How's your day been? (Poetry)

Member Name: pixie1965

Product:	Poetry
Date:	02/02/09 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: can relieve stresses of the day

Disadvantages: can be addictive

~~~~ Poetry for fun???~~~~

The boy stood infront of me in total disbelief. "There's no way its fun miss"

Hmm, let's see if I can change his mind!!

I recently set this challenge for my class. The reason - They needed to be calmed down after the lunch-time play in a snow blizzard.

We also need to have 2 volunteers to recite their own poetry in a forthcoming assembly.

So here's what we did - give it ago and see what type of day you've had.

~~~~ The Title prompt ~~~~

Today is ...
Write this prompt down the margin 15 times.

Then after each prompt write the ending to the sentence. that best describes your day;-

1. a colour
2. a piece of furniture
3. the weather
4. a sport
5. food
6. clothing
7. vehicle
8. holiday destination
9. an animal
10. a film
11. a drink
12. a smell
13. an emotion
14. a family member
15. a memory

Here's how I modelled it for the children before they set off to create their own poem for fun.

Today is white
Today is a white rug
Today is snowy
Today is contact rugby
Today is sorbet
Today is office- worker's shirts
Today is a sports car
Tdoay is a beach resort
Today is swamp of bees
Today is comedy of errors
Today is a glass of milk
Today is a fresh lemon smell
Today is overwheming happiness
Today is my little grand-daughter
Today is a longing

When the children had recorded all their responses, I then got them take away the prompt ' Today is..' and build on what each promt reminds them of. I asked them to help me with mine to create a class poem from my ideas. (this would then give the less able more confidence to go and try it for themselves) Here are their ideas ;

Today is
dazzling and fluffy
snowy madness
hard and fast
sharp and tingling
dazzling and ironed
sporty, young and cool
busy and fun
zooming and dashing
crying with laughter
soft, refreshing and cold
zangy and zingy
satisfaction
new and beautiful
a wish to hold onto.

Looking back over the poem and reading it in your head gives you a clear idea of what sort of day you've had.

I found that using this strategy / prompt encouraged the kids to think outside the box. They were so engrossed in turning their own prompts into bigger ideas the class descended into a calm, quiet envirnoment that produced some amazing ideas. We actually ran out of time. The children just wanted to think of more ideas for prompts.

I have tried this way of writing on several occasions and it's amazing how the stresses and emotions of a day come develop through words and onto page. You do feel a strange sense of achievement when you read your DAY back.

Aand yes I did change his mind - he came up with some brilliant ideas and even said "this is great fun"

Have a go - copy and paste my prompts into a word doc and see what sort of day you've had.

enjoy and thanks for reading
x hev
also on ciao

Summary: have a go and see how involved you get