Over the past few days, the Hampshire School has gone verse crazy in preparation for our whole-school poetry competition on the 18th March. All the children have been learning a poem to recite at home, and everyone has been challenged to write their very own poem in class. Miss Mulley, our school poet in residence, has been doing the rounds, visiting groups from Year 1-5 to give special workshops on this year’s theme, ‘Happier Together.’ During the workshops, the children learned to mind map ideas and to build a poem from scratch, using descriptive phrases piled up in a block to describe beloved family members, friends and pets. “The children have amazed and delighted me with their originality,” said Miss Mulley, “and we can expect some fantastic poems as a result of the sessions.”
Our drama teacher, Miss King, has also been extremely busy rehearsing a group poem with each class for a special performance on the 18 March when parents can expect delights from Shakespeare, Lewis Carol, Dylan Thomas and many more, all choreographed with her sparkling stage expertise. Not to be missed!
“I love that you can perform poetry anywhere. There are performance spaces all around us – in our bedroom, on a boat, in the classroom, even up a tree! Through poetry, we get to play with words and experiment with how we speak. Sometimes we perform a poem LOUDLY, and sometimes quietly. We could speak really-really-quickly, or v e r y … s l o w l y. Poems can be serious or they can be nonsense - making no sense at all! We can think about the tone – is it a happy poem or a sad poem? Is it angry? Thinking about emotions in this way can help to make the meaning of the poem more understood, by making the tone clear. I have been very impressed with the children’s creativity and collaborative skills as they have devised their performance poetry pieces together.”
Miss King