I was lucky enough today to pop into Bunbury Grammar School, one of my local schools, to talk to year 3 and 4 Challenge students about one of my favourite topics: poetry.
The students have been writing poetry, including nonsense poetry, apology poems and limericks, and we had fun talking about poetic forms. The students wrote hay(na)ku, I read from and talked about Queen Narelle and Right Way Down and then shared the ‘My Beach is a Poem’ that I shared here on my blog in February.
We finished up by using that poem as a mentor text to co-construct a poem about George (my dog). This is what we came up with:
My Dog
by Sally Murphy AND Year 3/4 Challenge Students from BCGS
George and Narelle
My dog is a poem:
every morning
he says
‘It’s beach time, Mum!’
My dog is a poem:
a megalodon
snapping at
microscopic flies.
My dog is a poem:
like Godzilla
he reaches skywards
for his favourite ball.
My dog is a poem:
roaring, barking, sirening
as he prances
along the beach.
My dog is a poem.
Can you spot the poetic techniques we were focussing on in each stanza? I love the way that co-constructing a poem can lead to very creative results – I never would have thought to compare George to a megalodon or Godzilla, and the word sirening is a great way to describe his strident barks.
This is why I love visiting schools: I am asked to come to inspire students, but actually it is ME who is inspired.