Bring Poetry to Life!
Year 4 have been exploring Michael Rosen’s entertaining poem No Breathing during their guided reading sessions. The children have been developing their understanding of how poets use carefully chosen words, rhythm, tone and expression to capture an audience’s attention and bring poetry to life. Through discussion and close reading, they considered how Michael Rosen uses humour and exaggerated expression to create a memorable performance, thinking carefully about how the way a poem is delivered can influence its meaning and impact.
Building on their reading, the children had the opportunity to become performers themselves! They experimented with a range of drama techniques, exploring how facial expressions, changes in voice, body language and gestures could help communicate meaning to an audience. In particular, they investigated how simple actions, such as pointing, could emphasise particular words and make their performances more engaging and connect their words with the audience. This provided a fantastic opportunity for the children to develop their confidence, fluency and understanding of performance poetry, whilst discovering how much fun bringing a poem to life can be!
