ks2 poetry homework

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• Poetry Ks2 Resources Worksheets

KS2 poems – Best ideas, resources and worksheets

Improve primary pupils' poetry writing and comprehension skills with our selection of resources, lessons, activities and more…

You may be a budding poet yourself or, frankly, a little afraid of it, but there’s no reason not to dive into teaching KS2 poems with this plethora of resources and ideas from poetry experts and teachers…

KS2 poetry resources

5 ideas to help ks2 pupils find the power of poetry, how to use a poetry unit to build vocabulary, 5 brilliant collections of poetry to have in your classroom, pie corbett poetry lessons.

Inspire your KS2 students to express themselves and get creative with our exclusive Pie Corbett KS2 Poems Collection . Each of the seven packs include a Powerpoint of a poem and a PDF full of teaching ideas to help you power up your English lessons.

Poetry model text resource packs

This selection of Real Writing poetry resources from Plazoom uses model texts by award-winning author Joshua Seigal as the jumping-off point to cover a variety of subjects.

Click the links below to check them out.

• I Have… (curriculum link: English – writing for purpose)
• Dreams of Escape (curriculum link: science – changing state)
• Water Cycle Haiku (curriculum link: geography – water cycle)
• Rivers (curriculum link: geography – rivers)

Performance poetry lesson plan

Use exaggeration to write funny KS2 poems with this free English lesson plan by teacher Jonny Walker. Children will play with concepts of true, false and exaggeration, using Fridge by Michael Rosen as a jumping off point.

• Read the findings of CLPE’s Power of Poetry Project .
• Read Poetry in Primary Schools: What We Know Works from CLPE.
• The Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award (CLiPPA)  Shadowing Scheme  provides free resources to encourage children to perform and find the joy in poetry.
• Michael Rosen has written a series of very informative  blog posts  on teaching poetry in primary schools.
• Search  CLPE’s poetry section  for book recommendations, KS2 poems and resources.
• Listen to poets reading their own work at  childrenspoetryarchive.org .

Write spooky sound poems inspired by Neil Gaiman

Getting children to write great poetry can sometimes be a bit hit-and-miss, but if they are given a clear framework and a fun hook, it can be a really rewarding experience.

This free KS2 poems lesson plan shows how a well-known poem can be combined with a fantastic picture book to offer children a language-rich stimulus that will enable them to write their own successful piece of poetry.

Listen to this Michael Rosen podcast

In episode 16 of Author In Your Classroom podcast Michael Rosen discusses migration and his poetry collection ‘On the Move’. There’s also a  free resource pack  to go along with it, which includes a PowerPoint, poem, images for a wall display, planning sheets, teacher notes and more.

Five poets read their poems

How might thinking about ‘truth’ inspire a poet? Here are five of your pupils’ favourites reading a piece of their own work with a connection to the theme, and talking about some of the ideas behind it.

Watch the videos of Karl Nova, Michael Rosen, Rachel Rooney, Victoria Adukwei Bulley and Joseph Coelho reading their poems, then download the full text of the poems , alongside suggestions for teaching and learning activities related to each one.

Creating imaginative characterisation in poetry

Writing is hard; writing poetry is even harder. You have a lot to think about: structure, rhythm, rhyme and so on. Creating scaffolds for children can help them to really concentrate on the words they are using rather than structure.

In this free KS2 poems English lesson plan pupils take the basic creative structure of a poem (‘No Breathing in Class’ by Michael Rosen) and edit it to create a new one.

Write mischievous KS2 poems like Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes

Roald Dahl took traditional fairy stories and turned them into wonderfully wicked  Revolting Rhymes . With a structured approach, this free lesson plan can help your class do the same.

Performance poetry lesson

There’s neither rhyme nor reason why children should see poems as punishment. Used effectively, poetry is a brilliant way to develop narrative writing skills and an understanding of the impact words can have.

This free KS2 poems lesson plan uses one of the most potent pieces of poetry you can use in a primary school setting – ‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mare.

Nature poem templates

This KS2 poems download from poet Zaro Weil features poetry examples, poem templates and teacher notes to help your class have lots of imaginative fun with nature and poetry.

War poetry for KS2

Explore World War One poetry to help Year 6 pupils understand what life was like on the frontline. This Plazoom resource pack includes information about Remembrance Day and why the poppy is used as a symbol for remembrance. You’ll explore the poem Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen.

Pupils will then write their own narratives about life in the trenches, using ideas and vocabulary from Wilfred Owen’s poem.

A poem a day

Want to expose children to the amazing language of nearly 2,000 different poems? Start by reading just one a day.

That’s the advice from Tre Christopher and Pet Henshaw. Read about why and how you can do this , what KS2 poems you should try and what resources will help.

Former headteacher and chief executive of CLPE, Louise Johns-Shepherd, explains how to inspire KS2 pupils with poetry…

1 | Make poetry available

Look for and make available collections and anthologies that open children’s eyes to what poetry is, and what it can do. This is something that previous winners of the CLPE Poetry Award, the CLIPPA , do particularly well.

Take 2017’s winner,  Moon Juice  by Kate Wakeling . This collection contains humorous poems, lyrical poems that follow rich rhythms, emotive poetry written from personal experience and poems that offer windows into the writer’s fascinations and direct, real-life experience.

Make sure that poetry is available to children, and that the poetry on offer shows that it is a multi-dimensional and exciting form.

2 | Read poetry aloud

Read poetry aloud often. Drop it into every moment of the school day, with no preconceived agenda. Give children the opportunity to hear and see a wide range of poets reading and performing their poetry. Children need to see the universality of poetry and that poetry is for them.

Seeing poems performed by the poets who wrote them opens up children’s perceptions about poetry. It is important to make sure that children have access to the work of a wide range of poets, and to the work of poets that reflect the realities of children in our schools.

“Give children the opportunity to hear and see a wide range of poets reading and performing their poetry”

Only then will children really grasp that poetry is a space for them.

Children need to feel the joy in reading poetry aloud themselves, joining in, dramatising and performing poems. If poetry is not given a voice, if it just stays on the page as a printed object, then it is not going to come alive for most children.

3 | Try ‘poetry papering’

Children need time to read, re-read and respond to poetry. However, we must make sure that we don’t jump into trying to dissect the poem before giving the children the opportunity to internalise and respond to it at a personal level.

A technique like ‘poetry papering’ works really well. Select a number of different poems, illustrating different poets, styles and forms. Photocopy the poems and pin them up around the classroom or another space for the children to find and explore at their leisure.

They can read, pass over, move on and then select one they’d like to talk about with someone else. This encourages children to enjoy the experience of simply reading a poem, to relish the uncertainties of meanings and the nature of the knowledge and emotional responses that poems invoke in them as readers.

Let them look for connections, ask questions, explore what they like about poems and the use of language. You can use this as an opportunity to introduce children to the names of specific forms or devices.

You might introduce this by way of what Michael Rosen calls ‘secret strings’ ( What is Poetry?  Walker 2016 ). He talks about the importance of discovering how the poet might have used assonance, alliteration, imagery, rhythm and sound.

4 | Invite in practising poets

Seeing a poet bring their own work to life and beginning to understand what that means in terms of the creation of poetry helps children to see themselves as writers. And teachers also benefit from working alongside poets.

During our Power of Poetry project, educators found their teaching was improved by understanding the creative process.

“Teachers also benefit from working alongside poets”

Listen to poets talk about their writing process; what inspires them, how they work, how they draft, edit and redraft – all this yields a wealth of information to consider the freedoms and support we give children in their own writing.

5 | Support children to become poets

In order to write poetry, children need to experience different kinds of poems so that they can see how different forms work: sing-song rhythms of chants, rhymes and refrains, the joy of humorous and nonsense verse and poems that explore different forms, such as rhyme, free verse, haiku and sonnets.

Children then have a context to discover the rich history of poetry, exploring where these forms came from and how they work as well as showing them what they can do in their own writing.

Through writing poetry children are encouraged to reflect on their experience, to recreate it, shape it, and make sense of it. In a poem, it is possible to give form and significance to a particular event or feeling and to communicate this to the reader or listener.

