Teachers' Resource Pack

for

Pick a Pick of Pickled Poems

Pre Show Activities

We suggest that teachers start the preparation for Pick a Peck of Pickled Poems by reading the class some poetry.  We would suggest you start with short, humorous poems.  There are a few suggestions.

Why not start with some Limericks?

There once was a boy called Lucas
Who travelled round with a circus.
While playing the clown
His pants would fall down
Giving a laugh to all of us

There was a young girl called Maries
Who loved to climb around in trees
High in the branches
She'd do weird dances
'til she fell and broke both her knees

These next three are very old and great for helping the K & Preps - 2, 
to remember their days of the week.

Tongue Twisters are always fun to play with

Whether the weather be fine
Or whether the weather be not
Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather
Whether we like it or not! ___Anon

She sells sea-shells by the sea shore
But she is not sure what she should sell
Should she sell sea-shells or should she sell shoes. ____Anon

Two Toads terribly tired tried to trot to Townsville.

A longer Poem that I have found works extremely well with kids is The King's Breakfast by  A. A. Milne.  Try to create different voices for the four characters, the King - a deep sad voice (at least until he gets his butter), the Queen - a normal female voice, for the Dairymaid - try a nasal tone to the voice and the for Cow - add a mooo and keep it slow and deep.  This is also a great poem to do as a piece of theatre with a group of students each taking a different part:- the storyteller and the four characters.

Get the students finding and performing poetry for themselves.

Explain to the class the meaning of the word Anonymous and that Anon is its abbreviation.
Then divide the class into groups of four or five and let them loose in the library to find a short poem to read as a group.  Perhaps each person could read a line each. Have each group perform their poem to the class with the only stipulation being that someone from the group announces the name and the author of the poem.

After Show Activities

Try some Poetry writing.  

A simple way to write some blank verse is for the student's to pick a subject, such as rain, fire, the sea, football etc. and write one line for each of the five senses of touch, taste, sight, sound and smell.

Explain the concept of Rhymes. 

Use a poem that has a strong rhyming structure.  Leave the first verse as it is to show  the students the poet's rhyming pattern.  Then blank out the last rhyming words to each verse and have the students put their own choices in, understanding that it has to make sense and rhyme.  For younger students, have the poet's rhyming words at the end of the poem in a word selection box and see if they can place them correctly.  A poem that works well for this exercise is "The Centipede's Song" by Roald Dahl.