Try this Speaking and Listening Talking Frame Cards to improve your students speaking and listening skills. What are some tips for performing poetry? I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married. And plenty that will reach across the curriculum to prepare- I found examples that could easily bring in art, drama, music, history, geography, sports, maths, science...

Most nursery rhymes are basic rhyming poems. Beyond that, there are endless examples of rhyming poems for kids, some more modern than others. A Million Little Diamonds This is a lovely example of a kenning in this book of poems chosen specially for Key Stage 1. Evie is my daughter and this one is about me!

What's in this Performance Poetry resource?

All of our resources should be accessible and fun, helping children with their spoken and written confidence. Gaining the confidence to contribute ideas, be creative when writing and share personal poems is key in helping KS2 children to develop. This fab Performance Poetry PowerPoint is the perfect way to introduce it to your class and bring your students' poetry to life. The ones that I did annotate however, I adored! There is so much possible to do with them, from tongue twisters, to chants, to full blown acting opportunities. I found poems that would work for small groups (3/4), that they could stage themselves very easily from the imagery provided. And others that could use the whole class (around 32 lines to give out in the poems) that can either be handed over completely, or controlled by the teacher in the position of a narrator/conductor. There is lots of great vocabulary to explore here which gives could give children the impetus to find out more about Georgian England. The relatively simple rhythm and rhyme scheme makes it easy for children to write and add in their own verses perhaps supplying the poem with a new and happier ending!?

For older kids, have them choose a favorite song, and recite them as a poem. They’ll discover they already know plenty of poetry. All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the belongings of my or your body or of any one’s body, male or female,Intentionally, I have not included the whole of the poems in this blog as some of them are fairly long. The whole versions are all easily found for free online. I particularly enjoyed the poem ‘Walking the Dog’. I thought this poem may be excellent for use in a classroom as the subject matter, dogs, is something that interests many children, but also because of the many poetic features it includes, such as repetition, stanzas, and rhyme. These features make this book great to read aloud and perform but would also be appropriate for literacy lessons, to expose children to features of a poem. I also think the pictures make it appropriate for all ages. As well as analysing the poem, ‘Walking the Dog’ could be used as a template for early poetry writing, inspiring children to write their own poem about something that interests them. It covers Performance Poetry in plenty of detail and explains exactly how to perform poetry, with loads of fun and creative techniques for the class to try. Inspire the principles of kindness and friendship in your learners with this Anti-Bullying Poem Poster. Why are poems good for children?

One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. Learn some tips and advice for reading prose and poems out loud to help build confidence and enjoyment. A fun way to get everyone reading as a group; do some performance poetry of your own in the classroom or at home!Make it fun. Don’t sit your child down and inform them they’re going to learn some poems. Instead, introduce them casually. What can rhyme tell us? At the end of the 18th century, Blake wrote two scathing poems that denounce the abominable practice of exploiting very young children as chimney sweepers. In the 1789 poem, from Songs of Innocence, the reader’s sense of horror is heightened by the jarring contrast between the nursery-rhyme structure and the grim subject matter. The perfect rhyme scheme falters as the speaker moves from recounting the loss of his mother and being sold into bondage by his father to describing the solace an “angel” promises little Tom Dacre. An oral reading reveals how rhyme contributes to the devastating argument of this poem in ways that a silent reading cannot. What can various sound devices tell us? In this poem, Kenyon captures the conflict between the comfort and the anxiety of death in startling ways. The reassuring pastoral imagery is often undermined by unusual vantage points and disturbing objects, as in the first lines, where sunlight is described from within a darkening barn, “moving / up the bales as the sun moves down.” Kenyon’s use of consonance—the repetition of consonant sounds—and assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds—brings a vivid physicality to the speaker’s conflict. We see this when the comforting flow of “Let the light of late afternoon” is suddenly obstructed by the tongue forming the word “chinks.” The sonic repetition in this poem also reveals the intricate phonemic—referring to the smallest distinct units of sound within words—relationships the poet has so skillfully knitted together through the dominant l and k sounds. This sonic tension, like the fear and relief the speaker finds in the idea of death, are brought to a close in the final line, “comfortless, so let evening come.” Finally, though line breaks are difficult to capture aloud, the strategic breaks, particularly in the last stanza, are well worth noting as readers explore ways in which this last line might be performed. What can point of view tell us? Five years later, Blake wrote a second poem about child chimney sweepers that appeared in Songs of Experience. This much shorter poem begins with the same rhyme scheme as the earlier poem. The first stanza also contains a short dialogue between an observer and the now-experienced chimney sweeper. In the second stanza the poet introduces a new rhyme pattern, which reflects a shift: the chimney sweeper’s point of view has changed from that of one who is innocent to that of one who is experienced. Struggling with the challenge of how to vocalize this poem with the chimney sweeper’s accusatory tone will help students understand how Blake uses point of view. Rhyming poetry gives children the opportunity to anticipate what’s coming next and sometimes have the satisfaction of being right.