Poetry
Exciting news! Every child in Harris Garrard Academy is going to be learning a poem off by heart every half term.
We will have in class competitions with prizes every half term to see who has done the best job at learning their poem. Let’s have a look at Mrs Perry performing the poem that she has learnt for us, and you'll find links below to poems you can learn.
Poems to learn this term
Click on the links below to see some poems you might like to learn:
Years 1 & 2 - Snowball by Shel Silverstein
Year 3 - Behold my breath by Shel Silverstein
Year 4 - There was an old sled
Year 5 - Diwali by June Crebbin
Year 6 - Once upon a winter’s day
Why learn poems off by heart?
Knowing poetry will help you to write your own poems. You can take ideas from the words, rhymes and rhythms of the poems that you have learnt and use them in your own poetry.
You can entertain friends and family by performing the poems that you have learnt. Learning things off by heart helps you to improve your memory.
Poetry is an important part of the English literary tradition so it is important that we learn poems in our school as we live in England.
Tips for learning a poem off by heart
- Read the poem out loud over and over again so that it starts to stick in your head.
- If your poem has a strong beat, read the poem whilst walking along to the beat.
- Copy the poem out lots of times. Do this by looking at a line, covering it up and then writing it down from memory.
- Read a line out loud. Close your eyes and say the line from memory. Then read two lines out loud, close your eyes and say both lines from memory.
- Ask a grown up to say the poem to you and then say it back to them from your memory. You could do this one line at a time.
- Stick a copy of the poem up by your bed or on your mirror or anywhere in your house that you look at a lot.
- Practise the poem with your friend – you can take turns saying a line each and then swap over.
- Break the poem down in to bitesize chunks – learn one line at a day. Don’t forget to refresh the lines you have already learnt every day.
- Practise performing the poem to your friends and family.
