Kate Williams

Hi, and thanks for looking in!

Teach Poetry Tip – or Suggestion – 6:

Use pictures to stimulate ideas and language

Pictures take the formality and fear out of poetry-writing for less confident children, also providing a focus point to spark ideas and push off from.

Show pictures relating to your chosen poetry theme, to stimulate interest, ideas and language. Discuss them, prompting for relevant words, images, sounds or movements. Ask imagination-triggering questions: What might be in the scene just beyond the frame? What’s happening? How would you feel if you were there? What mood does the picture put you in?

A picture per table?

Alternatively, hand out different pictures to different tables for a colourful variety, and ask each table group to discuss, also jotting down their words and ideas on a shared sheet of paper. The groups can then report and read out by turn, before starting on their poems.

Screen view

You may prefer to provide an electronic image – a bright and vivid presentation – but paper pictures can provide a refreshing alternative to screen images these days, also allowing the eye to wander and the mind to dream.

Get the kids drawing!

Another approach is to ask the children to draw the pictures themselves – either as quick sketches as a run-up to writing, or as a pre-poetry art session. Prompt for a few developments as they scribble and colour away, to deepen and broaden their concepts.

Try a picture window

A window view offers yet another type of picture to study. I sometimes gather children at a window to study trees, traffic, birds, sky, or the whole view. On a stormy day, I open the window for a listen too.

Whatever sort of picture you choose, it’s sure to trigger ideas and get those creative juices going!

Kate

PS Have you snapped up your copy – or pre-ordered – your copy of Squeak! Squawk! Roar! yet?🐊