Experimenting with verse helps children to develop powerful language skills that will shine out in all their writing, explains Jane Andrews, English adviser at  HFL Education…

When writing, in their eagerness to get everything correct, children sometimes struggle to hit the right tone for the reader. A key issue in the past has been children thinking they have to use the ‘wowiest’ word available in a thesaurus, rather than the ‘right’ word.

They may also be working towards lengthy success criteria and, when this process is not focused on the purpose of writing and its effect on the reader, it can send the outcome awry.

The following activities show how using a poetry unit to build vocabulary before a narrative or non-fiction unit can lift children’s understanding of well-chosen language – how to paint a picture with words and play with the reader’s emotions.

Free verse ideas

With free verse poetry, children don’t need to worry about clause structures and, in fact, this is a place where playing with and breaking the rules is encouraged.

Let’s imagine we have an upcoming narrative or non-fiction unit on dragons. Spend a week on the following free verse ideas, which will build the children’s vocabulary and help them consider how this language affects the reader.

A shared read of Jackie Morris’s wonderful text,  Tell Me A Dragon  might be a good starting point and a way of firing up everyone’s creative juices.

With all of the vocabulary-building approaches, it is essential that you provide some words that children know but don’t use themselves, and a few they might not know but would be very useful.

Develop vocab with acrostics

This approach helps children consider whether the vocabulary they are using is appropriate for the effect they wish to create. Is their dragon, for example, friendly? Might he be a hero? Or deadly?

Ask pupils to generate as many words as possible that might relate to their dragon beginning with each letter of the main noun itself (D-R-A-G-O-N).

Add some suggestions and a variety of pictures to support and develop this process. You can even model it using a different subject, eg ‘T-E-A-C-H-E-R-S’.

Eventually, children can write an acrostic poem, letting those words set the tone for the rest of each line:

D ragons R age screaming from deadly eyes A ngry fire destroying everything in its path G igantic eyes, never missing a trick O dorous steam streaming from its cavernous nostrils N oxious breath S cales like a knight’s armour, shielding from attack

Cut-up poem

Take a short poem or a verse from a poem you will be studying. Print it, using double line spacing, and then cut up the lines.

Place these in an envelope and then ask children to put the lines in an order they believe makes sense.

Sometimes they will be able to begin with the only line that starts with a capital letter and put it at the top, then place the line ending with a full stop at the bottom. But not all poems give such clues. This is immediately something to discuss.

There is no wrong and right; it is the conversations evolving from their important thought processes. You might want to choose poems about animals, such as ‘ My Brother Bert’ by Ted Hughes or ‘ Penguins on Ice’ by Celia Warren .

“It is the conversations evolving from their thought processes that are important”

Suitable similes

I’m sure we’ve all seen a variety of inappropriate similes. I’ve seen ‘as white as ice cream’ to show how white somebody had turned in fear.

We have only to ask the children if they want to put a picture of an ice cream into somebody’s mind while building the tension in our story and they realise it’s inappropriate. This approach helps them to consider how to develop appropriate similes and metaphors.

We start with the clichés such as ‘As light as ….’ and the children respond ‘a feather’. We then model how to push this simile by explaining that I could think of something lighter.

I would need to think of something really small, like a fairy. Then I would push it to find something even smaller like a fairy’s eyelash and then a teardrop. Now I have as light as the teardrop on the end of a fairy’s eyelash.

Again, this is only appropriate if I want something as lovely as a fairy in the reader’s mind. Going back to my dragons I might have ‘its fire is like a scorching wind striking down anything in its path’.

I could then change that to a metaphor by saying that ‘its fire is a scorching wind, striking down anything in its path.’

Playing with grammar

This is a simple game with great results. First of all, decide as a whole class the feeling we want to create about our dragon, eg dangerous, endangered, friendly, etc. Mine is ‘dangerous’. (The grammar exemplified is for Year 4, but you would choose word classes appropriate for your pupils.)

• Fold a piece of paper in half and half again, creating four columns down the page. Write four verbs, one in each column to describe your dragon, eg screeching, tearing, attacking, swooping.
• Fold the paper over and pass to the next person, who writes four determiners, eg one, some, a, few.
• Fold the paper over again and pass to the next person, who writes four nouns, eg breath, nostrils, eyes, scales.
• Repeat this process, with the next person writing four prepositions, eg beside, with, under, beneath.

The paper is then passed to the final person who has to create a poem.

Each line must include a word taken from each column, but this can be placed anywhere within the line along with any other language. For example:

Charlotte Hacking, learning programmes leader at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) picks her favourites…

A Great Big Cuddle  by Michael Rosen

A rich mix of poems that play with words and sounds, engage young readers with rhythms and rhymes and show that poetry can tell a story or share our feelings. Poems that children will want to join in with, move to and talk about.

The Dragon With a Big Nose  by Kathy Henderson

This collection explores a range and breadth of forms and styles, taking them from the familiar comfort of rhythm and rhymes to the introduction of more sophisticated poetic devices such as assonance, imagery and metaphor. It’s out of print, so you’ll need to track down a preloved copy!

Things You Find in a Poet’s Beard  by AF Harrold

A perfect KS2 poems collection with a mix of themes and poetic forms. The poems use clever humour and wordplay as well as evocative imagery, which enables children to visualise and feel like they are in the moments being described.

Rhythm and Poetry  by Karl Nova

Hip hop artist Karl’s poems are infused with the lyrical rhythms of his music, which makes them irresistible for children to want to perform, but this is also a book that could inspire many to take up writing themselves.

The Rainmaker Danced  by John Agard

These rich and lyrical poems, set against striking illustrations by Satoshi Kitamura, invite us to consider our own impact on each other and the environment and to question, challenge and reflect. In the current climate of fake news, poetry such as this is essential in every classroom.

Browse more ideas in our  National Poetry Day round-up.

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Poetry resources

Teaching resources for reading and writing poetry.

Enrich your EYFS, key stage 1 and key stage 2 poetry lessons with our collection of downloadable poetry resources, designed to get children thinking about poetic forms and, for KS2 poetry, figurative language, including alliteration, personification, onomatopoeia and similes.  

This poetry collection includes comprehension tasks that ask children to consider the features of poetry in a range of children’s poems, including modern children's poetry by poets such as Michael Rosen and Carol Ann Duffy, and classic poems such as Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’ or Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Highwayman’.

You'll also find creative writing activities in the form of worksheets and PowerPoints to help children write their own poems, including acrostic poems, haiku, performance poetry, free verse, narrative poetry, kennings and cinquains.

You may also like our whole school poetry resource pack,  Poetry for all , which includes links to the National Curriculum,  lesson plans, sample poems for every year group from the EYFS through KS1 to UKS2, poetry activities and writing activities. Perfect for National Poetry Day!

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Poetry KS2 Lesson Packs:

Chocolate Poetry

Year 4 Poetry Lessons

Year 5 Nonsense Poetry

Cloud Busting

Year 5 Narrative Poetry

An Emotional Menagerie

Year 6 Poetry Lessons

The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark English Pack

3x Year 3 Poetry Lessons

Tales of Ancient Egypt English Pack

4x Year 3 Poetry Lessons

The Butterfly Lion English Pack

3x Year 5 Poetry Lessons

This is Me English Pack

4x Year 6 Poetry Lessons

Why teach poetry in primary schools?

Often, poetry is not seen as important in schools. However, teaching children to read, write, respond and perform poetry can have enormous benefits. Here are our top 4 reasons to teach poetry in primary schools:

• Poetry is a more free form of writing where the usual rules and conventions don't seem to apply. This can help give children confidence in their writing and this sense of freedom can be a real motivator to reluctant writers.
• It can be used across the curriculum and bring subjects to life! For example, children could write a kennings poem about one of the organs of the body in Science or they could write a narrative poem to help them demonstrate their understanding of a historical event.
• It can be a really good way into reading for children. Many poems are fun, humorous and have less words on the page than a typical story or non-fiction text. Also, rhyme and repetition are excellent ways for young learners to develop an awareness of language, phonic patterns and rhythms.
• Writing poetry encourages children to be creative with their use of language. Poetry allows you to play with language and sentence structure. This creativity teaches children to experiment with language and thus find different ways to communicate.

