Here you will find a collection of ideas that promote a fascination with language - how it works, sounds and feels - as well as encouraging curiosity about life and the things around us. These are important first steps towards becoming a poet.

Use these ideas to experiment with words and build creative confidence:

More ideas coming soon…

Word hunting

This is a great way to develop vocabulary. Take a verb or an adjective, perhaps to do with other work in class (maybe you are looking at speech, or character, or the weather). If possible, gather a selection of thesauruses and go word-hunting to collect as many words as you can – for movement or speaking or to describe heat or cold or a particular aspect of character.

Then, review those words – check meanings, consider favourites, share your spoils, reflect on the worth of the different thesauruses used, too!

Now create a word spectrum – sort the words into an order that grades them from one extreme to another – very slow to very fast for words of movement, or coolest to warmest for words of heat. (This works well on screen or with each word on a large piece of paper or card – you can move them more easily and even hang them up as a washing line for the class to see and consider.) This will make the children think closely about meaning and shades of meaning and the importance of making a good choice of words in their writing.

Use the some of them as soon as you can, in poetry or in prose - or try using the approach suggested in Five favourite words.

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Five favourite words

What are your five favourite words? Think about words that have a special meaning for you, words that bring back particular memories, words that you like the sound of, or words that you like the feel of in your mouth as you say them, or words to do with things you like doing…

Collect your five favourites. They may not be the same today as tomorrow, they don't have to be serious, they can be fun and they can be off the wall if you like.

Make a list, then for each word, explain to a partner why you have chosen it.

Now try to capture some aspect of each word in four or five more words – you can hyphenate, and don't waste time on 'and's or 'the's – try to go straight for meaning!

Here are some examples…

Chocolate : rich dark tongue-smooth temptation
Serendipity : a happy, skippy tumbleturn
Island : wave-lapped solace, silver-shored
Whisper : soft, ear-caressing secret
Cuddle : warm enfolding scoop of love
Kayaking : sleek streamlined seascape fun

You could also experiment with turning your favourite words into calligrams using WordArt or a similar font-art program so that their appearance helps to express what it is that appeals to you about them.

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Sensing…

Think about using your senses to describe a time or a place or a person. First make a list of what is special about that time or place or person, and then link each item to an appropriate sense. This is a method that should allow you to create richly celebratory poems of favourite people and things, and you can give more than one example for each sense each time:

Sensing… the seasons

I hear Autumn in the…
I see it in…
I feel it…
I smell Autumn…
and I taste it in the…

Sensing… a friend or someone special

I hear you in…
I see you…
I feel you in the…
I smell you in the…
and I taste you in the…

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Questions and answers

This can be played as a game, but it works well as a way of creating a list poem, too. The children can generate questions, or you can provide them with questions, then encourage them to give unexpected answers. These answers can be extended and developed to create more than one line. Different answers to the same question can be compared and combined.

What is the future?

A box of golden treasure, waiting to be opened.
A winding road that curls beyond the hills.
A mystery, asking to be solved.

Where is the past?

Inside my head, in a hall of mirrors.
Locked in the attic, gathering dust.
Wrapped in my heart to keep me close and warm.

What are dreams?

Rainbows of the mind, dancing in sunlight.
Fluttering birds flitting past the window.
Dark night shadows making me scared.

What is the wind?

The breath of Old Father Time flowing over our lives.
The voice of the trees talking.

Additional questions could include:

What is the sun…?
What is the moon…?
Why does it rain…?
Where do stories come from…?
Where do the days go…?
What is time…?
What is laughter…?
Where does hunger live…?
Why do birds sing…?