More tips and ideas for classrooms
Language-stretching skies!
How to turn a dull day into a fascinating focus for literacy and creative development - in any spare minute of the school day!
Where I live (south Wales) it's a dull, cloudy day today. But actually, it's not so dull when you come to think about it, and describe it! Here are some thoughts of mine. You might like to use a couple as prompts for a class list:
Cloudy Sky
'Describing words':
Grey, heavy, dull, dreary, lifeless, colourless, overcast, sultry, hazy, muggy, murky, dark, drab, insipid.
Personified descriptions:
Gloomy, sad, miserable, melancholy, sulky, moody, scowling, frowning, sighing, sobbing (if raining), angry, tired, drowsy, lethargic, languid, down-in-the-dumps, glum, sluggish.
Metaphorical terms:
Woolly, iron, metallic, steely, soggy, porridgy, soupy.
Compound adjectives:
Slate-grey, steel-grey, bruise-blue, stormy-sea-murky, rotten-cheese-rancid, churchyard-gloomy, forest-murky, mud-brown, skull-white, glare-bright, wet-flannel-heavy, blanket-thick, veil-close, cloak-dark, sorrow-heavy, misery-guts-gloomy.
Metaphors, stating what the sky is:
A soaking flannel, a soggy rag, a moth-eaten blanket, a hanging veil, an angry god, a sulking giantess, a clown on strike, a glaring monster, a dragon's sigh, a clump of cotton wool, a sad story, a bruise, a bully, a lazy-bones.
Kennings (two-noun compound phrases, conveying figurative images):
Game-wrecker, fun-spoiler, sun-stopper, gloom-caster, land-darkener, light-drainer, shiver-giver, misery-maker, kill-joy, window-closer, door-shutter, curtain-drawer, enemy-maker, wind-waiter.
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Lists to poems - to nonsense poems?
Children could draw up lists under different categories, then mix and merge as they wish, to form a poem of whatever shape or form they want. They could also be invited to add to the fun by concocting new words out of those on their lists - adding, mixing, chopping and changing (e.g. drabsob, moodmurk, glumslump, misery-mug, slug-porridge). A bit of experimental word nonsense would serve to lighten the tone (while also developing linguistic dexterity).
How about a blue-sky antidote afterwards? Illustrations would be fun and effective, too.
Kate
Calling all schools!
Poetry Workshops on Skype
Hi, this is to let you know that I'm taking my workshops online, to reach out to schools in all areas!
I've taken my passion for poetry-writing into about 1,500 schools in the past 15 years, travelling throughout Wales and most of England, but travel costs push up fees, and journeys take up time and energy, so from now on, I shall be offering this exciting new option of world-wide-web workshops as an alternative! I'll still be offering my usual, in-the-flesh, workshops too.
I'm taking bookings now for on-screen workshops with children aged 4-11, starting Monday, 22nd June.
Fees:
30 min. interactive input on one of my themes (listed below) or
30 min. presentation about poetry-writing, to include 5 min. Q+A session (Juniors only):
£40 + VAT* (*VAT reclaimable except for certain independent schools).
To book:
Booking is via my agent Shelley Lee at Authors Abroad. Please contact her direct on shelley@caboodlebooks.co.uk .
To include:
Poetry frames as applicable (see examples), support poems and pictures.
For further details of my workshops, including content and feedback, please see my other website: poemsforfun.wordpress.com, Workshops page.
Themes available for Skype poetry sessions:
Creepy Crawlies
Seaside, or for Juniors: Sea & Sea Monsters, Under the Sea, Stormy Sea
Wild Woods
Jungle
Space
Castles
Town at Night
Busy Street
Dragons
Giants
Windy Day
Autumn Leaves
Birds
Sky
Christmas Colours (or Winter Colours)
Spring Colours
Spring Animals
School Sounds
(I don't offer morality-based themes, as secondary aims can cramp free thought and creativity, in my experience.)
Kate
Kate Williams
Email: katewilliams.poetry@gmail.com
Poetry-Teaching Tips
This blog offers tips and ideas for poetry-writing, literacy development and creativity nurturing. It is principally for teachers, but may also be of use to parents, carers and others.
Mini-beast cinquain examples
Following my last post, here are two mini-beast, or creepy-crawly, cinquains I've written as examples. Views on cinquain rules seem to vary, and we must remember they're simply devices for expressing ideas through words, not laws laid down by gods! Follow, adapt or link in with the approach as you wish.
Butterfly
delicate, dainty
flitting, wandering, waltzing
adorner of summer skies
delight
This could be presented as a riddle, with questioning title like What am I? and a one-word metaphor for line one, like Insect or Floater; similarly with the next.
Slug
slimy, fat
feeling, feasting, flattening
devourer of garden flowers
pest
Happy image-building!
Kate