A Haiku is a traditional Japanese poem that follows a tight syllabic structure. Haikus do not normally rhyme and they are usually written in the present tense. They juxtapose two subjects, usually related to some kind of natural or seasonal phenomenon.

Key features of haiku KS2:

• Haikus have 3 lines
• They have a total of 17 syllables
• Line 1 has 5 syllables
• Line 2 has 7 syllables
• Line 3 has 5 syllables

Example of a haiku KS2:

Snowflakes falling down

They scatter when winter's here

Making white blankets

Shape Poems

The correct name for a shape poem is a calligram. This is a type of poetry where the shape and layout of the letters and words on the paper relate to the poem's meaning. In shape poems, the shapes made by the letters, lines or verses expresses the meaning of the poem.

Key features of Shape Poems:

• The shape of the poem expresses the meaning of the poem
• A great way to unite learning in Art and English
• Also called a calligram

Free verse poetry KS2

In free verse poetry, the structure is very loose. This is in contrast to many other forms of poetry which have tight structures. Free verse poetry is characterised by irregular rhythm and rhyme (although both may be used within free verse poems). Irregular line length is a feature of free verse poetry and literary devices such as alliteration, metaphor and similes are often used.

Key features of free verse poetry KS2:

• Loose structure
• Irregular rhythm and rhyme
• Literary devices often used.

Limerics KS2

Limerics are often humorous and their origins can be traced back to the early years of the 18th century. Limerics are often written about a person in a particular place.

Key features of Limerics KS2:

• Limerics have a regular AABBA rhyming structure
• The first line usually introduces the person and place
• The place usually ends the first line and this then sets up the rhyme for lines 2 and 5

Example of a limeric KS2:

There was an old man from Nantucket

Who kept all his cash in a bucket;

But his daughter, named Nan

Ran away with a man -

And as for the bucket Nantucket.

Kennings Poems

Kennings are two word phrases. The two words are joined together with a hyphen and are usually created using a noun and a verb (e.g. spine-tingling, bone-chilling, life-giving, ear-piercing) or two nouns (e.g. book-worm, sky-scraper).

Kennings can be descriptive or metaphorical, which makes them perfect for poetry. Kennings phrases can be joined together to create effective poetry. In a kennings poem, each line is made up of two words joined using a hyphen.   The poem itself often takes the form of a riddle, so that the reader has to guess what is being described.

Key features of kennings poems:

• Made up of two word phrases
• Can be descriptive or metaphorical
• Each line made up of two words joined using a hypen
• Kennings poems take the form of a riddle so the reader must guess what is being described

Example of a kennings poem:

Tree-dwelling

Worm-eating

Dawn-calling

Wing-beating

Nest-making

A sonnet is a very technical form of poetry which can be traced back to the 13th century. Sonnets originated in Italy. The majority of students will first encounter sonnets when they study the works of Shakespeare.

Key features of Shakespeare's sonnets:

• 14 lines of iambic pentameter
• 3 quatrains and heroic couplet
• Rhyme = ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
• They are narrative and usually strat with a problem leading up to a solution towards the end of the poem.

Performance Poetry KS2

As the name suggests, performance poetry is poetry that is intended to be read aloud and performed. Techniques used to enhance the performance of poetry, such as intonation, tone, tempo, and volume, can be employed effectively to develop meaning for the listener.

Key features of performance poetry KS2:

• Any form of poetry can be used
• Narrative poetry is great for performace as narrative poems are designed to be read aloud to an audience.
• The performace of a poem can help the listener better understand and engage with it's content
• The performer might chose to play around with intonation, tone, temo and volume

Narrative poetry KS2

Narrative poems are so called since they tell a story. They are written to be read aloud and are therefore great poems for children to perform.  

Key features of narrative poetry KS2:

• Include alll the elements of a story such as characters, setting, conflict, dialogue, climax, resolution, etc.
• Narrative poems use literary devices such as similes, metaphors and figurative language
• Narrative poems often rhyme although not always
• Designed to be read aloud
• Tell a story

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Ks2 Poetry and plays worksheets

Free worksheets: poetry and plays, ks2.

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Write a poem about parts of the body

Writing a cinquain

Reading and writing a list poem

All about imagery

Structuring a haiku

Book reviews activity pack

Revising poetic language crossword

Powerful adjectives

Poetry composition

Poetry analysis

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Using personification in poetry

Imagery in poetry: personification

Building imagery in poetry: using powerful verbs and adverbs

Reading and writing a free verse poem

Using similes in poetry

Setting out a play script correctly

Haikus explained

Exploring poetry: question and answer poems

Exploring poetry: list poems

Exploring poetry: haiku poems

Exploring poetry: cinquains

Creating images in poetry

A collection of learning resources from The Poetry Society

Search lesson plans, filter by type, theme or technique, themes and subjects, tools and techniques.

GCSE Unseen Poetry Practice: late lingua

Explore a new poem, 'late lingua', by poet Khairani Barokka ('Okka'), through a video interview with the poet and an accompanying worksheet.

We use the poem to practise some techniques around unseen poetry at GCSE. You'll learn about ways to approach analysing a poem you've never seen before, watch presenter Jess Murrain interview Okka, and think about some of the literary devices used in the poem.

Watch the film

Download the worksheet 

Download a screen-reader friendly version of the worksheet , including image descriptions

This was put together by The Poetry Society as part of About Us, commissioned by UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK. Discover other About Us poetry resources here .

‘A poem is…’ with Disney Junior

Together with Disney Junior, the Poetry Society commissioned poet Coral Rumble to write a guide to help parents and carers enjoy poetry with under 7’s to accompany the Disney animated ‘A Poem is…’ series. ‘A Poem is…’ launched in summer 2012 and showcases poetry set to iconic moments from some of Disney’s classic animation films such as Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Pinocchio. Celebrities Matt Smith, David Walliams, Richard Briers CBE, Jessica Hynes and Michelle Dockery are among the all star cast who have teamed up to narrate the series.

GCSE Unseen Poetry Practice: Remnants

Explore a new poem, 'Remnants', by poet Llŷr Gwyn Lewis, through a video interview with the poet and an accompanying worksheet.

We use the poem to practise some techniques around unseen poetry at GCSE. You'll learn about ways to approach analysing a poem you've never seen before, watch presenter Lewis Buxton interview Llŷr, and think about some of the literary devices used in the poem. You can also read a version of this poem in Welsh .

Download the worksheet  

Download a screen-reader friendly version of the worksheet, including image descriptions

Poetry Train

David Harmer and Roger Stevens use a collection of activities, poems, and advice for teaching poetry in primary schools.  The two share proven approaches based on poems by Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, David Harmer, and Roger Stevens.

We are Cellular

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore the history of the discovery of cells, and the way cells behave when they migrate. It includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by 'Micrographia, 1665', a new poem by Jack Cooper, commissioned for About Us.

Key Stages 3-5

Topics: cell biology, history of science - Robert Hooke

Literary features: metaphor, simile, punctuation, creative writing

Sefton's Wonderous Waterways: Poetry Trail Learning Resource

Poet Levi Tafari was commissioned by The Canal & River Trust and The Poetry Society to work with community groups to create a poem celebrating the Sefton canal, a poem which has now been transformed into a poetry trail.

This resource, for teachers of primary-school children, contains a number of activities for different year groups. The activities draw on Levi’s poem and will enliven your walks along the trail. Use these teaching notes to help you guide the children through the activities. There are quick games to play outside while you’re on the walk, and longer tasks to work on back in the classroom.

Poetry By Heart: Pass the Parcel

In 2023, a team of poets ran poetry workshops in schools as part of a collaboration between Poetry By Heart and The Poetry Society. In the workshops, they supported students to learn a poem by heart and perform it. In this video resource, poet Oliver Lomax shares one of the exercises he used in the workshops. If you’re a teacher, try using this activity with your own class as part of your Poetry By Heart journey.

poetrybyheart.org.uk

Poetry By Heart: Using Actions

In 2023, a team of poets ran poetry workshops in schools as part of a collaboration between Poetry By Heart and The Poetry Society. In the workshops, they supported students to learn a poem by heart and perform it. In this video resource, poet Rakaya Fetuga shares one of the exercises she used in the workshops. If you’re a teacher, try using this activity with your own class as part of your Poetry By Heart journey.

