Kate Williams

Hi, thanks for looking in!

Here is my 10th suggestion for helping your class to write poetry:

Rhyme practice

Here’s part of my rhyme ‘Beetle Business’, in which every short line ends in the ‘ee’ sound. It was fun to craft!

Poems don’t have to rhyme, and fitting in rhymes can come at a cost, in terms of sense and creative freedom. That said, most children love rhyming, so I usually allow at least a few minutes in a session for a few couplets, even if separately from their main poem. But rhymes are tricky, so I recommend a whole class practice first, building up from scratch.

You’ll need a black/white board to demonstrate the process as you go.
Take a one-syllable word – simple as possible – like bat, and write it down.
Who can think of a word to rhyme? Chances are they all can! Jot down all their valid contributions under ‘bat’ and, for extra fun, ask them to count them up.

Set the ball rolling

Now offer a phrase to come before ‘bat’, such as ‘I saw a bat stressing how it must be before, not after it. Many children stumble at this point.
Now add a second line, taking one of the rhyming words on the list with another run-up phrase, e.g.
‘He was wearing a hat.’
Write that line down too, with ‘hat’ directly under ‘bat’, and draw attention to the fact that ‘bat’ and ‘hat’ both sit at the ends of their lines.

Over to the children…

Now invite alternative run-up phrases. Perhaps prompt for – He was chasing a rat, or He purred like a cat, or In a tree he sat, or We had a friendly chat.
This time, just write down the two rhyming words, one above the other at the end of the line again.
Now the children will be ready to try their own simple rhymes, separately or in pairs.

Move on

Children who find rhyme easy can then progress to 2-syllable rhymes, such as giggle and riddle or racing and chasing. When everyone’s comfortable with rhyming, introduce 2 more rhyme stems, one short, one longer, e.g. Space (lace, place, face, chase, case…) and Rumble (grumble, tumble, crumble, mumble…), and set them free to have fun, experimenting, learning and sharing. They’ll love this!

Kate

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