Poetry is wordplay: our 2011 theme is GAMES. Poetry helps us to remember stories, from Jack and Jill all the way to the Odyssey. Children love rhymes and rhythms; but poetry also helps them to improve literacy, to articulating a story or argument, to deliver a punchline or a moral. Our 2011 lesson plans are available here as PDF files for you to print out and use in the classroom. If you have any difficulty downloading them here, click to see an alternative resources page.
Early Years (Wheel around the world)
Lesson plan (game for 14-16 years)
Lesson plan (game for 16-18 years)
Children of all ages will enjoy hearing poetry as well as reading it - look at the Poetry Archive which has a children's section. All poems appear in our education plans by permission of the author or publisher and all rights are reserved.
Here's a bonus for children of all ages - a Snakes and Ladders board for you to print and use. Get your class or group to play the game, and keep a collection of children's poetry at one hand. Every time they reach the top of a ladder, the number of the square is the number of the page you will read out. This should give them a lively and random selection of poems!