Poetry By Heart: Finding Sparks

In 2023, a team of poets ran poetry workshops in schools as part of a collaboration between Poetry By Heart and The Poetry Society. In the workshops, they supported students to learn a poem by heart and perform it. In this video resource, poet Matt Abbott share some of the exercises he used in the workshops. If you’re a teacher, try using this activity with your own class as part of your Poetry By Heart journey.

poetrybyheart.org.uk poetrysociety.org.uk/education

T is for Tree: Festive Nature Metaphors

This resource draws inspiration from Isabel Galleymore’s poem, ‘T is for Tree’, which captures how a Christmas tree draws the creatures of the forest together. It introduces learners to metaphor, exploring how to compare one image with another and the effect this creates. The resource inspires learners to create their own metaphors and poetic imagery.

National Poetry Day 2023: Care Package (Refuge)

National Poetry Day 2023 is on Thursday 5 October. This year's theme is 'Refuge', so we've shared a poem by a recent Foyle Young Poet and created a resource for you to try.

Using Tara Tulshyan's prize-winning poem ' Care Package ', this KS3 resource explores the transition when moving from one home to another.

Cuteness and the Environment

This resource links cuteness and the environment to inspire thinking on the environmental consequences of disposable plastic. It uses Isabel Galleymore's poem 'Examples Include Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On' to prompt writing with personification and metaphor. It includes curriculum links to science and citizenship.

Key Stages 3-4

Topics: metaphor, personification, voice, environment, plastic waste

Download the resource.

GCSE Unseen Poetry Practice: Lightly Is the Language

Explore a new poem, 'Lightly Is the Language', by poet Stephen Sexton, through a video interview with the poet and an accompanying worksheet.

We use the poem to practise some techniques around unseen poetry at GCSE. You'll learn about ways to approach analysing a poem you've never seen before, watch presenter Lewis Buxton interview Stephen, and think about some of the literary devices used in the poem.

Watch the film Download the worksheet 

 This was put together by The Poetry Society as part of About Us, commissioned by UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK. Discover other About Us poetry resources here .

GCSE Unseen Poetry Practice: In Tree the Primal Ocean

Explore a new poem, 'In Tree the Primal Ocean', by poet Jason Allen-Paisant, through a video interview with the poet and an accompanying worksheet.

We use the poem to practise some techniques around unseen poetry at GCSE. You'll learn about ways to approach analysing a poem you've never seen before, watch presenter Jess Murrain interview Jason, and think about some of the literary devices used in the poem.

Download a screen-reader friendly version of the worksheet , including image descriptions.

We Are Plankton

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore plankton. It includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by 'Plankton', a new poem by Jen Hadfield, commissioned for About Us. The poem includes words in Shetland dialect and photographs by Alfred Kern. A song of the poem, created by Jen Hadfield and Jenny Sturgeon, can be listened to here .

Key Stages 2-3

Topics: plankton, tiny organisms, Shetland dialect, sustainability and our future, wellbeing and resilience

We Are Language

This resource brings together explores how language individualises us but connects us as humans. It includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by 'Together We Are Distant', a new poem by Dan Simpson, commissioned for About Us.

Key Stages 4 & 5

Topics: language, signs and signifiers, semiotics

Literary features: metaphor, enjambment

We Are Birds

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore the relationship between humans and the environment, focussing particularly on birds. It includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by Aliyah Begum's 'Walking to the Train Station', a winning poem in the Young Poets Network Poems to Solve the Climate Crisis Challenge 2021, in partnership with People Need Nature.

Key Stages 2 & 3

Topics: birds, the environment, litter, sustainability

Literary features: imagery, anthropomorphism

We are Whale Song

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore the relationship between humans and whales. It focuses on themes of time, change, sustainability and the marine environment. It includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by Kyle Lovell's 'The Sunken Cathedral', a winning poem in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award.

Key Stages 3- 5

Topics: whales and whale song, faith, time, identity and diversity, sustainability and our future, wellbeing and resilience

Literary features: metaphor, refrains

Cloud Chamber: Exploring Identity (Primary Schools)

A lesson plan for primary school teachers exploring identity. In this lesson you'll create a class contract, watch, read, and discuss a poem about identity, written by primary school pupils at a school in Scotland, and write your own identity poems using a stem poem. Created as part of The Poetry Society's network for poets and teachers, Cloud Chamber .

Key Stage 2

Topic: Identity

Format: Slide show with accompanying notes

Cloud Chamber: Exploring Identity (Secondary Schools)

A lesson plan for secondary school teachers exploring identity. In this lesson you'll create a class contract, watch, read, and discuss a poem about identity, written by sixteen-year-old Preesha Jain, and write your own identity poems using a free write exercise and a stem poem. Created for The Poetry Society's network for poets and teachers, Cloud Chamber .

National Poetry Day 2022: Daisy Chains (The Environment)

National Poetry Day 2022 is on Thursday 6 October, and what better way to explore this year's theme of 'The Environment' than by reading a poem by a recent Foyle Young Poet, and writing new poems in response?

Using Daniel Wale's prize-winning poem 'Daisy Chains' , this KS2-3 resource asks you to think about how our environment can be transformed through description and detail, as the daisy is woven into a chain. How might we use setting as a metaphor for relationships?

Rainbow Extinction: Protest Poems

Teacher Trailblazer Catherine Bruton explores how writing multi-coloured protest poems can change the world, using Foyle Young Poet Sarisha Mehta’s award-winning poem ‘Blue Extinction’. This PowerPoint lesson is easy to bring straight into the classroom. Students will learn about eco-poetry, form, and figurative language, exploring Sarisha's poem before writing their own.

For added inspiration, watch this video of Sarisha reading her poem.

The Fourth King: A Tree's Journey

Inspired by Sinéad Morrissey's new poem 'The Fourth King', across two lessons KS2 pupils will learn about the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree and use personification, assonance and alliteration to speak from the perspective of an object or plant, imagining the journey it has been on. With opportunities to discuss big life changes, migration, journeys, recycling and the environment, children will be guided to write their own dramatic monologues after Sinéad Morrissey.

For added inspiration, watch an interview with Sinéad where she reads the poem and talks about the inspiration behind it; watch it brought to life by three children from St Saviour's Church of England Primary School; and if you can, visit the tree in Trafalgar Square until 6 January!

Illustrations by Marcus Walters.

We, the Reef

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore the symbiotic relationship between algae and coral reefs. It includes a step-by-step guide to using improvisation to create your own poem, inspired by 'We, the Reef', a new poem by Caleb Parkin, Jane Hills, and Isla Keesje Davidson, commissioned for About Us.

Key Stages 2-4

Topics: symbiosis, zooxanthellae algae and coral reefs, climate change, collaboration,improvisation

Literary features: ecopoetry, voice, personification, creative writing

Teachers can also download a lesson plan featuring the same poem in the form of a slide deck.

We are the Universe

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore the relationship between the way we are all connected because we all came from stars. It includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by 'Roll up! Roll up!', a new poem by Cheryl Moskowitz, commissioned for About Us.

Key Stages 1-3

Topics: Earth and space, the journey of star, supernova, light years, black holes

Literary features: rhyme, syllabics, glose poems

We are Cell Tissue

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore the topic of cell tissue, and specifically epithelium. It includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by Kitty Joyce's 'Epithelium', a winning poem in the Young Poets Network Human Cell Atlas Challenge 2021, in partnership with the Newcastle Centre for Literary Arts (NCLA) and One Cell At A Time, part of the Human Cell Atlas..

Topics: epithelium, cells and their functions, Surrealism

Literary features: word association, similes and metaphors, enjambment

We are Mycelium

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore the relationship between trees and fungus/ mycelium. It focuses on the idea of symbiosis, and the role mycelium plays in the ecosystem. It includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by Brooke Nind's 'Mycelium Under the Canopy', a winning poem in the Young Poets Network Poems to Solve the Climate Crisis Challenge 2021, in partnership with People Need Nature.

