Keep Calm and Write Poetry

Today I have three activities for you to make up for the fact I did not post anything last week.

The theme this week is poetry and these activities will prove to children and to you that poetry is not stuffy but indeed very fun and creative!

The first activity is called Photo Poetry

What do you need:

• Magazines/ newspapers
• Photo camera/ phone with camera
• Computer, paper and ink
• Pens

Steps:

1. This game needs some preparation. Tell the children to take pictures of words and numbers they come across in their daily lives. If they do not have access to a camera or they cannot print their pictures they can also cut out words from newspapers and magazines. If you want them to imagine more they can also take pictures or cut our pictures of items. For example: A bottle, a flower, a house etc.
2. Tell them to bring their words/ pictures and put them on a table. If you are playing with a large group you can limit what they bring to 3 or 5 items because otherwise there might be too many.
3. Mix up all the pictures and tell the children they are going to write a poem.
4. Have them pick 3 or 5 (depending on how long they/you want their poem to be) pictures. Tell them they can pick their own but it might be challenging to pick other people’s pictures.
5. Now have them write a poem which consists of the words they have just chosen. They can decide themselves if they use a format or whether they write it without any help, as long as they use the words they have chosen as a guideline.
6. Have them read out their poems if they want to.

The second game is called Poetry Circle and is very much like Monster Mash

What do you need:
– Pens
– Paper

Steps:

1. Tell the children they are going to write poetry in a group.
2. They all get a piece of paper and write the first line of a poem on it. They then pass on the paper to the person on the left.
3. The person on the left then adds a line to the poem. They can decide themselves whether they want to rhyme or not. However, do tell them to look at the form of the poem. If the second person decided to rhyme, the third person should follow the poem and rhyme as well. Also, make them aware of sentence length and things like that.
4. Continue to pass the poem on until it reaches the child who started, he or she will add the last sentence.
5. If you want longer poems with different verses or if they are playing with only two or three children you can also have them pass it on another round.
6. Have them read out their poems if they want to.

The last game is called Personal Poem.
This game can only be played in groups of 4 or more.

What do you need:

• Pens
• Paper

Steps:

1. Give all the children a little note with the name of another child on it. You can also put the names of the children in a bowl and have them take one out, but then it could be possible that someone will be writing a poem about him or herself.
2. Show the children an example of a little poem that starts with one word and keeps adding a word to every line until you reach four words and then finish again with one.
   This is an example:Winter
   So cold
   Snow will fall
   Sit by the fire
   Warm
3. The children will write a poem like this but about the person they have been assigned. However, they will not write down the first word, because that space if reserved for the name. Tell them they should write down characteristics of the person that are known to the other players. For example:

   ……
   Very nice
   Likes Football
   Has a little sister
   Friend

4. After they have finished you can collect them and read them out, or have the children read them out themselves. The children then need to guess whose name needs to be on the dots.

Tip:
Make sure you set some clear rules when you play this game. In a group of friends it will not likely cause problems, but in a classroom you need to make sure the children play nicely and don’t say anything negative about another person.

Create and then personalise the journal!

The exercise this week is a creative one in many ways, the creating of the journal is creative writing and what the children can do with it after can be creative writing, reading, drawing, crafting etc. 

I think most of you probably know the Wreck This Journal books by Keri Smith or the popular Pointless journal by Alfie Deyes.
Well, what they can you or kids can do too, maybe even better 😉

What do you need: 

• A4 paper, folded in half.
• Pens, pencils, crayons etc.
• Scissors and glue and different coloured paper if you want to.

Steps: 

1. Talk about journals with the children and show an example of one of the journals mentioned above. You can bring one so they can look through it or you can find some pictures on the internet. Talk about what kind of ideas and exercises are in the journal.
2. If you are working with a large group it is probably a good idea to split the class up in pairs or small groups. If you are only working with a small group you can give them a page each. You can decide whatever you think is best for the children you are working with. So, either give them a folded A4 each or between them in their pairs/group.
3. Tell them to think of one or two exercises to put on their page. They are making the page for the group, so they are not the ones doing the exercise, but it will be for anyone else. So for example they can write on their page: Draw the last dream you can remember. They can decide themselves how they decorate the page or where on the page the write the exercise, as long as they leave space for the actual exercise.
4. Then, when everyone is done you collect the pieces of paper to copy (double sided if possible, but this will create a bit more work for you.) You can do that while they are doing something else or you can save it for the next lesson, session, bit of time you spend with them.
5. After you copied all the pieces of paper you can bundle them together into a little booklet (Depending on how you do it you might want to tell them to stay clear of the folding line).
6. Give everyone a copy and let them do the exercises that other people created. They can do this in their spare time, after they finished another task, etc. It can last for a longer period of time.

And that’s it! If you need some inspiration there are some websites online that give you some suggestions, but see what the children come up with.

It is also a fun present for someone else:)

Enjoy!

Hot seat/ Who am I?

First of all a belated Happy New Year to everyone!

I am very motivated to keep posting this year as I am enjoying it very much. Just to let you know, I am very keen to get as many readers as possible, so please keep sharing and telling your friends! In addition, if you have any advice, ideas or other feedback please let me know. You can comment on here, on Facebook or on twitter!

This post will consist of two games that are probably well-known, but maybe sometimes forgotten as a fun activity. The good thing is that it can be done fairly easily and you hardly need any materials.

Let’s start with the hot seat.

What do you need:
– A seat

1. This can be a fun game in any classroom but also at home. The only criteria is that you have all/both read a book.
   One of you takes a seat on a chair. If you are doing it for the first time it is probably best if you, as the parent or the teacher, sit on the chair as that role might need some improvising.
2. You then have two options. You can either decide to become a character and announce this to the children, or you can think of a character and keep it secret.
3. For the first option you have to become the character from the book. You will need to think like the character, talk like the character and maybe even look like the character. The children are then invited to ask you questions. These questions can be about the things that happened in the book, but it might also be fun if you let them wonder about what happened before the story started or maybe what is coming next. This allows the children to think about the story in relation to the character more and it allows them to think creatively about what happens next. You can help them get going by proposing some questions if you like. An example after reading Harry Potter could be: What do you think your life would have been like if you had not found out you were a wizzard, Harry? If you are playing with older children you can also invite them to sit on the (hot) seat. Or split them into smaller groups so more children can try it and ask questions.
   For the second option you do not reveal who you are and the children will ask you yes or no questions to find out which character you are. So if I, again, take Harry as an example they could ask: Do you have a big scar on your head?And that’s all. It is easy, it is fun and it will be a nice way to discuss a story and its characters.

The second game called Who am I? is quite similar to the second option, but on a grander scale.

What do you need:
– Post-its or pieces of paper if you would play it seated and in smaller groups.
– Pens

Steps:

1. Again, the game only works if you have all read a particular book or story. The first step would be to give everyone a post-it note.
2. Have the players write a character from the story on the post-it and stick it on the head of another player. You can also choose to play this game in a less chaotic way by splitting the children up into smaller groups and having them sit behind their desks. They can then fold a paper in such a way that it stands up and then also write a character down and pass it on. The most important thing is that the person who ends up with the post-it or paper does not know what is on it.
3. When everyone has a post-it or a paper the game can start. Have the children walk around and ask yes or no questions. They will need to find out which character is stuck to their forehead as quick as possible. Allow them to only ask one question each and then move on, that way you prevent duos or groups forming and it will hopefully make the game more social. When they play in smaller groups, say groups of 4 or 5, you can allow one player to keep asking questions until the answer is no. When the answer to a question is no, the player next to him or her gets a go, etc. etc.

There you have it. Two simple but fun games! Enjoy!