Kate Williams

STOP PRESS! My new book – Squeak! Squawk! Roar! Amazing Animal Poems – publishes on 9th January ’25. Publisher: Otter-Barry Books. Available from Amazon and all good bookshops, or your local library – if you still have one!
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Hello, thanks for visiting. Here is my Teach Poetry Tip – or idea – 12:

Emotion body language – building and using

Examples

Poems come alive with a few feelings references, especially action ones. Here are some examples you could prompt for, to set your class thinking:

Scratching your head
Rolling your eyes
Wringing your hands
Biting your nails
Tearing your hair out
Having butterflies in your tummy
Stamping your foot
Grinding your teeth
A look of thunder
Wiping away tears
Leaping with joy
Bubbling over
Doubled up laughing
Breathing a sigh of relief
Fidgeting
Knees knocking
Teeth jittering
Heart racing
Colouring up
Eyes popping out

Ask your class to choose a feeling (after discussing options) to write a poem about. Then build a list of emotion-revealing actions (similar to this one perhaps).

Build lines together

Now try a few lines together to describe someone in a given mood, and prompt for appropriate words or phrases to incorporate. A starter phrase will help a lot, e.g. –

When I’m cross I
…..
with a list of actions and details below,

or

My friend was so happy he/she
…..

or

When I’m worried I
…

Now they’ll be ready to write their own feelings poems.

Prompt for enrichments

Once everyone’s got going, encourage some embellishments – adverbs, similes, sounds or circumstantial details: e.g.

I stamped my foot furiously.
I was NOT going out in that coat.

Finally, suggest a twist at the end, like:

but Mum saw it differently
or
but next day he was all sunshine.

Good luck and have a fun poetry-writing session with your class!

See archives for more tips and ideas.

Kate