Kate Williams

Halloween offers a great opportunity to get rhyming, with crazy magic spells. Not everyone wants to be turned into a frog – or worse, but who says spells have to be nasty?

Here are some ideas for concocting happy, harmless wishes – if a bit daft, all in rhyming couplets. They’re fun for children to concoct at school or at home, especially with a sprinkle of magic adult help. You’ll just need pens and paper, or a writing board to share, and an open door for possibilities.

First, take a theme, such as colours, animals, types of weather, precious stones, fruits, or features of space. Choose four items within that theme, for line 1, putting the one that’s easiest for rhyming with at the end.

Example: Red, blue, gold, silver. 

…Except, wait a minute! I’ve put silver at the end, and what on Earth rhymes with that? Red would be better, rhyming with bed, head, bread, shed, bled (oh dear!), dead (oh, no!), fed (ah, that’s better!), and Ted:

Gold, blue, silver, red –

Now to think up a wish for line 2, with the last word rhyming with the last one above:

Let me/us/whoever…………….. red.

Help your children with this by writing red, big and clear, with short lines below for suggestions, and elicit single words to rhyme with red before they try to think up a whole line. Otherwise, there can be confusion over where to place that key word, resulting in a disappointing non-rhyme!

red
——
bed
bread
head
_____
_____

Now for the whole line, clapping the rhythm to check it fits.

Example: Gold, blue, silver, red –
                Put a halo on my head!

Hmm, a bit cheeky, perhaps. How about: Let me not fall out of bed!

Here are some more examples with this format.

Dawn, dusk, night and day –
Let my homework go away!

Wasp, fly, beetle, bee –
Let me climb the tallest tree!

Bronze, turquoise, pink, maroon –
Let me fly up to the moon!

Witch, vampire, zombie, ghost –     
Let my lunch be spells on toast!

Skirt, trousers, jumper, vest –
May our pumpkin be the best!

Perhaps give your children a couple of half-completed spell frames, with gaps to fill, as a half-way stage to creating their own. Here’s a free sheet of part-done couplets, in case handy.

One more thing – have you pre-ordered my book yet –
Squeak! Squawk! Roar!  ? Out January with Otter-Barry Books!

Happy spells!

Kate