I enjoyed the book itself, and will definitely be using it in the years to come. It took me a while longer to read as I was annotating and coming up with ideas of how I would use the poems that I enjoyed most in the classroom. From What Are We Fighting For? by Brian Moses and Roger Stevens . ‘Let No One Steal Your Dreams’ by Paul Cookson I would also use this book to help children understand the difference between a story and a poem. This is in regard to how they are written, rhyming, the meaning of the poems etc. From knowing this they can take into consideration how it might be performed differently to a story, expanding their mind and knowledge. I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of the soul, (and that they are the soul,)

It first explains exactly what poetry is and how performance poetry differs from this, moving on to some of the techniques you can use when performing.This involves playing with the words and using different tones to suit each poem. Sue Cowling’s poem looks at all the ways of expressing happiness in this alternative weather forecast. Research suggests that poems are great for improving reading, phonics and vocabulary skills. All of these aspects are important to build strong, confident readers. What primary classroom would be complete without Please Mrs Butler? Let’s face facts, this poem is virtually your birth right if you are in junior school and is certainly a poem that every teacher should read to their children. It’s iconic, it’s cheeky and it’s fun- what more could we ask for? Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers.

Thirdly, inspirational poems for children are great for providing motivation in your classroom. With words of encouragement to motivate your class to keep going to achieve greatness, they're sure to be inspired. It is important for children to understand and be able to recognise the difference between a story and a poem. By children being able to tell the difference, this will help them to understand how they would be presented differently, helping them to deepen their understanding and knowledge. Not only can this book be used in teaching aspects in English and Drama it could also be used in Art (get children to illustrate the poems themselves) and Music (get children to compose a music piece to add meaning to the poem). Allow children to work in groups to decide how to perform a poem of their choice, which they liked when read aloud. When they heard the poem, how did it make them feel? How could they explore this in their performance? How will they use the volume, tone and pace of their voices to convey the emotions? If they work in a group will they all perform at once? Take turns to do different parts? A mixture of both? This fab Performance Poetry PowerPoint is the perfect way to introduce it to your class and bring your students' poetry to life. Try this Speaking and Listening Talking Frame Cards to improve your students speaking and listening skills. What are some tips for performing poetry?

The mountain peak theme also provides a symbolic message. Reaching the top of a mountain shows that you have achieved the hard-work of climbing to get there, symbolising that you can achieve anything when you put your mind to it. This Performance Poetry PowerPoint has 14 slides and covers everything you'll need to effectively teach your class all about performance poetry.

What is Performance Poetry?

There is lots of great vocabulary to explore here which gives could give children the impetus to find out more about Georgian England. The relatively simple rhythm and rhyme scheme makes it easy for children to write and add in their own verses perhaps supplying the poem with a new and happier ending!? Discuss what poetry is and find out children's previous knowledge and experience of poetry through discussion prompted by key questions: Ask the children what they think poetry is? Do they have any favourite poems? Do they know any poets? Do they like poetry? Why or why not?

O my body! I dare not desert the likes of you in other men and women, nor the likes of the parts of you, Most nursery rhymes are basic rhyming poems. Beyond that, there are endless examples of rhyming poems for kids, some more modern than others. A Million Little Diamonds Swim with the swimmers, wrestle with wrestlers, march in line with the firemen, and pause, listen, count.What can various sound devices tell us? In this poem, Kenyon captures the conflict between the comfort and the anxiety of death in startling ways. The reassuring pastoral imagery is often undermined by unusual vantage points and disturbing objects, as in the first lines, where sunlight is described from within a darkening barn, “moving / up the bales as the sun moves down.” Kenyon’s use of consonance—the repetition of consonant sounds—and assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds—brings a vivid physicality to the speaker’s conflict. We see this when the comforting flow of “Let the light of late afternoon” is suddenly obstructed by the tongue forming the word “chinks.” The sonic repetition in this poem also reveals the intricate phonemic—referring to the smallest distinct units of sound within words—relationships the poet has so skillfully knitted together through the dominant l and k sounds. This sonic tension, like the fear and relief the speaker finds in the idea of death, are brought to a close in the final line, “comfortless, so let evening come.” Finally, though line breaks are difficult to capture aloud, the strategic breaks, particularly in the last stanza, are well worth noting as readers explore ways in which this last line might be performed. From The Same Inside: Poems about empathy and friendship by Liz Brownlee, Roger Stevens and Matt Goodfellow. The sprawl and fulness of babes, the bosoms and heads of women, the folds of their dress, their style as we pass in the street, the contour of their shape downwards,