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Monday 7 September 2015

Firework Light Poems - Art/Poetry Workshop Idea for National Poetry Day 2016

National Poetry Day is on October 8th, and the theme is Light. As ever with NPD, this is a very broad theme, and encompasses a huge variety of possibilities. Here is a very simple idea, which can be adapted for children of all ages and abilities. What follows is the broad outline; feel free to add, subtract and alter according to who you are working with.

Step One

Play a game with the pupils. Name a colour, and give them a set amount of time to list as many things as they can that have that colour. So for example, you might say 'green', and pupils might write 'frog; grass; tree; snot, etc. If you are into gamification, you might make this activity into a competition.

Step Two

Use some of the ideas generated in the previous activity to model some similes for the class, e.g.: 'as green as a....', 'as red as a.....'. Use this as an opportunity to discuss which are the best ideas, and how to make the similes more interesting/exciting.

Step Three

give out lots of sheets of coloured paper - as many different colours as possible placed on each table. Children can write colour-based similes on the sheets of paper, according to which colour paper they have been given.

Step Four

Share my poem 'Fireworks', below. In groups, children cut out the similes, and stick them onto a black backdrop, so as to form the shape of a firework in the night sky. They can then practice performing the pieces, and you have some lovely collaborative shape poems to display.


Fireworks
A dash of red
A splash of blue
A splodge of green
and a twinkle of gold.

A streak of white
A stripe of pink
A smear of yellow
and a sparkle of silver.

Somewhere, a happy child
is flicking paint
across the sky.