Topics: mycelium, trees and mushrooms, symbiosis, climate change, ecosystem

Literary features: voice (first person), tenses, repetition (anaphora)

We are Liquid Stars

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore the relationship between the human body and outer space. It focuses on the blood, and the idea that the chemicals in our body once came from stars. It includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by Celeste Herriotts's 'Blood', a winning poem from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.

Topics: human body, blood and the circulatory system, Earth and space

Literary features: voice (first and second person), personification, imagery, dynamic verbs

We are Trees

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore the relationship between trees, names and identity. It focuses on Maple trees, and includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by Talulah Quinto's 'Maple', a winning poem from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019.

Topics: trees, the ecosystem, biodiversity, identity, naming

Literary features: repetition (anaphora), tenses, symbolism, adjectives, juxtaposition

We are the Sea

This resource brings together poetry and science to explore the relationship between humans and the sea. It focuses on whales, and includes discussion points and creative writing activities inspired by Isaac Graaf's 'The New Guy', a winning poem from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2006.

Key Stages 1 & 2

Topics: whales, echolocation, humans and the sea, sealife

Literary features: point of view, comic voice

National Poetry Day 2021: We Have A Choice

Celebrate National Poetry Day 2021 on 7 October by exploring Foyle Young Poet Theodora Shillito’s ‘The Story of Squiddly Diddly’, a poem about marine conservation and recycling, commended in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020 . This resource encourages KS2-3 students to think about how the choices we make affect the environment.

Blackout history: Exploring Daniel Wale's poem 'Navajo Roads'

This lesson plan explores Daniel Wale's 'Navajo Roads', a winning poem from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.

The activities can be used in a single session, or over a series of sessions.

In this resource, produced by Teacher Trailblazer Joanne Bowles, students are encouraged to think about history, power and conflict and interdisciplinarity. The resource also introduces students to erasure and found poetry as a form.

Joanne Bowles Teacher Trailblazer resource

'The Fruit of the Spirit is Love (Galatians 5:22)'

This lesson plan explores Marvin Thompson's 'The Fruit of the Spirit is Love (Galatians 5:22)', which won first prize in the National Poetry Competition 2020.

In this resource, produced by Teacher Trailblazer Noor Wafa, students are encouraged to think about how we form an identity, and what it means to belong, in the context of race and cultural heritage. The resource also explores intertextuality, the villanelle form, and iambic pentameter.

Content warning: please note that the poem featured in this resource deals with the theme of racism and contains imagery of lynching.

How to Belong: 'Brown Girl'

This lesson plan explores Indigo Mudbhary's 'Brown Girl', a winning poem from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.

In this resource, produced by Teacher Trailblazer Fran Pridham, students are encouraged to think about identity and belonging, including the issue of race. The resource also introduces students to poetry in prose as a form.

The Truth Exposed: 'Polaris'

This lesson plan explores Brigitta McKeever's ‘Polaris’, a winning poem from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.

In this resource, produced by Teacher Trailblazer Stephanie Nobes, students are encouraged to think about the relationship between poetry and objects, the body, and the 'Evolution of Me'. They are also encouraged to analyse the poem with a close focus on features of language, and to write creatively using juxtaposition.

Where talk is never cheap: 'Love Poem to Young Offenders Support Workers'

This lesson plan explores Libby Russell's ‘Love Poem to Young Offenders Support Workers’, a winning poem from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.

In this resource, produced by Teacher Trailblazer Gareth Ellis, students are encouraged to think about why poets choose to write about love, how society values different types of knowledge, and the relationship between ‘here’ and ‘home’ in this poem. They are also encouraged to explore the sonnet form more widely.

A thing of beauty: Rachel Piercey on Keats's life and works

As part of a season of activity celebrating 200 years of John Keats's legacy, poet Rachel Piercey explores the life and works of Keats through some of the paintings and objects in the collection of Keats House, London. This resource is aimed at KS4 and KS5.

Find out more about Keats200

Image: Keats Listening to the Nightingale on Hampstead Heath by Joseph Severn. Oil painting, 1849. Image courtesy of Keats House, City of London, K/PZ/05/015.

Amy Davis on John Keats’s ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’

As part of a season of activity celebrating 200 years of John Keats's legacy, Teacher Trailblazer Amy Davis looks closely at ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’. She offers ways to analyse the poet's techniques as well as exploring literary allusions, critical views, the poem's afterlife in art, and some prompts for creative responses. This resource is aimed at KS5.

Poets for LGBT+ History Month and Always

A Level teacher and former Education Manager Nazmia Jamal offers over fifty suggestions of LGBT+ poets you could teach in February, which is LGBT+ History Month, and any time of the year. She shares questions for class discussion, writing prompts which are particularly inspired by the pandemic, and context for poems by Keith Jarrett, Mary Jean Chan, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Emily Dickinson and more.

Find more LGBT+ History Month resources here

Look North More Often: a poetry pack for teachers inspired by the gift of the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree

Since 2009, The Poetry Society has run Look North More Often, a unique education project celebrating the gift of the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. The tree is given to the city of London from the city of Oslo every year since 1947, as thanks for Britain's support during the Second World War. Every year, we run workshops in primary schools which inspire a children's writer to craft a new poem celebrating the tree.

In 2012, we created an extensive pack of teaching resources for primary teachers, which we've recently updated. The pack offers a history of the tree and the project, and features Norwegian writers as well as Anglophone poets. Inside, you'll discover thoughtful and fun poetry writing exercises from such leading poets as Kevin Crossley-Holland, James Carter, Frances Presley, Hanne Bramness, Coral Rumble, Kit Wright and Philip Gross.

Find out more about the project

Discover more teaching resources inspired by the tree

The Christmas Pine: The Tree Speaks Back!

In these activities for KS1 and KS2, children read Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson's new poem 'The Christmas Pine' and are invited to find out more about their favourite plant and write a dramatic monologue from its perspective. A great activity for the end of term, with links to science and learning about other cultures, this plan can be completed as a class, in groups or individually. Children can follow the poem frame or make up their own structure. It can be made to be very Christmassy - or not Christmassy at all!

For added inspiration, don't forget to read Julia's poem 'The Christmas Pine' , commissioned as part of The Poetry Society's annual Look North More Often programme, and performed by three children from St Mary of the Angels Primary School here .

Poetry & Political Language

Taking inspiration from George Orwell's Animal Farm, this resource uses critical thinking and political language to create new poems called 'couplings' (after poets Karen McCarthy Woolf and Malika Booker). Created in partnership with The Orwell Foundation, as part of the 2020 Young Poets Network writing challenge.

Find more prompts on this theme

Tell & See: National Poetry Day 2020 visionary poetry resource

Explore 'Diamonds' by Evelyn Byrne, a commended poem in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019 with the help of shiny fish, and celebrate this year's National Poetry Day, with the theme of Vision. Download

Love Yourself

This lesson plan explores Cia Mangat’s ‘Love Poem to Myself’, a winning poem from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019.

The activities stimulated by reading Cia’s poem should inspire students to think about themselves and look to a variety of love poems as a rich source for prompting poetry writing.

Eco-poetry National Poetry Competition writing resource from Pascale Petit

Explore two National Poetry Competition prize-winning poems that address ecological themes with poet, teacher and former NPC judge Pascale Petit.

This resource was commissioned by The Poetry Society as part of the 2020 National Poetry Competition . We recommend this resource is used for KS5 and older.

Hope on a Postcard

Inspired by Dr Martin Luther King’s visit to Newcastle University in 1967 to accept an honorary doctorate, poets John Challis and Sinéad Morrissey were invited to run poetry workshops in a male maximum security prison. They explored, with a group of self-selecting inmates, the three themes of King’s acceptance speech: poverty, racism and war. Techniques explored include writing a Golden Shovel, a ghazal, and experimenting with enjambement. We invite you to try these exercises yourself or as part of a school or other poetry group. 

Read more about the prison workshops in Poetry News online.

Sharing the Gift of Hope at Christmas

Poet Clare Pollard guides you through a brand new festive poetry lesson on the theme of hope. Pupils will learn about personification, writing letters, metaphors and similes, all while gearing up to writing a hopeful poem inspired by Clare Pollard's 2019 Christmas Tree poem 'The Gift' . Perfect for KS1 and KS2!

