Poetry Guinea Pigs

This week I have been in Gladstone, Calliope and Tannum Sands, for the biennial Curtis Coast Literary Carnivale. There will be more posts to come about this, but for Poetry Friday, I share poems and pics from my workshop groups, where we were writing… POETRY! (Of course! :P)

 

This group snuck in so quietly I truly honestly didn’t hear them arrive. (They were as quiet as guinea pigs!) To get them warmed up, we started with the Guinea Pig Chant. We then looked at different shape poems, before writing a guinea pig poem collaboratively on the big screen. It’s the first time I’ve used the technology in this way in a session before – and I’ll definitely be doing it again!

The kids then wrote their own shape poems – about wolves and buses, runners and throwers, cows and guinea pigs… but sadly, I didn’t think to click a pic of their poems. I’m just glad I did get a photo of the kids! They made excellent observations and contributions to discussions, then worked efficiently during writing tasks, using rich, appropriate vocabulary, and playing with personification, alliteration, similes and rhyme. I was so very impressed by their behaviour and their writing, and I have to say, well done Gladstone South State School!

My final session at the CCLC was also a poetry workshop, this with an older, larger group of kids from Tannum Sands State School, and they too were fantabulous.  A lot of fun, as we finished a festive Carnivale in a whirlwind rush of activity! Such a whirlwind that I didn’t get a chance to take a group pic. But here are two industrious participants, working on shape poetry… and finding a poem to zentangle.

And this is the collaborative guinea pig poem that we whipped up, before the kids then worked like wonders on their own shape poems…

Sharing a play with poetry is always fun. It was a privilege to work with such creative, courteous, appreciative kids, who threw themselves into the task and wrote heaps of good stuff, in such a short space of time. Their contributions to discussions were articulate and rich – and again I was impressed by behaviour and participation. I will be blogging more about my visit to Tannum Sands State School… It was a-mazing! [Watch this space.]

Margaret is collecting the Poetry Friday round-up of links this weeks, so scurry across to https://reflectionsontheteche.wordpress.com and continue the play with poetry.