List poem

I had all of 15 minutes with a small group of y9 students to write a poem. Given that and that they were low ability I think we did quite well. First we brainstormed and then I gave them a sample of two lines of "I hear..." They chose dogs for their first line and then as a group made suggestions for the other lines. They all contributed and found it easy to come up with the rhymes. However they did not really like their finished product as they thought it was boring to keep repeating the I hear....
I could have done with editing and second draft but for 15 mins I was pleased that they all engaged and focused on the task

Hearing Homes

I hear dogs barking


I hear Jimbo larking

I hear cats scratching

I hear Mum snatching

(the dog)

I hear the TV blaring

I hear Mum caring

I hear my brother scaring

I hear blue snake hissing

I hear my sister kissing

I hear rulers bending

I hear my Dad mending

I hear my brother reading

I hear the scouts leading

I hear beds bouncing

I hear fish pouncing

White Crow Sedgwick

The minute I started reading this book I knew it was going to be great. It is a great gothic thriller, really scary with four main characters and two parallel stories, 200 years apart. What is heaven like? what is hell like? what happens when we die?

One line particularly struck me
"Does there have to be a victim to commit a crime?" or something like that.
Thought that would be good for a discussion.

I think it might be a good book to move students on who are stuck on vampires!

SLYA 2010 Ceremony

I had a wonderful day yesterday at the 6th SLA School Librarian of the Year Award ceremony. I was one of the judges but unfortunately I did not visit either of the winners schools, each judge bar Ginette only visited two schools. However I am sure all the libraries were great and I got loads of ideas from the two I visited!

I was fortunate to be on a table with MG Harris for the event. She gave a super talk and would recommend her for a school visit. I think this would work really well if you wanted to link it with her doing a workshop on codes and code breaking.

Anyway congratulations to Duncan and Kevin and I hope we see lots of them in the media in the coming months.

Below is a picture of myself (on left) with the winners and other past winners

National poetry day lesson plan

One teacher has said that she would like to do something in part of a lesson for NPD and so I thought I would prepare something for her and hopefully others to use. The theme for this year's event is Home and as I needed something that would be quick and easy but also give good results I decided to adapt some of the ideas from The List Poem. I hope the students respond, fingers crossed.
Using list poems


These are an easy way to get students to produce a poem quickly. They also begin to show students how to write poetic lines. Everyone knows about list so they are quick to introduce.

As the theme for poetry day is Home I thought you could start with a brainstorm list of things in the home

Mum, beds, doorbell, chairs, stairs, cups, books, lights etc

Then you could give the students a format to follow. They could present their poems in a shape relating to the house or just draw the outline of a house and write the poem inside the shape

1. I hear Mum singing
I hear Mum singing

I hear the doorbell ringing

I hear the clock ticking

I hear the dog licking

I hear the stairs creaking

I hear my sister peeking

2. Thankful

My Dad is thankful for his home

My Mum is thankful for her comb

My sister’s thankful for the colour pink

My Gran is thankful for the sink

My dog is thankful for his bone

Or


The kitchen’s thankful for the sink

The marshmallow is thankful for being pink

The pie is thankful for the custard

The sausage is thankful for the mustard

3. Colours

Brown is the dining table

Brown is my Dad’s shoe

Brown is the sugar just for coffee

Brown is the truly scrumptious toffee

Brown is my brother’s curly hair

Brown is my mood when nothing’s fair

Brown is the ginger cake

Brown is the muddy rake

4. When I am alone at home

When I am alone at home I get scared because I think the bogey man will come and take me

When I am alone at home I get happy because I can go anything I want

When I am alone at home I put music on and dance and pretend I’m a star

When I am alone at home I feel like going into my sister’s room and messing it up

When I am alone at home I play Scrabble with Teddy

When I am alone at home it’s a mission to survive

Till they all come home

Retro posters

RETRO POSTER - In the Library by Enokson. Used under a Creative Commons license.



Just come across these posters through Changing the Game blog
Just want to check out the CC license to see if I can use some of them in the library.
Cant remember seeing any in the 60s?