The Works Key Stage 1: Every kind of a poem you will ever need for the Literacy Hour

by Pie Corbett (Editor)

This text features poems for Reception and Years 1 and 2. It contains poems which cover every form and theme of the Literacy Strategy, an index of poem types, advice for writing poems, advice for reading poems, poetry activities, and some workshop ideas and lesson plans.

Genres: Poetry

314 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Works- Every kind of poem you will ever need for the Literacy Hour is a great combination of poems, nursery rhymes, songs and tongue twisters that can be used right across Nursery and Key Stage 1. The aim of the collection is to provide Primary Teachers with a range of materials that will help them to introduce poetry to children from a young age, during English lessons. The collection is composed of poets chosen by Pie Corbett who has worked as both a Primary Teacher and a Headteacher in a variety of schools as well as working in teacher training and as a English inspector. Due to poetry being highly neglected by teachers within primary school settings, he specifically compiled this book with the literacy hour in mind, to help teachers introduce children to a large range of poems that suit a multitude of purposes. The collection consists of a range of poets who all take a different approach to writing; some of the poets focus more upon the use of rhyme, whilst others place more of an emphasis upon alliteration. Furthermore, the poems are split into clearly defined sections, allowing teachers to find specific poems to suit a certain purpose. This consequently allows the poems to be used across the curriculum, with sections to run in parallel with the teaching of counting or the changing of seasons, therefore a great introduction to maths and science lessons.

Within the collection there is section called ‘My feelings and I’ which would be a great starting point to instigate discussion around personal, social and emotional development or to be used within a PSHE lesson to encourage children to think about their feelings and how their actions may have an affect on those around them. More specifically within the section there is a poem written by Jez Alborough called ‘A Smile’. I really enjoyed reading this poem and I loved the positive message it gave about how infectious a smile can be. It is written in an upbeat, happy way which somehow passes the ‘infectious’ smile on by being read aloud. I particularly liked the phrase ‘A single smile like mine could travel right around the earth’ as it really emphasises the power that one smile can hold, puting the idea of the poem into context and allowing the reader to visualise the affects a smile could have and the distance it could reach. It made me imagine a chain reaction with society gradually becoming happier in an exponential pattern. The poet uses a range of techniques in order to create this picture within the reader’s mind. For example, the author uses personification to portray that a smile is a physical object that can be given to a passersby. Furthermore, the use of the simile ‘you catch it like the flu’ allows the young readers to understand the concept that the poet is trying to create by making a comparison to something that children are more likely to have come across and therefore may have a better understanding of. Lastly, the use of rhyme adds to the feeling of the poem by creating a lively rhythmical feel portraying how someone may feel when they catch the happiness ‘bug’. All in all I think poem is great to use with children, whether to teach a message/moral or just to be used as a cheerful way to start the day.

[Suzanne Ashworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for my school library poetry club preparation - useful resource and collection of well-loved poetry and rhymes