Poetry Friday Round-up, 24th January 2020

Welcome to Australia (twice in the one month!) for another round-up of Poetry Friday. Since Sally hosted, a lot of Australia has received rain, so dust has settled, and many fires have also been checked back. But what a horrifying month it has been! And it is not over. Even as I write this post (Thursday), the news comes through of the large air tanker crash, killing 3 US crew members. And we are once again reminded of the many different ways people risk their lives in our service. And how precious – and fragile – life is.

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!

Belated Book Week Post

Last week I had a skype visit with the Reception class at St John’s Grammar School in Belair, South Australia.  They had only started school four weeks earlier, and I was very impressed with their beautiful listening and excellent questions!

I usually have props that kids can use when I read ‘This is the Mud!’, but South Australia is a long way away, so I had to be a little bit silly and get into the act myself this time. Which is why I’m wearing cow horns/ears in that photo.

Thank-you Ms Germein for inviting me to visit your class, and for having your group so beautifully prepared in advance. It’s always lovely to talk to a class that has already read and enjoyed your book!