KS: Lower KS2
Year Group: Year 3
Literary Theme: Dreams & Curiosity
Author(s): Carol-Ann Duffy
This is a 10 session Literary Leaf for New and Collected Poems in which children begin by identifying some of the poetic language to help them understand the poems' structure. Through closely looking at two poems the children will be introduced to the skill of summarising and will look at language within the poems to see how the poet creates a picture. Children will compare both poems through content and form and finally pick their own poem to perform to the class.
We chose this book for a Literary Leaf as it's a wonderful collection of poems by one of our favourite poets of all time. Her writing has a strange knack of feeling all at once accesible and yet, new and clever as it shines a light on a new perspective or way of looking at something. Perfect for children - or adults who may feel their minds are made up!
In Sand- a free-verse poem, we hear the ponderings of a poet and their belief in sand. The properties, possibilities of and the images conjured are described through the use of nouns, some of which might be clearly associated with sand and others not. Although this isn’t a narrative poem, there is a sense of story or, at least, ‘off-shoots’ as the poet’s musings take our imaginations on a journey of sorts.
In the second poem, The Moon, a new child arrives to class and an unlikely friendship begins. But nothing lasts forever and the moon leaves class and her friend behind. It would seem however that whatever the friend had been looking for has now been found and the child left behind continues on in her friend - the moon’s - presence. The difference between this poem and Sand is that this is a narrative poem.
Poetry, sand, moon
KS: Lower KS2
Year Group: Year 3
