A Poetic Preamble

Lots of people (me included) have said they don't like poetry. But I reckon that, if you approach a new topic from lots of different angles, you can find something within it to enjoy.

This is part of what our flexi day is about. When we learnt about the Romans, we visited Roman sites, a Roman museum, read books about Romans, listened to audiobooks about the Romans, watched films about the Romans and, of course, played extensive games about the Romans (often featuring Mum as Boudica).

Ferdy at Watling St in Jan last year

This kind of immersion in a topic is a little tricky due to us being practically housebound. But when Ferdy's topic at school this week was poetic devices, we decided to try and use our Friday (after a bit of maths) to absorb ourselves in poetry.

Maths and poetry

The kids section on the Poetry Archive website is brill. You can look up poets who read their own poems aloud, but also poetic devices like alliteration. We spent ages taking it in turns choosing and listening to poems. Faves were: Dennis Lee's Alligator Pie, a poem he wrote whilst on a bike ride and a great example of rhythm; of course we had to listen to Michael Rosen but Gil chose lots of his poems for younger kids like Over My Toes and Where Does the Bounce Come From which we hadn't heard before and beautifully illustrate alliteration and onomatopoeia; and I chose some of the funnies like Spike Milligan's The Land of the Bumbly Boo (where Ferdy and Gil were pleased to hear that they never blow noses, 'do they wipe them on their sleeves like us Mummy?') and John Hegly's Blancmange (it's French and it's funny).

We then went out for an Alliteration Amble.

Gil made up a poem whilst we were getting ready.

Waiting
Waiting
Waiting

For Ferdy.

Anyone who knows Ferdy will have experienced this.

On our windy, wet walk, we realised how often we use poetic devices when we talk. Ferdy and Gil heard ROARING cars, saw diving ducks and ducks gracefully gliding across the water. Gil noted the splash and the rhythm of squelching in the puddles, Ferdy spotted secret spy birds and decided that ducks were quacking 'how are you, how are you'.

I do have to confess however, that Ferdy spent the rest of our walk insisting on telling me the names and skills of all the Ninjago characters. I expect there is way to make these poetic but I'll leave that to Ferdy.