Primary School Poetry Club...How do I start and run one?

[JandLandG]

Hello there

I bunged this on the education section, but maybe some interest here too, so here goes....

I'm not an English literature scholar, but I do have a certain affection for poetry and if anything, this has increased recently.

I often read the children poems and encourage them to learn stansas etc...some funny kids' ones obviously, and the odd Osymandious here and there (sorry, last letter of the alphabet missing on keyboard and spellcheck obviously doesn't do PB Shelley!).

Anyway, some of the parents near us have given various talks and started different clubs after school, so I thought I might give it a go and see if there are any takers...so, what do I need to do?

I'm planning on doing one-off poetry sessions in normal school-time with my 2 children's classes at first - that should be ok to set up as the teachers encourage this kind of thing; in fact I did one last year about a specific country my lad had taken an interest in.

So does anyone have any thoughts on a poetry-slam type-thing for them?

Year 2 and Year 6.

I suppose we could have:

some general chit chat to introduce the subject (age-appropriate, of course)...and perhaps a shock and awe comedic blockbuster to get their attention (any ideas???),

some performance (me and a couple of the kids' friends pre-primed to read something out, plus I could send a mail out to parents to see if they fancied prepping something with their nippers),

and perhaps a bit of group work or single work to have a go at writing maybe?

In fact even the act of writing the above gives me confidence that I could manage to come up with some sort of running order/lesson plan, but does anyone have any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

Anyone with any experience of similar things?

Any teachers even, obviously?

I'd be most grateful for the wit and wisdom of MN on this one.

Ok, will leave it with you...will probably do the sessions in January, so a bit of time to think at least, but busy, busy busy til then with Chrimbo etc, of course.

Thanks so much

[JandLandG]

Any thoughts on this for the new year?

Thanks if so!

[JandLandG]

Any thoughts on this for the new year?

Thanks if so!

[iseenodust]

Not a teacher but recommend Gina Douthwaite's poetry drawings as a possible resource/inspiration.

[JandLandG]

Apologies. Not noticed this, but thanks so much...will look into...poetry club going ok!