POEMS ARRANGED BY EVENT OR TOPIC

I am aware that poetry is often difficult to ‘fit in’ to the teaching curriculum when there are so many other priorities, and I have found that a good way to address it is to combine it with a topic that is being taught. The right poems can therefore educate on a topical level as well as a figurative language level, so when I find the inspiration I research subjects and write poems specifically for this purpose. I have therefore listed many of my poems into categories according to the subject, event or topic that they relate to, and have included any research that I have found useful where appropriate. All of my poems which fit into topicwork are listed below, but I have separated them further into specific topics of ENCOURAGEMENT AND INSPIRATION, FOOD, HISTORY AND EVENTS, (PEOPLE & HISTORIC EVENTS, TUDORS, VICTORIAN MINING, WORLD WAR TWO), NATURE, CREATION & THE WORLD ABOUT US (ANIMALS, FLOWERS PLANTS AND TREES, INSECTS/ MINIBEASTS/ SPIDERS, SEASIDE, SEASONS, WEATHER), SEASONAL POEMS (BONFIRE NIGHT POEMS, CHRISTMAS POEMS, HARVEST/ THANKSGIVING POEMS AND SONGS, MOTHERS DAY PERFORMANCE POEMS AND SONGS), and finally SENSES POEMS. Each of these are listed in the drop down menu from the TOPIC POEMS, and will therefore provide a smaller, more specific list of the poems which will interest you.

Shoe Shopping

28 May 2012

      This short silly poem is written with rhyme and rhythm, but I can say no more than that!

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I Can’t

28 May 2012

    This encouragement poem  is purpose written with rhyme and rhythm to be read to children as a performance poem.    

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God’s Promises

28 May 2012

I looked at my day in the morning And said “Lord, I cannot get through it” “My child,” came the heavenly whisper “My promises will help you do it”

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A Miner’s Best Friend

28 May 2012

      This factual mining poem about the role of the canary in Victorian mines uses personification and metaphors to describe the way a miner felt about these life-saving birds.

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Harvest – A Performance Poem for a Thanksgiving Celebration

8 May 2012

This is a performance poem for older primary children.  The individual letters of the word HARVEST are held up by seven children.  At the beginning of each verse the children rearrange themselves so that they are in a suitable order for the bold words that follow. The appropriate letters are held aloft for each word, but […]

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A Harvest/ Thanksgiving Song

8 May 2012

    This easily remembered Harvest/ Thanksgiving song is sung to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know it”.  It has 6 verses, going through the range of foods that we can give thanks for, and ending with thanks for family and friends.

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A Nursery Rhyme Harvest

8 May 2012

  I know that many schools have the children perform harvest / thanksgiving poems and songs at their harvest celebration, so this one is a little bit of both. The nursery rhymes provide the narration for the main poem, and I have simply amended them to be appropriate to harvest-time.

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Tesco:YOUR Comments Have Been Noted! Poem 3

6 May 2012

This is the third and current poem in our campaign….please send it to philip.clarke@uk.tesco.com  to persuade Tesco to sell ONLY FAIRTRADE BANANAS, so that we can be assured that the plantation owners are receiving a fair price.

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An Always Person

1 May 2012

This list poem is a fantastic encouragement to the ‘Always children’ who can so easily be overlooked and feel unnoticed as they never have any one special moment  for which to be rewarded or encouraged.   This poem can be printed and personalised as a lovely presentation certificate 

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Child Miners in Victorian Britain

19 April 2012

I have put together a page of winning children’s poems by Fitzwilliam Primary School on the topic of Victorian child miners.  They include lots of figurative language such as alliteration, personification, similes and metaphors, and different poem forms such as acrostics, list poems and senses poems.

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