National Poetry Week with workshops from ‘As Creatives’
On Wednesday 14th October we had a pleasure to welcome Jo Stokes from ‘As Creatives’ who delivered some entertaining and inspiring workshops to all the children.
Performance Poetry workshops were prepared for the youngest pupils and they had been designed to introduce them to the pleasure of poetry! The session began with a brief discussion about poetry and how it differs from plain prose. The children then learnt, using actions, the AA Milne’s poem, ‘Happiness’. Packed with rhythm, following the beat and rhyme, it was a wonderful way for pupils to experience the joys of poetry and of choral speaking.
John had
Great Big
Waterproof
Boots on;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Hat;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Mackintosh —
And that
(Said John)
Is
That.
Year 2 were told a story about one of Michael Rosen’s poems ‘Rhythm of Life’, and how Michael wrote this poem after feeling the rhythm of a train as it went under a bridge he was stood on. They then, with help created their own actions to this poem and performed it to each other.
Years 3 – 6 attended the poetry-writing workshop through Soundscape Poetry, which was designed to draw out richly descriptive language. Sounds are often overlooked in descriptive writing, in favour of the other senses but this workshop encouraged pupils to focus on the things we hear as a way to capture a scene. A drama-based soundscaping activity fed into the writing of a whole class collaborative poem, before children followed the same, carefully structured process to pen their own verses (photos attached). They used: onomatopoeia, alliteration, descriptive writing, contrasts, rhythm, tone, pace. Mrs Follows was very impressed with their figurative language. Let’s hope the children will use it in their class work!