For added inspiration, don't forget to read Clare's poem 'The Gift' , commissioned as part of The Poetry Society's annual Look North More Often programme

The Power of Memory and Association

Teacher Trailblazer Gagandeep Chaggar guides you through teaching 'God in 80s Movies', a Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018 winning poem by Em Power set in 80s films. Includes: close reading, writing your own film-inspired poem, and a note from the poet herself. Download

6 Ways to Look at The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Discover this new KS3-4 teaching resource on the 2019 National Poetry Day theme of 'truth', written by Michael Donkor, a teacher, author and former Foyle Young Poet.

Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market

In collaboration with the Watts Gallery and their exhibition  Christina Rossetti: Vision and Verse we are exploring one of Christina Rossetti's most famous poems  Goblin Market. This resource is designed for A Level students. Topics at a glance include sisterhood, consumerism, Marxism, feminism and literary critical theories. Written by Romanticism expert Dr Bethan Roberts with additional support from The Poetry Society and Watts Gallery. 

Download the Christina Rossetti A Level Resource

What is a Golden Shovel? with Peter Kahn

Poet and educator Peter Kahn has been teaching his students to write Golden Shovels for years. This “21st century sonnet” was created by Terrance Hayes when he used each word in Gwendolyn Brooks’ iconic poem ‘We Real Cool’ as part of his own poem.

Peter guides you through this exciting new form and encourages your students to create poems inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks, other poets, songwriters, film-makers and more!

Download the resource and enter your students into the Young Poets Network challenge by 31 March 2019 to win poetry prizes.

Breaking the code with Bletchley Park

Could your students be code-breakers? This lesson plan by Sian Hughes explores nursery rhymes, nonsense verse and codes through the lens of Bletchley Park and the work that went on there.

Download the resource and find more code-breaking poetry workshops on Young Poets Network .

Read winning poems inspired by Bletchley Park written by young people here !

Illustrations by Alex Leigh Whitworth, courtesy of Bletchley Park Trust.

Creating Voices

This lesson plan by Teacher Trailblazer Lyndsey Chand takes an in-depth look at Enshia Li’s ‘unwritten letter from my great-grandmother to my great-grandfather, 1930’, a winning poem in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2017. This resource contains activities for KS4/5 to take place over the course of several lessons and develops students’ skills and confidence when dealing with unseen poetry as well as writing their own poems about their own family history.

Download this teaching resource

For more activities around prose poems, see Enshia Li’s Young Poets Network challenge

A Change in Circumstance

This lesson plan is on the theme of change and was written for National Poetry Day 2018 on Thursday 4 October. It looks at Imogen Catsaras’ ‘Dawn in Dartmouth’, a commended poem in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2017.

Celebrations: a Foyle Young Poets resource

This lesson plan by Teacher Trailblazer Fran Pridham looks at Lucy Thynne's  ‘the parents anniversary', a winning poem in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2017.

Poetry manifestos: End Hunger UK

With a  free PowerPoint presentation by End Hunger UK  and accompanying  audio clip , Fran Pridham helps students to respond to food poverty in the UK through poetry. She uses Foyle Young Poet Phoebe Stuckes’ poem ‘Daughters’ as a way into writing manifestos against injustice. Enter your pupils’ work into the Young Poets Network challenge  to win free workshops and inclusion on the nationwide End Hunger UK touring exhibition (closing 6 May 2018). Download teaching resource.  

Hands around the Christmas Tree

Children's poet and storyteller A.F. Harrold explores the theme of friendship through poetry, focussing on the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree, given by the city of Oslo as a symbol of thanks and friendship each year. You can use A.F. Harrold's two exercises and poem structure to create your own Christmas Tree poem and think about friendship at this festive time. This is a great Christmas activity for all settings, from schools and community groups to home.

For added inspiration, read A.F. Harrold's own poem 'The Friendship Tree' , commissioned as part of The Poetry Society's annual Look North More Often programme

Write Yourself an Escape Plan

Explore the National Poetry Day 2017 theme of 'Freedom' with this resource for Key Stages 1-2. After reading Brian Bilston's poem 'The Great Escape', create imaginative ways of escaping from particular places.

Climate Change and Adventures in Writing

Helen Mort uses Romantic poetry as a springboard into exploring climate change and poetic landscapes, discussing images and key texts to build towards the final ‘challenge’: a self-portrait poem.  

Picture this

John Glenday discusses how using images – prints, portraits, photographs, even objects – can be a wonderfully effective source of inspiration for writing poems. At a glance: art, creating characters, quick exercises. 

Making poetry with my mother

This lesson plan by Teacher Trailblazer Kate Brackley looks at Letitia Chan’s ‘Making Glutinous Dumplings with My Mother’, a winning poem in theFoyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2016.

Does this smell like a good poem?

This lesson plan by Teacher Trailblazer Joanne Bowles  involves exploring some of the ideas in Cyrus Larcombe-Moore’s poem ‘my ghost’ (see page 8 of this resource), one of the winning poems in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2016.

‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and intertextuality in Wilfred Owen

Peter Olive & Xavier Murray-Pollock use Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ as a springboard for discussion about the role and implications of allusion in poetry, also involving a discussion of Roman poet Horace's Odes .

Writing a monologue

Sue Dymoke's activity develops pupils writing of character following the reading of Carol Ann Duffy's poetry. At a glance: Carol Ann Duffy, monologues, creating characters, drama, performance.

The Christmas Tree's Secret

Poet Julia Copus explores depicting Christmastime in poetry, focussing on the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree. You can use Julia's ideas to produce your very own poems in celebration of your Christmas trees, whether they are in your school, the local town centre or in your living room. 

For added inspiration, read Julia's poem 'The Christmas Tree's Secret' , commissioned as part of The Poetry Society's annual Look North More Often programme

Postcard Poems

Explore the National Poetry Day 2016 theme of 'Messages' with this resource for primary schools. Using Diana Brodie's poem 'Gap Year Letter from a Five-Toed Sloth', create strange and wonderful postcards from imaginary characters and exotic locations. 

Download   Other NPD Resources

Honour and belief: The Battle of Agincourt

Alf Wilkinson takes the lives of ordinary soldier as inspiration for an exploration the detail of a famous battle and the world it was fought in. This resource was created to accompany the Agincourt 600 Poetry Competition. At a glance: history, journeys, letter poems, voice.

Power and representation: The Battle of Agincourt in Shakespeare's Henry V

Richard O'Brien explores one of the most famous retellings of this landmark battle. This resource has been created to accompany the Agincourt 600 Poetry Competition. At a glance: Shakespeare, Henry V, representation, voice.

Poetry in History: The Battle of Agincourt

Steve Ely challenges young people to explore exactly how and why we commemorate conflict. This resourcewas created to accompany the Agincourt 600 Poetry Competition. At a glance: war poetry, memory, history

The Battle of Agincourt: Dreaming history

John Lindley challenges young people to explore the history and legacy of an extraordinary conflict. It was created to accompany the Agincourt 600 Poetry Competition. At a glance: the Battle of Agincourt, imagery, sensory language, descriptive writing.

Page Fright: Hollie McNish and Alfred, Lord Tennyson

This resource looks at the work of two poets, Hollie McNish and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It supports the filmed performances available at poetrysociety.org.uk/pagefright. Using modern spoken word to explore historical poems, Page Fright encourages students to explore and compare poems, then create their own responses.

Page Fright: Dizraeli and Percy Bysshe Shelley

This Page Fright resource looks at the work of two poets: Dizraeli and Percy Bysshe Shelley. It is designed to support the filmed performances available at poetrysociety.org.uk/pagefright Using modern spoken word to explore historical poems, Page Fright encourages students to explore and compare their work, then create their own poetic responses.

Yeats: An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

Jane Anderson explores a poem Yeats wrote in response to the death of a friend’s son during the First World War, as well as the poet's attitude to writing about war. At a glance: W.B. Yeats, war poetry, loss, literary heritage.

