Wilful Words

A one-hour poetry workshop for KS1 and KS2

Aimed at children who are just starting to explore their relationship to language, showing them how they can use words to express their ideas and paint verbal pictures.

A classroom full of students sitting on the floor, listening to Sarah Holding reading a book. There are colorful posters and banners on the walls, a blue curtain, and a projector screen displaying text.
A colored illustration of a sharpened yellow pencil with a pink eraser on top.

what happens in this workshop?

ice-breaker
After briefly introducing myself I ask the class about their experiences of reading and writing poems.

topic
I usually ask children to focus on an aspect of nature that they feel strongly about to inspire their poem.

activity
I read my poem ‘A Lazy Story’ aloud and assign groups the task of writing poems without using one of the 5 vowels.

support & feedback
I help any children who feel stuck during the workshop, and at the end I invite a handful of children read their work aloud and I offer feedback to support what they’ve learned.

resources
Whiteboards, pencil and plain paper work best, thesauruses are also a handy extra sometimes.

success criteria
Working with one less vowel I have found very quickly enables children to be more creative about their choice of words and frees them up as poets.

Book a Wild and Wilful Words workshop with Sarah for your school
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