verses.

Eventually, after lots of discussion, one of the lines 'The gloomy sea,' didn't seem to fit anywhere, so we decided to leave it out. We discussed how poets edit their writing and that sometimes even the best ideas don't belong in one particular poem.

Next, we chose a title from a number of suggestions. We decided that 'The Midnight Sea' was the best choice. We then went through and added the capital letters and punctuation that we thought was necessary.

Here is our poem:

The Midnight Sea

The silent midnight water,

Gleaming moon reflecting on the azure sea,

Shining and glittering,

The whispering ocean.

Swishy swashy waves,

Frills of bubbles,

Waves tipped with pure white foam.

The roaring waves,

Smack the stony sea shore,

The salty smell of darkness choking in your fizzy mouth.

Calm and peaceful water.

By St. George's Class

Southwark Poetry Festival - ADISA

On Thursday we were lucky enough to visit Dulwich Picture Gallery for a session with performance poet ADISA, as part of the Southwark Poetry Festival.

Source: bbc.co.uk

We had a fantastic time and enjoyed asking a real-life poet lots of questions! Adisa wanted the children from the three schools to ask lots of questions and he answered them in funny and entertaining ways and performed many of his poems for us.

On our walk back to school through a sunny Dulwich Park, some of the children were telling me that they would like to be professional poets, just like Adisa.

 

Limericks Podcast

This week we listened to Michael Rosen's 'Three Limericks' poem. We were inspired to read lots of other limericks and then to write some of our own. Listen to our podcast and see what you think- some are funny, some are clever and some are just bizarre! Can you find any other limericks?

http://podcast.lgfl.org.uk/channels/2105201St-Georges-Class.xml

Click on the link for 'Limericks'.

The Eagle

I gave the children this jumbled up 'Wordle' version of The Eagle by Lord Alfred Tennyson. I didn't show them the original poem, instead I asked them to write their own poem called 'The Eagle' using the words in the wordle cloud. Some children added a few extra words of their own, but many managed to write a poem using only Tennyson's words.

Here are some of the wonderful poems written by St. George's Class:

The Eagle

He watches the azure sea from a crooked crag,

Like a thunderbolt,

He clasps the mountain with his wrinkled hands,

He watches the world as the sun falls beneath the lands,

He is lonely and wrinkled,

He watches the walls of the sea,

And closes his eyes.

By Ella F.

The Eagle

He glides over the azure sea,

He kills a fish like a thunderbolt,

He crawls up a mountain from the sea,

He lands on the crooked mountain,

He is lonely on the mountain,

He lands on the tree and stands up tall,

He flies as high as the sun,

What is he?

By Antonio

The Eagle

He crawls lonely on the lands,

The bright yellow crooked beak,

He watches the sun fall,

The azure sea crashes on the mountain,

A thunderbolt crashes close to the world,

Beneath him is a mountain,

He is lonely as he watches the bright sun,

He flies over the azure sea.

By Nathan

Here is the original poem:

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

By Lord Alfred Tennyson

The Hungry Forest

As Prince Ivan approached the 'Edge of the Kingdom' in Firebird, we used the illustration and description to inspire another great class poem.

We looked at this spooky picture:

We completed 'Zone of Relevance' diagrams about the picture. The words that we thought described the scene really well went into the red zone, then as they got less relevant they were put further out on the target board. The words that really didn't describe the scene well were put right outside the target in the white area.

Then we worked in small groups to write some words and phrases that we thought described the picture in an interesting way.

We used these super ideas (plus lots more!) to write our class poem. We used the ladder game again; great lines from different children were written onto strips of paper. We stuck them on the board, then moved them around until we had the poem just right. We left the title until last, to make sure it suited the poem perfectly.

Here is our ladder poem:

The final poem:

The Hungry Forest

The moon shines as a spotlight of hope,

Calmer than anyone had ever known,

The sky as dark as the wolf's heart,

As black as a raven's wing.

The trees cover the moonlight,

Branches snapping menacingly in the whispering forest,

Eyes glowing from the mysterious bushes,

Hungry for meat.

By St. George's Class

Abel's Marvellous Poem!

People huddle together in the street,

It's raining and it's light with Iphones.

People stand in shops warming themselves,

As green lights signal the cars to go.

The sky as black as cat's fur,

Umbrellas are like shields fighting splinters and daggers.

What a fantastic poem, Abel! I am so impressed and I am sure our readers will be too. Abel was inspired by his walk home from school in the rain. I think this is a marvellous poem- I love the idea of umbrellas acting as shields and I can just picture the light of the Iphones on the wet streets. Fabulous!



Anger Poem

Today we read some more of our class story; The Girl Who Spun Gold. At the end of the section we read today, Quashiba was very angry. We discussed why she might be angry and thought about exactly how she might be feeling. Each child then drew what they thought might be happening in Quashiba's mind; what is she thinking about?

Here are some great examples:

By Agatha

 By Sonny

By Nathan



We then thought about anger itself and how it makes us feel. Where do you feel anger? What would anger sound like? Taste like? Smell like?

We decided to write a poem with each line starting, 'Anger is'. We worked together to write 10 lines of poetry, then blutacked them to the board and moved them around (a lot!) until we found an order that we liked. Then, we discussed splitting the poem into verses.

Next, we chose a title from a number of suggestions. We decided that 'Anger' was the best choice. We then went through and added the capital letters and punctuation that we thought were necessary.

Here is our poem:

Anger

Anger is like being shot in the foot,

Anger is like getting stung by a jellyfish,

Anger is when someone hits you.

Anger is a crimson crackling fire,

Anger is fizzing and boiling like a pot on the stove,

Anger is salt at the back of your throat,

Anger is the taste of spicy Doritos.

Anger is a roaring lion,

Anger is the smell of hot sweat,

Anger is a volcano erupting with steam.

By St. George's Class

Personification Poems

This week, we wrote some more fabulous poetry. We picked an object from our book 'Hurricane' and imagined that we were interviewing that item. We asked a set of questions and the answers gave our readers clues about which object we were describing. This was our first try at personification (giving an object human qualities).

Here is the poem we wrote as a class:

What Am I?

What can you see?

I can see children looking at me.

What do you want?

I want someone to write on me.

What are you afraid of?

Cleaning spray!

What makes you angry?

People using lots of blu-tack.

What makes you happy?

Someone tickling me with a rubber.

What do you think is next for you?

I think the teacher will rub out the writing on me.

What can you remember?

My Mum and Dad were blackboards.

What advice do you have for us?

Copy me carefully!

By St. George's Class

Of course, we were using personification to describe a whiteboard.

Can you guess what these fantastic poems are describing?

Click on the pictures to make them larger and easier to read:

By Aisling

By Luke

By Aimee

The Angriest Birds



Source: fluffyfeathers.blogspot

The Angriest Birds

The ping of the slingshot as painful as a papercut between the fingers,

As angry as a crazy crocodile,

Accelerating like Usain Bolt's trainers,

Whizzing through the air like a red hot tomato,

Flying like a tiny grenade,

Screaming like a skidding bus.

Explosive eggs dropping for destruction,

Sacrificing their lives for hope for the future.

Treacherous towers to pulverise the pigs,

Smashing like a crashing plane,

Exploding so dramatically,

TNT demolishing toppling towers.

By St. George's Class

Which is your favourite line? Why?

Can you spot a simile?

Can you spot some alliteration?

Can you spot an internal rhyme?



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