Canterbury Festival Schools’ Poetry Competition
Teaching Resources for Primary Schools
How to use these resources
These guidelines are designed to help children to engage with poetry in a number of different ways.
Poem entries are by no means limited to these workshop ideas, but you may find them useful for
generating creative material. Included is a list of creative exercises that can be used as starting
points for the class, and in addition, a number of suggested poems to help to support these
exercises. Please don’t forget to submit the work generated using these materials to the Canterbury
Festival Schools’ Poetry Competition! You will find the entry form enclosed in this pack.
Theme: What makes you feel good?
The theme of the 2014 Canterbury Festival Schools’ Poetry Competition is feeling good.
Encourage children to think about feeling good: what makes them feel good, what makes others feel
good, why people might not feel good. Children should not feel as though their poems need to
follow any particular format, and should be encouraged to use their imagination to the full to
explore the idea of feeling good. They should not feel as though their poetry necessarily needs to
rhyme or tell a story. We are excited to see children having fun with language and being as creative
as possible.
Exercises you might like to use as starting points
* What words make me feel good?
Encourage the children to write down a list of their favourite words. They don’t have to be ‘fancy’ or
‘flowery’ words, but encourage the children to choose words based on sound and musicality as well
as meaning. Go around the group a couple of times and get the children to read out one word.
Ask the children to pick their favourites, and to think about what those words mean for them, what
memories they inspire. For each word, ask them to write down why they chose it, and ask them to
use five or six new words to try to capture some aspect of the original favourite words:
eg.
Chocolate - rich, dark, tongue-smooth temptation
Serendipity - a happy, skippy tumbleturn
Island - wave-lapped solace, silver-shored
Whisper - soft, ear-caressing secret
Cuddle - warm enfolding scoop of love
Kayaking - sleek streamlined seascape fun
You can even encourage them to make up their own words, such as flashack, iciclean, sofable or
glodier.
Children might want to use these as a framework around which to build a poem about what makes
them feel good.
* What colours make me feel good?
Ask children to write down what colours make them feel good. Try to get them to be specific:
salmon pink or cornflower blue rather than simply ‘red’ or ‘green’.
Get the children to think about what these colours remind them of. Perhaps pink makes them think
of candyfloss, which makes them think of the fairground; or maybe red makes them think of a
postbox, which reminds them of a particular place.
The children can then use this as a starting point for a poem based on colour. You might want to use
the Christina Rossetti poem to help with this exercise, included in this pack.
* A recipe for feeling good
Ask the children to imagine they could make a recipe for feeling good, or for a potion that makes
people feel good. They can put anything they like into it, real or imagined.
What would they put in their recipe? How would they combine the ingredients?
You might want to get them to think about words they can use for ingredients (eg. a pinch of
sunlight, a sprinkling of laughter, ½ teaspoon of sea air), or use made up measurements like a
whisper, an instant, a smile, a tingle, a heartbeat, a galaxy.
You might want to get them to think about words to use for instructions, such as blend, mix,
combine, chop, simmer, whip, mash, fold or discuss imaginative words to use like enchant, charm,
thrill, sparkle, flicker, fizz, oomph, seethe.
Children might want to use this as the framework for a poem written in recipe format.
* Who/when/where makes me feel good?
Ask the children to think about something or someone they know who makes them feel good (it can
be someone in their family, a best friend, or anyone they know), OR a time of day that makes them
feel good, OR a particular place that makes them feel good. You might want to use Sarah Garland’s
poem ‘Nan’ to help with this exercise, included in this pack.
Ask the children to think about using their senses to describe a time or a place or a person.
Get them to make a list of what is special about that time or place or person, and then link each item
to an appropriate sense. This should help the children to create rich and interesting poems about
favourite things, people or places.
eg.
Sensing… the seasons
I hear Autumn in the…
I see it in…
I feel it…
I smell Autumn…
and I taste it in the…
Sensing… a friend or someone special
I hear you in…
I see you…
I feel you in the…
I smell you in the…
and I taste you in the…
Sensing… my home
I hear my home in…
I see my home…
I feel it in the…
I smell it in the…
and I taste my home in the…
* An acrostic poem about feeling good
Acrostic poems are a great way to introduce young children to poetry. They follow a simple
structure, which makes them easy to make, and they can be as simple or creative as the children
like. Start with a source word, or words, such as FEELING GOOD or HAPPINESS, for example, and get
the children to write this word vertically down the page. Each letter of the source word forms the
first letter of the line (so if you choose FEELING GOOD, the first line will start with an ‘f’ and the
second line with an ‘e’, and so on).
* Poems about not feeling so good
People are not happy all the time. Some children might want to explore other complicated feelings
like being sad, or being angry. You might want to consider using Wendy Cope’s poem ‘Huff’ as a
starting point for creating a poem that explores these emotions. In the poem, she starts off angry,
but works through to a more positive perspective. You might want to ask children to remember
something that made them really angry, or really sad, and what it was that made them feel better,
and then get them to use this structure to write a poem.
Poems
Color
BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
What is pink? a rose is pink
By a fountain's brink.
What is red? a poppy's red
In its barley bed.
What is blue? the sky is blue
Where the clouds float thro'.
What is white? a swan is white
Sailing in the light.
What is yellow? pears are yellow,
Rich and ripe and mellow.
What is green? the grass is green,
With small flowers between.
What is violet? clouds are violet
In the summer twilight.
What is orange? Why, an orange,
Just an orange!
Huff
I am in a tremendous huff Really, really bad.
It isn't any ordinary huff It's one of the best I've had.
I plan to keep it up for a month
Or maybe for a year
And you needn't think you can make me smile
Or talk to you. No fear.
I can do without you and her and them Too late to make amends.
I'll think deep thoughts on my own for a while,
Then find some better friends.
They'll be wise and kind and good
And bright enough to see
That they should behave with proper respect
Towards somebody like me.
I do love being in a huff Cold fury is so heady.
I've been like this for half an hour
And I feel better already.
Perhaps I'll give them another chance,
Now I'm feeling stronger,
But they'd better watch out - my next big huff
Could last much, much, much longer.
By
Wendy Cope
Nan
My Nan is sitting
in her chair.
Butterflies are
in her hair.
In her lap
are golden eggs.
Purple stockings
on her legs.
On every finger
there's a ring.
Beside her ear
two angels sing.
Beneath her feet
a magic mat.
Above her head
an acrobat.
Against her knee
a tiger smiles.
My Nan's eyes
can see for miles.
She sits so tall,
so grand and pale,
I think she's in
a fairy tale.
by
Sarah Garland