Ways of looking

Teacher Trailblazer Ben Bransfield explores ways of writing unusual list poems, inspired by ‘6 Ways to Look at The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, a commended Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award winner 2015. At a glance: list poems, structure, metaphor.

'The Big Push' - modern WWI poetry

Poet John Glenday explores his poem 'The Big Push' and guides through creating their own First World War poems. At a glance: First World War poetry, film, visual art, contemporary responses the conflict.

How to bake a poet

Teacher Trailblazer Ben Bransfield explores Sophia Carney's poem ‘How to be a patriot’. Sophia is onee of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2015. At a glance: patriotism, politics, imagery, structure with your class.

Nature and wellbeing in poetry

This resource provides the basis for an understanding of nature and wellbeing in poetry, and encourages pupils to use their senses to interpret the world around them. At a glance: nature poetry, sensory imagery, personification, metaphor, haiku. 

W.B. Yeats - The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Jane Anderson explores one of W.B. Yeats best-loved poems, focussing on his use of sound and rhythm. At a glance: descriptive language, imagery, sound, performance.

Page Fright: Benjamin Zephaniah and Dylan Thomas

This Page Fright resource looks at the work of two poets: Benjamin Zephaniah and Dylan Thomas. It supports the filmed performances available at poetrysociety.org.uk/pagefright. Using modern spoken word to explore historical poems, Page Fright encourages students to explore and compare poems, then create their own responses.

Page Fright: Joelle Taylor and Wilfred Owen

This resource looks at the work of two poets, Joelle Taylor and Wilfred Owen. It is designed to support the filmed performances available at poetrysociety.org.uk/pagefright Using modern spoken word to explore historical poems, Page Fright encourages students to explore and compare their work, then create their own poetic responses.

The Art of Translation: Making New Versions of Mexican Poems

Don Cellini introduces students to the process of translation, and shows them how to translate themselves using poems by Pedro Serrano. At a glance: translation, descriptive language, imagery, sound.

Foyle Lesson Plan: Poetry, mythology and fairy tales

Katherine Whittington explores the reinvention of classic myths and legends in poetry using Foyle winner Isla Anderson's poem about Prometheus. At a glance: mythology, fairy tales, rhyme, structure, writing in another voice. 

Foyle Lesson Plan: A Feast of Words

Using a poem from Sala Fadelallah, Ramnika Sharma explores found objects and lines to inspire poetry writing through group and pair work.  At a glance: poetic devices, unseen poem, speaking and listening, skills, descriptive language and cultural traditions.

Writing a Christmas Tree Poem

Liz Lochhead inspires pupils to write a Christmas Tree poem, hanging the tree with real or imagined decorations which engage the senses. At a glance: friends and family, the senses, syllables.

For added inspiration, read Liz's poem 'How I'll Decorate My Tree' , commissioned as part of The Poetry Society's annual Look North More Often programme

WWI Poetry and the Home Front (Secondary Level)

Using Marian Allen's First World War poem 'The Wind on the Downs', and Linda Hughes' new animation, we explore the poetry of those people left at home during the First World War.

WWI Poetry and the Home Front (Primary Level)

National Poetry Day 2014 secondary resource

M is for… Mix it up.  This activity helps students think about the structure and order of a poem, and the different information that can be revealed by mixing it up.

National Poetry Day 2014 primary resource

R is for… Reading out loud. Experiment with reading poems out loud in fun and different ways to help children build confidence reading poetry out loud.

War poetry and WW2 poetry

This resource explores war poetry, Second World War poetry and longer poems, and includes an analysis of Timothy Corsellis' poem 'Dawn After the Raid'. This resource supports Young Poets Network's annual Timothy Corsellis Prize.

Eccentricity and Sound - Edith Sitwell

Jane Anderson uses two poems by Edith Sitwell to offer ways into looking at her fascinating, innovative style, and gives suggestions for creative responses.  At a glance: reading, writing, literacy, confidence, sound.

Clothes that escaped the Great War

Poet and teacher Patricia McCarthy takes us through her National Poetry Competition-winning poem 'Clothes that escaped the Great War'. This resource explores a modern poet's take on the First World War, analysing the poem, and leading to an opportunity for your students to write their own responses.

Teaching the Reading of Poetry

Mandy Coe provides tips and ideas for how to enthuse your class about reading poetry.  At a glance: reading, writing, literacy, confidence, sound.

Short Poems are Scary!

Using a poem by Carol Ann Duffy, David Harmer encourages students to create Nonsense Monsters with inanimate objects and shape them into poems.  At a glance: imagination, haiku and tankas, cinquains, kennings.

Roger Stevens uses his own poem and one by Jan Dean to explain how to avoid 'Clunky Last Line Syndrome' when writing rhyming verses.  At a glance: alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme.

My Family and Other Pests...

Using a poem by Jackie Kay, David Harmer encourages students to use stories about their friends and family as inspiration for their poems.  At a glance: people and families, contrasts, personal writing, haiku.

Animal Menagerie

Roger Stevens encourages pupils to create animal poems using metaphors, similes, description, and alliteration to fill Mr. Magoo's Magical Zoo.  Part of our Poetry Train resource pack.

Magical Powers

David Harmer uses his poem 'Where The Fairies Are' to look at how students can incorporate magical creatures into their poems.  Part of our Poetry Train resource pack. At a glance: rhyme, imagery, imagination, simile.

Anyone Seen My Dragon?

Roger Stevens uses a James Carter poem to look at creating animal poetry with pupils.  At a glance: rhyme, writing a chorus, reading together, animal poems. Part of our Poetry Train resource pack.

War Horse and WWI Poetry

A resource designed to support you in using the National Theatre’s production of War Horse as a way into poetry of the First World War. Including poems by Edward Thomas and Rupert Brooke. At a glance: war poetry, nature, rhythm, drama, comparing texts.

Foyle Lesson Plan: Poems inspired by Art

Ashley Smith uses a Foyle Young Poets winning poem to show students the relationship between a poem and a piece of art which inspired it. At a glance: art, description, narrative, perspective, imagery, the senses.

Foyle Lesson Plan: Poetry as call to arms

Ashley Smith uses a feminist themed poem by Phoebe Stuckes to teach repetition, rhetoric, and 'call to arms' poems.  At a glance: feminism, imperative mood, repetition for effect, emotive language, literary tradition.

Vanishing Acts: Poetry and Climate Change

This resource uses poetry to tackle the issues around climate change, and encourages students to bring personal and universal issues together in a way that is detailed and original.

Poetry Review 103:2, Summer 2013, teachers' notes

Teachers' notes explore an issue of the Poetry Review and links between the contemporary poems and canonical texts. At a glance: translation; literary heritage, lexicography and imagery.

Poetry Review 103:1, Spring 2013, teachers' notes

These teachers' notes explore the Spring 2013 edition of Poetry Review. At a glance: literary heritage; language, dialect and place, poetic forms, metaphor, personification and sound, identity.

Travelling with Edward Lear

This resource uses the poetry of Edward Lear to explore themes such as word comprehension, nonsense poems, rhythm and rhyme in poetry, as well as geography, travel and displacement. At a glance: Rhythm, rhyme, imagery, language play, comprehension, geography.

Rhythm and Pace in War Poetry

Using poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Wilfred Owen, Roshan Doug aims to familiarise students with the concepts of structure and movement in a poem. At a glance: rhythm, iamibic pentameter, war poetry, structure, syllables.

Identity and Performance Poetry

The Poetry Society uses a poem by Samilah Naira to look at issues of identity and allows students to create their own performance pieces. At a glance: identity, society, rhyme, metaphor, performance.

Evaporations - exploring water and poetry

The Poetry Society uses a film-poem by Alice Oswald and Chana Dubinski to explore different poetic devices through different states of water and encourages students to create water themed poems.  At a glance: water, personification, observation, the senses, the unfamiliar.

Wide open: teaching grammar with poetry

Rachel Rooney uses her poem 'Wide Open' to support the teaching of grammar terminology and concepts. At a glance: grammar, using adverbs, punctuation,  group poems.

Views of the sea

Malika Booker introduces activities to increase pupils' familiarity with poemsfrom other cultures, using the theme of water. At a glance: the sea, water, poems from other cultures, rhyme, onomatopoeia.

