Teachers! Autumn leaf poetry ideas...

Ideas for autumn leaf poetry in school:

I'm doing lots of autumn leaf poetry in primary schools at the moment, and the children love the topic! I scoop up a bagful of wet, freshly fallen leaves from my garden before setting out in the morning, and replenish them from the school grounds in the lunch break - with enthusiastic help from children.

We act out trees in the wind, and leaves falling off them, discuss autumn leaves we've seen, felt, caught, stepped on, compare their colours with those of other things. Next I hand out a leaf for each child, for feeling, sniffing, blowing on, holding up to the light, spinning and dropping. With plenty of prodding, prompting and sharing, they're soon ready for a word-building challenge, in song-form with guitar or tambourine for younger children.

I hand out sheets with giant leaf illustrations, with a lead-in line: "Leaves can be - " and children rush to jot down their ideas all over it, on the veins, in between, inside and outside the outline, at all angles. The sheet also offers curvy lines outside the leaf, with phrase-starters, such as "They are as colourful as" and "They go ______________ing through the _________________ ."

Of course, the children are encouraged to take off - like leaves - and extend or adapt their poems as they wish.

Colouring-in has to wait, and then must be done round the precious words, not over, when everyone has read out a word or five from their sheet!

These ideas can be developed in a myriad ways, on cut-out leaf shapes perhaps, to be displayed round the classroom! They could lead on to collages, tapestries, songs, performances, you name it...!