Poetry Frames for Schools

Hello teachers! 

70 poetry frame sheets to browse and buy! 

I've dedicated two pages here to the display of my 70 poetry frame designs, available for ordering @ 25p each (GBP). Click here or here to view.

About the sheets - I designed, illustrated and produced the writing frames myself, so don't expect perfection! All of them have been tried and tested, some many times, in my workshops in schools across the UK. All are based on topics, with clear, attractive presentation  to get kids fired up to write. Results have been rewarding, with teachers frequently asking for copies, so I'm now displaying this selection (I have many more!) for teachers everywhere.

Key stage relevance - mostly Reception and KS1 - lower KS2.

Size, colour & format - A4, black-and-white, PDF. (No watermark on your version!)

Ordering - I have no online ordering system, but if you email me your requests and pay via PayPal to katewilliams.poetry@gmail.com (or post payment - address provided on request), I'll email you your chosen sheets to download.

Happy summer hols!

Kate

Email: katewilliams.poetry@gmail.com

Cloudy Sky Metaphors

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.
______________________________________________________________________

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

Poetry Workshops on Skype!

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

Mini-beast Cinquains

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

Mini-beast cinquains

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.

Cinquain

This is a 5-line poem, as implied by its first four letters, i.e. cinq - French for five, as children may be interested to learn.

The poem depicts a subject in a different way on each line. There seem to be various different accounts and contradictory examples of these. Here's my usual interpretation,
accepted for anthologies:

1. Subject of poem (or synonym for) (1 word)
2. describing words (2 words)
3. doing words ending in ing (3 words)
4. description or metaphor depicting a feeling/effect it evokes (4 words)
5. one-word metaphor

Help your class think up cinquains with their favourite creepy-crawlies.

Examples coming soon.

Don't let them worry too much about keeping to the set pattern. As mentioned, there are many variations. They might like to look some up or invent their own. Besides, it's the fun of experimenting with language that is of most value.

Kate

Writing Kenning Poems

Kennings

Kennings are mini descriptions of things, using two nouns together to make a compound phrase. These usually present the subject in a particular light, or highlight one of its aspects or characteristics. They have been described as condensed metaphors. The two-word term often depicts or alludes to some activity that the thing - whatever it be - does.

Examples

postman (post man = man who delivers the post)
woodpecker (a thing - bird, in fact - that pecks the bark of trees)
train spotter (someone who watches trains)
music maker (someone who plays an instrument)
people carrier (a brand of car that accommodates several passengers) 
star gazer (someone who studies the stars)
skyscraper (building that seems to touch the sky, i.e. very tall building)

Kennings for the classroom

My current theme is creepy-crawlies so let's see how we can apply kennings to them.
If you're a teacher, how about some fun with creepy-crawly kennings for your class?

Warm-up prompts and questions 

First, discuss with children the different appearances, habits and movements of various insects and other mini-beasts. Focus in on characters or personalities they may seem to possess. For example, a butterfly might seem dreamy or gentle; a slug, lazy, a ladybird, humble or shy. Ask: what do the different creatures do? How do they find their food, get around, keep safe?

Now ask some crazy questions, like these, perhaps. If they were human beings, who might they be? Prompt for story and cartoon characters, people in different careers or roles, famous or historical figures. What would they be like and what would they do?

Kenning time

Nominate a creepy-crawly and help children think of ways to describe it in two words, both of them nouns. These could be accurate depictions, or exaggerated or fantasy ones.

Let's try the butterfly. Think what it does. It sails through the sky. Okay, so it's a sky-sailer, perhaps.

Here are some other examples of butterfly kennings:

garden-adorner
summer-heralder
mood-brightener
flower-lover

Here are some for a spider:

web-weaver
prey-trapper
shadow-lover
wall-climber
shock-giver

When children have jotted down and read out a few, ask them to extend their phrases with embellishments.

Poem time

Now let children make up a poem about any such creature, incorporating some kennings of their own, simple or embellished.

Meaning and origins

They might like to look up the word and discover its ancient origin and links with the word 'know' and its older version 'ken'.

More poetry-enriching ideas to come soon.

Kate

Poetry Frames

Hello teachers!

I have 70 poetry frames available on assorted themes, for KS1/2 (or age 4-11), illustrated, graded, child-friendly and creativity-spurring.

Most of the designs are for the lower end of the age/ability range.
They have all been tried and tested successfully in schools.

Prices (in UKP) 20p each, including a separate page of tips and ideas for use. 
Minimum payment: 60p.
Order via email: katewilliams.poetry@gmail.com 
Payment via PayPal, quoting the email above.
Choose from the numbered list, email me your choices, and I will email you the sheets as downloadable PDFs.

Used with rewarding results

I designed the sheets for my own use in my poetry workshops for schools. Teachers express enthusiasm for them on my school visits, often asking to photocopy them. Children tell me they love them - in fact it's sometimes hard to persuade them to stop writing at the end of the lesson!

The sheets motivate young writers to put pen to paper and to write expressively, while leaving a little space for more independent writing.


Tip

I recommend a good half-hour's warm-up to the exercise first (see my other website, Workshops page, for how I do this), and encourage abler writers to extend their output wherever they can fit it on the page, or on the back, or, of course, on a fresh sheet of paper. They might prefer to draw their own illustration, and re-style the whole poem in their own individual way too, as a second creation.

Once downloaded and printed out, they can be adapted (with extra/fewer lines, for instance) to suit any specific needs or lesson plans. 

See Poetry Frames for list and samplers. 

If you want more information about any on the list, please let me know.
Here's an extra example.







Happy poetry-writing!

Kate