The art of remembering by heart

Steve Tasane encourages learning poetry by heart as tool for building confidence, speaking and listenig skills, and enjoyment of poetry. At a glance: learning by heart, performance, quick exercise, sound, storytelling.

How do poets use language

Joseph Coelho uses his poem to help students understand how detailed use of language can open up new meanings and impact the poem.  At a glance: literary heritage poets, comparing texts, comprehension, figurative texts, friends and family.

How to make a poem

Coral Rumble guides students step by step how to write a poem for more reluctant writers.  At a glance: confidence, playing with language, literacy, structure, reluctant writers.

Great title randomiser

Poet Philip Gross teaches students to explore creating poetry titles as a group.  At a glance: group poems, juxtaposition, using nouns, using adjectives, sound.

Favourite things

Activities using Barry Turrell's poem 'Lauren' to support pupils in writing their own poems about their favourite things. At a glance: feelings and emotion, friends and family, playing with language, memory, patterns

A journey through the senses

Pupils are encouraged to use their senses and develop an original approach to their writing.  At a glance: the senses, redrafting, language play, feelings and emotion, patterns.

A conceit poem

Pupils can us Pat Leighton's poem to develop their writing by thinking more deeply about images.  At a glance: simile and metaphor, imgery, conceit poems, sound, group poems.

Mandy Coe uses her poem 'Tiny'  activity to encourage pupils to explore the idea of perspective in their writing. At a glance: the senses, structure, letter poems, experience, scale, perspective.

The button jar

Roz Goddard offers writing activities to support pupils in creating characters and developing dialogues. At a glance: creating characters, monologues, dialogues, writing in another voice, drama.

Postcards home

Paul Hyland uses postcards as way to fire pupils' imaginations about important places, special people and strong feelings. At a glance: letter poems, short poems, imagery, writing in another voice, poetry of place.

Poetry passport

Pauline Stewart enables children to create poems that imagine themselves in another life.  At a glance: experience, identity, friends & family, memory, short poems.

Messages from the heart

Chrissie Gittins uses her poem to explain to students the different between fantasy and lying in writing. At a glance: Ancient Egyptians, history, experience, list poems, redrafting.

Making monsters

Using his own poem, Gavin Stewart helps pupils develop original monster characters. At a glance: creating characters, syllables, humorous verse, creating new words, simile and metaphor.

Inspiring creativity

Anjum Malik's workshop uses music to turn writing into a physcial activity by helping students relax so their minds can create thoughts and ideas. At a glance: music, memory, drama, group poems, performance.

Cat in the window

Poet Brian Morse uses his poem to help students write about place using a cat as the explorer. At a glance: poetry of place, using verbs, using adjectives, personification, list poems.

Tackling climate change

Created in partnership with climate change organisation Cape Farewell Karen McCarthy Woolf uses Elizabeth Bishop's poem to help students think and write about what is important to them. At a glance: nature, loss, climate change, list poems, poetic forms.

Poetry as eulogy

Ashley Smith uses a poem by Phoebe Boswall to inspire writing a poetic eulogy. At a glance: memory, the sense, friends and family, alliteration, literary heritage poets.

Writing a personification list poem

This activity uses Flora de Falbe's poem 'Five things about the lake' and Sylvia Plath's 'Mirror' as stimulus for writing a list poem personifying an inanimate object. At a glance: personification, Sylvia Plath, comparing texts, prose poems, list poems.

Poetry and the mind

In response to a Foyle winning poem by Matthew Broomfield, Ashley Smith explores a troubled mind written as an inner monologue. At a glance: mental health, music, experience, poetic forms.

Bright Star by John Keats

Activities to support the teaching of John Keats' sonnet'Bright Star'.At a glance: John Keats, sonnets, feelings and emotion, love poetry, experience.

Cosmic Disco

Using her own poem about the stars and the universe, Grace Nichols inspires students to write both creatively and scientifically. At a glance: science, Grace Nichols, dance, space, personification.

The Jumblies

Activities to support the teaching of Edward Lear poetry, with a particular focus on 'The Jumblies'. At a glance: Edward Lear, celebrating difference, identity, humorous verse, group poems.

Free writing

Dorothea Smartt uses her own poem to encourage students to write with fluency and without self-censoring. At a glance: free writing, experience, redrafting, iambic pentameter, confidence.

Intensive writing

Peter Samson helps pupils practice observational writing by letting details speak for themselves.  At a glance: art, imagery, poetry of place, quick exercise, using adjectives.

Weather the weather

Dave Reeves explores using personification to describe the weather. At a glance: using verbs, feelings and emotion, personification, simile and metaphor, nature.

A way into metaphor

Pupils will work through several stages to develop imagery that will bring their poems to life. At a glance: using adjectives, simile and metaphor, nature imagery, conceit poems.

Poetry from portraits

Cheryl Martin uses visual stimuli as the basis for writing poems. At a glance: art, writing in another voice, history, celebrating difference, the senses.

Simile and metaphor

Stephen Knight uses a poem written by his class to teach simile and metaphor. At a glance: simile and metaphor, the sea, conceit poems, redrafting, nature.

Split definitions

Mahendra Solanki helps pupils look at familiar objects in a new way. At a glance: confidence, reluctant writers, using adjectives, group poems, playing with language.

Physical poetry

John Siddique introduces writing about physical memories using poems of his own and some by Ted Hughes. At a glance: the body, memory, dance, drama, Ted Hughes.

Developing individual voice

An activity to help students write as a group and transition into writing individually. At a glance: simile and metaphor, structure, playing with language, riddles, group poems.

Imaginary words

Eva Salzman helps students experiment with imaginary words used in poems such as Lewis Carroll's 'The Jabberwocky' to see how language changes and develops. At a glance: humorous verse, sound, alliteration, rhythm, rhyme.

Mario Petrucci encourages writers to edit and redraft their work. At a glance: short poems, redrafting, riddles, the senses, reluctant writers.

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KS2 Classic Poetry Comprehension Worksheets – Robert Louis Stevenson (KS2 poems)

Resource Collection Reading Comprehension

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​This comprehension pack includes three classic poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: From a Railway Carriage ; My Shadow ; and The Land of Story-Books.

Each poem is accompanied by a series of comprehension questions to develop skills of retrieval, vocabulary, inference and summarising, with sections that focus on each skill.

How could I use this resource?

The resource could be used in a number of ways:

• The poems could be read with pupils preparing performances of these KS2 poems .
• During whole class reading, the poems could be read and discussed using the comprehension questions, focusing on a particular skill.
• The poems could be used as part of focused guided reading, developing pupils’ understanding of poetry and developing comprehension skills.
• Pupils could read and complete the comprehension questions as part of independent practice.
• The classic poems could be used to inspire writing, exploring the authors use of imagery in poetry , with pupils creating their own poetry in a similar style.

National Curriculum English programme of study links

Pupils should develop positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by

• preparing poems and play scripts to tread aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action
• recognising some different forms of poetry [ for example, free verse, narrative poetry]

Pupils should be taught to understand what they read, in books they can read independently by

• checking that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and explaining the meaning of words in context
• drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence
• identifying main ideas from more than one paragraph and summarising these

Pupils should be taught to participate in discussion about both books that are read to them and those that they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say.

Pupils should be taught to maintain positive attitudes to reading and understanding of what they read by

• learning a wider range of poetry by heart
• preparing poems and plays to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone and volume so that the meaning is clear to the audience

Pupils should be taught to understand what they read by

• checking that the book makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and exploring the meaning of words in context
• drawing inferences such as inferring characters feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions and justifying inferences with evidence
• summarising the main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph, identofying key details that support the main ideas

This resource is part of the Reading Comprehension collection. View more from this collection

• From a Railway Carriage - poem and questions
• My Shadow - poem and questions
• The Land of Story-Books - poem and questions
• Answer sheets

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Low ks3/High ability ks2 poetry worksheets

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

12 June 2014

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Perfect. Thank you very much. I have some low ability KS3 students who hate poetry so I am more optimistic than normal, armed with your resources. Thanks

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Some great, simple ideas here that could turn into lots of thoughtful stuff!

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