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My DS has just started looking at possible poems for his first ESB (Yr 3) and at the moment The Wind by James Reeves is looking like his favourite but I am not sure whether it is long enough. He has taken it into school today so hopefully his teacher will tell him if it ok. Always nice to get suggestions as well though, especially as next year I will have two DC doing this

My ds did one talk on snorkelling and then his second on family history. They were told they should use props, especially for the ESB he did in year 4, the first one, he did. Other topics people did were polo (!), football, chocolate, skiing. From what I remember the most important thing was to be passionate & interested in the topic. For the higher grades you have to act interested in the other talks given in your group, which my ds found hard as he'd heard them all before.

He did funny poems each time. I think he read from Le Petit Nicholas the first time (in English) & then My Family & Other Animals.

Ning Nang Nong worked for ds2

Thanks outtolunchagain, sadly no W in where we are.
Letter from school said that most work towards the exam should be done at home, with just a few practices at school nearer the time. They then just copied the syllabus to us. Will talk to teacher obviously, but as I said, dd doesn't really enjoy reading, so finding texts she is willing to enjoy and be enthusiastic about could be tricky.
20 lines sounds much more attainable. phew.

Ds poem no where near that long , 20 short lines at most and he got a distinction so no need to do a long narrative poem. Quality not quantity we were told .

Please don't panic , a short fun poem with a good rhythm that helps her to memorise it will be fine . ( ps you are not in a town beginning with W are you?if so can definitely say do not worry they get lots of time to practice and unbelievably they all seem to enjoy the day when it comes)

OMG -

The Pig is realllllllly long! DD could never remember all that.

Am now panicking.

Great tips thanks. DD not keen on reading, so finding a poem she enjoys may take a while! Thanks. Good to get an idea of length of poems people have used. I thought she could talk about our pet dog?????

My DS loved the macarbe humour and so found it easy to learn.
I can't remember what his talk was on and he is at a friend for a sleepover so cam't ask. But outtolunch is right, it must be on something they are interested in.

www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-pig/

In yr 3 my DS2 did The Pig by Roal Dahl for his ESB
He still remembers it now and he is in Yr 9
Go to www.poemhunter for ideas.

Two of my sons have done these ,I was a bit the first time but now I think they are brilliant.My now year 6 ds3 did My Kung fu Kick Boxing Kangaroo for his yr3 one ,by Brian Moses.Poetry is quite a big thing at school and we like poems at home so we have lots of anthologies,modern and classic,but if you go to the library you should be able to pick up some good ones .

I would go for something quite light hearted and most crucially that your dc enjoys as it makes it so much easier to learn ,obviously there were some children with longer more complex poems and some with shorter.The examiners seem to really want to see that they enjoy it and I think they ask them why they like the poem,or they have to do an introduction (that may be year 5 ?)

The key with the talk as well is to do something they know so much about that they are never stuck for words,at our school they encourage them to prepare a display board .Ds did his on a hobby and we had pictures of the history of the hobby ,a picture of him ,pictures of the equipment etc .They are not allowed notes ,so everytime he did it it was different but that didn't matter and avoids learning a talk by rote.In year 5 he didn't know the subject so well and that was more difficult so that would be my top tip.

Anyone done Junior Grade 1? (y3)

I don't know where to start to look for suitable poems. School info just said "a short poem". Would like to get a heads up on this before going back in January.

Thanks