Poetry activities for National Poetry Day 2017 - Part 2

Celebrate National Poetry Day with poems from Reading Planet

The Hippo Disco and Other Animal Poems

The Hippo Disco is an anthology written by the fantastic Brian Moses and is a Green banded reading book. It includes the following 4 poems:

The Budgie Likes to Boogie
Dogs
Hatching Eggs
The Hippo Disco

Although this book is pitched at year 1 readers, teachers in younger classes could take the opportunity to share some excellent poems with younger children too.

The Hippo Disco

This delightful poem includes a wonderful refrain, ‘ At the hip-hip-hippo disco.’

Download the Hippo Disco here.

Whole-school activities:

Teachers could share this poem in preparation of National Poetry Day. Some teachers might ask children to match actions to the words and perform the poem as a class in a special celebration assembly.
Teachers may choose to have an ‘Animal Disco’ dress up theme for National Poetry Day where children dress up as their chosen animal and repeat the refrain.
Children could work in small groups to create their own version of the poem by inserting an alternative animal. The writing frame could be scaffolded like this:

In the _________ house at the city zoo

The ______ are moving to the ___________

Big _____________ ______________

Little __________ ______________

Everyone giving it

All that they’ve got

At the _____________________________ disco

At the _____________________________ disco.

Where Spiders Creep and Other Spooky Poems

This anthology is written by the fantastic Brian Moses and is a Turquoise reading book. It includes the following 4 poems:

Don’t make me jump
Skeleton School
Under the covers
Where the spiders creep
Not an ordinary sort of monster
Last One

Although this book is pitched at year 2 readers, teachers in younger classes could take the opportunity to share some excellent poems with younger children too.

Writing activities for year 2 children:

In light of the new Interim Framework Assessment Arrangements for 2017-2018, this collection of excellent poetry could be the stimulus for fantastic pieces of writing. When children read poetry, they think they are reading less, but they are actually reading more. So these poems could be shared as a spooky collection and be the vehicle for independent pieces of writing, for example:

Skeleton School:

Design a school uniform for the skeleton
Write a diary entry for a skeleton’s first day at school
Write a poem in a similar style ________ School (alien, ghost, monster etc…)

Download Skeleton School here.

Under the covers:

Descriptive writing – what’s under the bed?
Poems in a similar style using other things people find scary
Write a list of things to do if you are scared and cannot sleep (instructional writing)

Download Under the Covers here.

Don't forget to also check out Maddy's @moonmaddy poetry activities for Wriggle Room in Part 1 of our celebration of National Poetry Day!

Galaxy The Hippo Disco and Where Spiders Creep are part of the Galaxy series of Reading Planet. Galaxy contains 72 exciting new fiction, poetry and non-fiction titles ranging from book bands Pink A to White. Find out more here.

Find out more about National Poetry Day here.