Budapest - 'Billy Collins'
A hand grasps an old fashioned pen. They type with a sharp nib for dipping into an ink pen. The pen has a mind of its own, scrawling across the page and spewing forth scribbled animals. It scribbles in desultory fashion, page after page, the passage of time denoted by a change of arm from green sweater to plaid shirt. The pen also acquires a mind of its own, requiring a little firm handling. Insects crawl from the nib, a bird drinks from the puddled ink.
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My pen moves along the page
like the snout of some strange animal - This poem lends itself perfectly to the teaching of personification of objects.
like the snout of some strange animal - This poem lends itself perfectly to the teaching of personification of objects.
The Raven - Edgar Allen Poe (KS2)
I love to use 'The Raven' as the poem for my narrative poetry units as an alternative or addition to 'The Highwayman'
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more."
The children can investigate the vocabulary of mood; weak, weary, quaint, dreary, bleak and dreary. How this vocabulary can effect the mood of the poem - experiment with mood words.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more."
The children can investigate the vocabulary of mood; weak, weary, quaint, dreary, bleak and dreary. How this vocabulary can effect the mood of the poem - experiment with mood words.
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The children enjoy making predictions about Lenore - Who she is and why she is knocking - they often suggest that she was a maid who loved her master; the subjects murdered wife; the ghost of a childhood sweetheart etc
Investigate the lines that rhyme such as: Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain, Use these lines as a template for the children to write their own narrative verses |
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Tweacher's favourite poems.
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Stream School an animated Hungarian poem.
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Streamschool is really charming with beautiful design and animation by Péter Vácz. I particularly liked the water effects. A little girl has an adventure with water as she travels from a small brook to the sea. A tale of growing up based on a Hungarian poem.
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Use this poem to discuss personification.
Beautiful lines such as; 'the mountain talks, the valley chatters the sky listens staying silent.'
Let children make up their own personification poems using landscape pictures.
Beautiful lines such as; 'the mountain talks, the valley chatters the sky listens staying silent.'
Let children make up their own personification poems using landscape pictures.
