Canterbury Festival Schools’ Poetry Competition 2013
Teaching Resource Sheet for Primary Schools
The theme for this year’s poetry Competition is “My Hometown”
The aim of this theme is to encourage students to think about their hometown
imaginatively. They might like to write a descriptive poem about a special place in their
hometown, or about an event or life experience that has happened there. Living in a city as
steeped in history as Canterbury, some students might like to go back in time and write a
historical poem about events in Canterbury during a different decade. Others may not take
Canterbury as their subject at all, but might prefer to write about their country/place of
origin or even an imaginary place where they would prefer to live, or somewhere from a
book they have read. We’d also love to read poems that tell a story about something that
has happened in your hometown, or at home.
Starting Points:
1) Write a list of 5 places in your town, e.g the park, the bandstand, the school, the
house, the shops, the swimming pool, grandma’s house.
Choose a few good describing words (adjectives) to go with each place. For each
place and its associated descriptive words, write one verse of a poem.
You could even think of another word that rhymes with each descriptive word, and
see if you can make some rhyming couplets to include in a poem!
2) Write an acrostic poem with your hometown as the word that is written down the
side, and either a word or a sentence that starts which each letter going across. Try
to use your hometown as inspiration, or a place you like there, or maybe a hobby or
activity you do here. The poem should be about the word written down the side!
3) Personification means applying human qualities or actions to an inanimate object or
an animal. The word “personification” actually contains the word “person,” and to
personify an object means to describe it as if it were a person. Instead of saying that
the sun is shining, we might say that the sun is smiling down at us. Instead of
describing a flag as moving in the wind, we could say that the flag is dancing. My
House by Myron Lysenko is an excellent example of how personification is used to
describe a house.
Write a list of 10 human action words. Write a list of 10 things you see on your way
to school in the morning. Then match the most appropriate action word to each
thing.
e.g the school bus coughs and splutters
Next, add to each sentence to make it more poetic …
e.g. the school bus coughs and splutters, then drags its feet to school…
4) Write some sentences that each start with “I come from,” that are influenced by
your experiences of living in your hometown.
e.g. I come from two sisters and a bathroom always busy
I come from lazy Sunday casseroles and pudding with custard
I come from tourist city, and being in strangers’ photographs
I come from cobbled streets and shops with sloping roofs
5) Some schools decided to think of imaginary hometowns such as Candy Town where
everything was edible, and Playstation Land where all the characters from their
favourite games lived. Where would you like to live if you could live anywhere?
Write down some differences between your imaginary place and the real world!
eg.
In Candy Town the roads are liquorice
and the cars beep their squidgy horns
6) Write a sound poem! Write down some places in your town and some words that
describe how they sound. Can you turn each one into a simile?
eg.
the roads are roaring like a lion in the jungle
the trees are rustling like scrunching up newspaper
Poems you might like to use in the writing exercises, either as examples of poetry
techniques or to inspire a poem about a story
Welling Acrostic
by Dan Simpson
We all play football
Every day
Laughing and
Looking cool.
I score a goal
Nine – nil to us!
Game over.
My House
by Myron Lysenko
I come home
after a hard day’s work
and my house opens its doors to me.
My carpet runs up the hall
under my legs
and trips me into a chair
which holds me in its arms.
The stove makes me a cup of tea
while the answering machine
tells me all about its day.
The refrigerator stands in the corner
growling at the telephone
which sits purring in the fruit bowl
The TV has spat the dummy again
& sits on the floor
facing the wall.
My windows close their eyes.
The CD player begins a serenade
and my curtains invite me to dance.
The light bulb is naked.
My living room breathes heavily.
The heater smoulders
and blows me warm kisses.
My mantelpiece strokes my forehead
and walls lead me to my bedroom
where I scare the clock
which had been sleeping on my bed again.
My laundry basket undresses me,
my bedroom door says goodnight
and my bed hugs me to sleep again
once more.
Daddy Fell into the Pond
by Alfred Noyes
Everyone grumbled. The sky was grey.
We had nothing to do and nothing to say.
We were nearing the end of a dismal day,
And then there seemed to be nothing beyond,
Then
Daddy fell into the pond!
And everyone's face grew merry and bright,
And Timothy danced for sheer delight.
"Give me the camera, quick, oh quick!
He's crawling out of the duckweed!" Click!
Then the gardener suddenly slapped his knee,
And doubled up, shaking silently,
And the ducks all quacked as if they were daft,
And it sounded as if the old drake laughed.
Oh, there wasn't a thing that didn't respond
When
Daddy Fell into the pond
New Kid on the Block
By Jack Prelutsky
There’s a new kid on the block,
And boy, that kid is tough,
That new kid punches hard,
That new kid plays real rough,
That new kid’s big and strong,
With muscles everywhere,
That new kid tweaked my arm,
That new kid pulled my hair.
That new kid likes to fight,
And picks on all the guys,
That new kid scares me some,
(That new kid’s twice my size),
That new kid stomped my toes,
That new kid swiped my ball,
That new kid’s really bad,
I don’t care for her at all.
Messy Room
by Shel Silverstein
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or-Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!