Recommendations for poem to recite year 3

[dixiechick1975]

DD age 8 in year 3 needs to choose a poem to recite.

Needs to be under 3 minutes.

Any ideas or resources to look at?

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

under 3 minutes? they are only yr3, I would have thought most poems would be under 3 minutes.

There is a good one we have upstairs somewhere about going to school from the point of view of a headmaster. will see if I can find it in the poetry book.

[dixiechick1975]

thanks

Yes can be shorter but maximum 3 minutes. Needs to be memorised.

[PastSellByDate]

Hi Dixie:

this may help: www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/poems-for-kids

The dentist and the crocodile by Roald Dahl is on his list: www.mayfiles.com/2010/03/dentist-and-crocodile.html

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

hmm wasn't that one. I Don't Want to Go into School by Colin McNaughton wasn't the one I was thinking of.

Julia Donaldson has a good one called Question Time.

Question Time
How many books have you written?
Have you been writing for years?
where do you get all the paper?
where do you get your ideas?

Do you get bumps on your fingers?
do you get aches in your wrist?
please can I go to the toilet?
Did you write "Oliver Twist"?

I've got a book about spiders.
I've got a cut on my knee.
I've got an aunt who speaks German.
Gemma keeps tickling me.

Are you quite old? Are you Famous?
Are you a millionaire?
I wasn't putting my hand up -
I was just twiddling my hair.


How many plays have you written?
Do you write one every day?
Do you...oh dear, I've forgotten
What I was going to say.

Will you be staying to dinner?
Will you go home on the bus/
How many poems have you written?
Will you write one about us?

Julia Donaldson - from Poems to Perform by Julia Donaldson.

Sorry for any typos.

[dixiechick1975]

Thanks - just seen the roald dahl one too - that's the right sort of thing.

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

or another one I quite like (of course I am not 8 years old) Creative Writing by Gervase Phinn. It has quite a nice rhythm to it so for one to memorise it could be quite good.
www.wordpower.ws/poetry/poetry-gervase-phinn.html#creative

[MirandaWest]

I like Please Mrs Butler (although maybe more appropriate for frazzled teacher to read than a year 3:))

[ladymalfoy]

Ogden Nash is good. His collection Custard and Company.
I had to recite poems at an early age for my LAMDA exams.
Roger Mcgough. ABC. The poem not the 80s band!

[AbbyR1973]

My boys like:
Disobedience by A A Milne (James James Morrison Morrison Wetherby George Dupree took great care of his mother, though he was only 3 etc)

From a Railway Carriage by RL Stephenson

My Shadow by RL Stephenson

On the Ning Nang Nong by Spike Milligan

The Owl and the Pussycat

The King's Breakfast by A A Milne

Amongst many others....

[inthesark]

DD also Yr 3, has learned this one, and can get a lot of expression into it.

Extract from
The Bed Book
By Sylvia Plath

Beds come in all sizes
Single or double,
Cot-size or cradle, King-size or trundle.

Most Beds are Beds
For sleeping or resting,
But the best
Beds are much
More interesting!

Not just a white little
Tucked-in-tight little
Nighty-night little
Turn-out-the-light little
Bed

Instead
A Bed for Fishing,
A Bed for Cats,
A Bed for a Troupe of
Acrobats.

The right sort of Bed
(If you see what I mean)
Is a Bed that might
Be a Submarine

Nosing through water
Clear and green,
Silver and glittery
As a sardine

Or a Jet-Propelled Bed
For visiting Mars
With mosquito nets
For the shooting stars ...

[inthesark]

There is more, too - full text here

[BlueChampagne]

Spike Milligan is popular too - Y2s have been learning 'On the Ning Nang Nong'.

[mamadou]

My personal fave...

Homework! Oh, Homework!
I hate you! You stink!
I wish I could wash you away in the sink,
if only a bomb
would explode you to bits.

Homework! Oh, homework!
You're giving me fits.
I'd rather take baths
with a man-eating shark,
or wrestle a lion
alone in the dark,
eat spinach and liver,
pet ten porcupines,
than tackle the homework,
my teacher assigns.

Homework! Oh, homework!
you're last on my list,
I simple can't see
why you even exist,
if you just disappeared
it would tickle me pink.
Homework! Oh, homework!
I hate you! You stink!

Jack Prelutsky

[Trizelda]

My daughter did this one:

Eletelephony


Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant—
No! no! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone—
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right.)
Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee—
(I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!)

[RueDeWakening]

DD in year 2 has recently picked On the Ning Nang Nong as her favourite poem:

On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There's a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang
And you just can't catch 'em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning
Trees go ping
Nong Ning Nang
The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!

or what about Rice Pudding (Whatever's the matter with Mary Jane?):

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's crying with all her might and main,
And she won't eat her dinner - rice pudding again -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
I've promised her dolls and a daisy-chain,
And a book about animals - all in vain -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's perfectly well, and she hasn't a pain;
But, look at her, now she's beginning again! -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
I've promised her sweets and a ride in the train,
And I've begged her to stop for a bit and explain -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's perfectly well and she hasn't a pain,
And it's lovely rice pudding for dinner again!
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

[dixiechick1975]

Thank you

Some great ideas.