Zoom Poetry Club!
Poetry for Children ~ at home
Many moons ago, I used to hold a Poetry Club in the bookshop for children aged 7 – 10 years old. While pondering how best I could help with ‘home-schooling’ my four grand-children, I realised that the obvious thing for me to do was to establish a way of reading and enjoying poetry in the virtual world – hence the Zoom Poetry Club! The first one was such fun to do that I thought I could offer it not just to my grand-children but to any who might like it – so jump in, and enjoy yourselves!
Just a tip, I encourage the children to have blank paper and crayons/felt tips etc on the table while we are ‘zooming’, and I invite them to doodle during any of the longer poems ~ this seems to help them to listen! Short poems I often read more than once. I don’t ask the children to analyse the poems in any way at all – these sessions are all about the fun and pleasure of listening to the rhymes and rhythms, the msuicality of the poems.
Poems we read
Hello, MOON! by Patricia Hubbell, from Orange, Silver, Sausage edited by James Carter & Graham Denton, published by Walker Books.
First Dog on the Moon by David Orme, from Orange, Silver, Sausage edited by James Carter & Graham Denton, published by Walker Books.
Mrs Moon by Roger McGough
The Moon Game, author unknown
Moonlit Apples by John Drinkwater
Silver by Walter de la Mare
Silverly by Dennis Lee, from Silverly/Goodnight, Goodnight published by Key Porter Books
Merry Inn Song by J R Tolkein
Please feel free add to add your own moon poetry suggestions in the comments box below.
Here are some of the activities that your young children can do after the Zoom Poetry Club!
- Draw the man-in-the moon
- Go outside (or look through a window) and look for the moon – what shape is it?
- Keep a moon diary
- Draw your favourite dinosaur (see the first poem above!) OR invent a new one
- Make a Spotify list of moon music
- Write a One-Word-Poem about the moon with the title: ‘So high above our house and bright, all alone on a dark, dark night’ (you can see more about one-word-poems in the brilliant book How to Write Poems by Joseph Coelho, published by Bloomsbury (this book is my main resource for the Zoom Poetry Club!)
- Write an acrostic poem about the moon using the word ‘moon:
- M
- O
- O
- N
- Write a concrete poem (look it up!) in the shape of a cresent moon
- Find out some moon facts:
- how far away is the moon?
- how cold is it there?
- what colour is the earth, looking from the moon?
- what is the moon made of?
- what are the phases of the moon called?
Abbie found a picture of the moon and then wrote a poem that went around the edge of it! Well done Abbie! You can write a poem in any shape you choose – why don’t you have a go?
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I’ve just found this fun concrete poem, too late for our group yesterday, but not too late for you! You can find it at http://www.jamescarterpoet.co.uk/poems.html#moon
Anna x
Thanks Anna. I’m reading to my grandson each afternoon (at end of school) –you’ve met him –he’s noiw 8. I can use some of these with him. I read over the phone—“not skype gran . I’ve had too much screen time today”.
I’m reading him “A call of the wild” but I know it’s too difficult for him—-I have to simplify a lot as I read —but he is getting the gist—-and says he’s not upset by it “because I’m a boy. You’re a girl gran–girls do get more upset”. Sexual stereotyping!!
I have got him more David Walliams books though—they’ll be easier. Wish I could get them from your bookshop.
And I’ll certainly try some of your poems. Thank you.
Growing up fast, Mary! How lovely that you can read to him everyday. I know it’s not the same as seeing him, but it’s a special time, nonetheless. Love, Anna x
Abbie and Joe really enjoyed the Moon themed poetry club this morning! And have enjoyed the activities following the session,
Thanks Gr’Anna
So glad they are enjoying it – I am having such a lot of fun doing it!