Jumpstart! Poetry

Games and Activities for Ages 7-12

Pie Corbett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781134035380
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

A good poetry idea should help the children feel excited about writing and enable them to think of what to write - developing their imagination, creativity and writing skills.

Jumpstart! Poetry is about involving children as creative writers through writing poems. The book contains a bank of ideas that can be drawn upon when teaching poetry but also at other times to provide a source for creative writing that children relish. There are more than 100 quick warm-ups to fire the brain into a creative mood and to 'jumpstart' reading, writing and performing poetry in any key stage 1 or 2 classroom.

Practical, easy-to-do and vastly entertaining, this new 'jumpstarts' will appeal to busy teachers in any primary classroom.

CHAPTER 1
Ideas for developing a ‘poetry climate’ in schools and classrooms

Children love reading, writing and performing poetry. It is essential to our well-being because it focuses upon creativity…and creativity matters, especially for those with chaotic lives. It is worth remembering that the opposite of creation is destruction. It seems an obvious idea to work out which poets are going to become the main focus for teaching with a poet a term. This means that the children become familiar with a range of poets over time. For instance:

Year Group	Poets
Year 3	June Crebin
	James Carter
	Michael Rosen
Year 4	Charles Causley
	Alan Ahlberg
	Jan Dean
Year 5	Valerie Bloom
	Brian Moses
	Kit Wright
Year 6	Ted Hughes
	William Blake
	Judith Nichols
Year 7	Roger McGough
	Jackie Kay
	Carol Ann Duffy
Year 8	Brian Patten
	Matthew Sweeney
	Grace Nicols
Year 9	Philip Gross
	John Agard
	Helen Dunmore

RHYME OF THE WEEK

At key stage 1 children need to learn a bank of nursery, traditional and action rhymes. Many picture books rhyme (Each Peach Pear Plum) and there are a few ‘key’ poems such as ‘The Owl and the Pussy Cat’ that should be learned and performed. Poetry at key stage 1 should be a daily occurrence and this is achieved by establishing a ‘poem of the week’. It is worth remembering that there is a strong link between success in reading and experience in rhyming. In many classes the idea of ‘rhyme of the week’ needs to be carried on into year 3.

POEM OF THE DAY

During key stage 2 and 3 establish a routine of ‘poem of the day’. Draw up a simple rota with children’s names. Each day it is somebody else’s turn to perform a poem. This could be read aloud or learned. It might be a solo poem or friends can be involved. Once a week, the teacher reads a poem in order to model effective reading. This is a simple method of broadening children’s repertoire and helping them to internalise patterns, rhythms and ideas.

If you have a climate of curiosity about poetry and enjoyment then you may find that children write poems and little fragments off their own bat; especially if you have provided a writing journal. Billy Collins wrote tellingly about the influence of reading poetry on his writing – how good poetry can act not only as a celebration but also as an invitation. In The Trouble with Poetry (Random House, 2005) he says that reading poetry makes him want to write poetry. He describes waiting in the darkness, holding a pencil and hoping for a flame to spark his writing.

That is what we have to try to kindle in the classroom – thousands of little flames, so that children actually want to write. If they do not enjoy writing then something is wrong. We need to find poems like little gifts that make the children want to write.

20 WAYS TO ESTABLISH A POETRY CLIMATE

1. Display poems around the classroom and school – in staff rooms, on the backs of doors, on notice boards.
2. As a school, decide to read ‘a poem a day’ – perhaps from one of the Macmillan Read Me books. Have ‘poet of the week’, or each term every class focuses on a different poet.
3. Include a poem in all assemblies.
4. Create a ‘poet tree’ that has different branches (for different types of poem and for poets, e.g. the haiku branch, the Charles Causley branch). On the leaves the children copy up lines, verses or poems.
5. ‘Desert Island Poems’ – read out your favourites and explain what it is you like about the poem.
6. Poem swap – find a poem for a friend and swap over.
7. Put poems on to cards – children take a poem card home. Favourites can be learned by heart or performed.
8. Tape a poetry programme – or get pupils to make a Power Point of poems transposed on to images or photos.
9. Start all staff meetings with a poem.
10. Each teacher sends a poem as a message to another teacher every Friday morning for a term!
11. Put a haiku on every newsletter.
12. Create and sell CDs or DVDs of children reading or performing their poems and stories and sell these.
13. Annual school anthology of children’s poetry.
14. Use poems across the curriculum (The Works 2 – Poems on every subject and for every occasion, published by Macmillan Children’s Books, 2002).
15. Use screen savers to show haiku.
16. Make pottery slabs with brief poems or lines printed on each slab.
17. Paint and display poetry banners and flags.
18. Use English teachers to make links with other subjects so that poems are written that accompany science or history, art or music, or dance.
19. Put on a poetry performance that involves poems, dances, music and drama.
20. Read, perform and celebrate poetry beyond the confines of the exam syllabus.
21. As a staff, brainstorm other ideas – have a poetry noticeboard in the staffroom.

CHAPTER 2
Poetry reading games and activities

DIGGING DEEPER

Poems are not like sums – they do not always easily add up. It seems to me more important for a child to enjoy a poem than to have an opinion about it. What we can say for sure is that when reading poetry, it is important to read it aloud. Poems are nearly always to be heard as well as read in the head. It is the combination of sound and meaning that has the full impact.

Here are some activities that will help children dig under the skin of a poem. Remember that the aim is for children to enjoy and take to heart a poem. Trying to spot powerful verbs may just make the whole activity rather meaningless. All reading of poetry should involve both performing and discussing. But there are many other ways into a poem. Reading, performing and discussing are important, but games wher...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Ideas for developing a ‘poetry climate’ in schools and classrooms
• 2 Poetry reading games and activities
• 3 Poetry warm-up games
• 4 Poetry writing games
• 5 Reading workshop ideas
• 6 Writing workshop ideas
• 7 Shakespeare rules
• 8 Poetry slams
• 9 Using the images
• 10 Ideas for publishing and performances
• Appendices
• Bibliography