Autumn leaves offer wonderful poetry-writing inspiration for children of all ages.
There’s so much to say about them, what with their colours, textures, shapes, movements, free flight, fragility, and symbol of seasonal change!
What’s more, leaf-writing offers a great excuse to get outside and moving. Help the children spin and launch their leaves. Encourage the children to sniff and describe their delicate, fruity fragrance, and ask them what their leaf feels like against their cheek.
Prompt for movement words, as well as describing ones, for a broader language stretch. Do the leaves just fly, or do they dart, skip and backflip through the cool, autumn sky?
And there’s more fun to be had! When the poem’s finished, it can be written out in colours in a leaf shape, and hung up to flutter and gleam. Or maybe you have other ideas? The possibilities are wide open!
I encourage all sorts of poetry developments in my workshops, with exciting outcomes.
Here’s a preview of a simple starter format, with example words and similes, plus warm-up suggestions, available at TES (£2), in case handy (click to view).
More leaf poetry resources in my TES collection (click for link).
Kate Williams 
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