Hello! I’m Liz Brownlee, National Poetry Day Ambassador! What’s on the poetry roundabout? #Poetry4kids and #poetry4teachers! Quickie children’s poetry writing ideas for children, teachers, parents and librarians, and #poetrycraft – crafty poetry projects! All types of poems including funny poems, animal poems, empathy poems, poetry games, poetry lessons and poetry activities. And of course, poetry shapes and poetry videos. There are also interviews with poets, poetry book reviews and poetry competitions! Use the menus or search for them on the right.
Roger runs Poetry Zone a website full of poems written by children, and poets’ interviews, reviews and more! You can write a poem and send it to him (as you can to me!).Roger’s latest book is called Razzmatazz!
Every Wednesday I am hosting a poem video from a famous poet! Come here every Wednesday at 5 for Rhyme Time Fun at 5!
Here is the first video – Puffin – Poem by me, animation by me and my husband Pete.
You can buy a book of animal shape poems below, sent to you signed:
Apes to Zebras – An A-Z of animal shape poems!
A beautiful, hardback oversized book – an A-Z of animal poems in the shape of the animal. Printed in two colours. Normally 14:99. Includes postage and packing.
It’s full of poems about people who have positively shaped our world – it includes heroes all children should know about, in a shape poem, with fun facts and quotes and a bio on opposing pages.
Featuring Emmeline Pankhurst, Nelson Mandela, William Shakespeare, Ludvig Van Beethoven, Florence Nightingale, Greta Thunberg – 20 female and 20 male heroes, all packed into a poem to make learning fun.
Here’s a sample:
Rosa Parks by Kate Wakeling
And here are the facts on the opposite page:
If you’d like a copy of this beautiful, foiled, oversized paperback book, with poems written by top children’s poets, you can buy it here! Don’t forget to tell me to whom you would like it dedicated!
Shaping the World, 40 Historical Heroes in Verse
A gorgeous book of poems about 20 women and 20 men who have shaped our world for the better – in the shape of the person or something they are associated with. Includes all the heroes our children should know about. Facing pages contain a short bio, and lesser-known fun facts. Which famous nurse kept an owl in her pocket?! Signed if you wish. Price includes postage and packing.
I just received notice that BBC Radio in the South West will be featuring my poem on Upload this week – you can hear it on Thursday evening on BBC Radio Gloucestershire & BBC Radio Wiltshire from 6pm, and from 7pm on BBC Radio Bristol & BBC Radio Somerset! On Saturday evening it will be on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Wiltshire, BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Somerset between 6-8pm. You can listen on your radio or via the free BBC Sounds app.
If you have written a poem, you too can feature on BBC Upload – simply upload it on your local BBC upload page and if it catches their attention, they’ll play it!
I once had a giant poetry jigsaw made for a poetry exhibition – and children really enjoyed making the puzzle and then reading the poem that appeared.
JoArts made this fantastic jigsaw for me – but if you are artistic you can buy already made large jigsaw pieces from Etsy – here and here, for example.
Mine is double-sided – the other side has another poem on! You can make this in different colours so it’s easier to make the puzzles distinguishable from each other, or make them similar colours so the children really have to think!
There are also companies that will print your own jpeg image onto a smaller jigsaw – you could make a word doc of a poem with a picture, make a PDf of it, then a jpeg, and send it to get made into a smaller jigsaw. At the Ravensburger website you can get a 24 piece jigsaw made of your own image, out of cardboard or metal.
Make poems important and fun in as many ways as you can think of.
I know about these lovely, OUP Readerful series poetry books because I have poems in two of them. The Sea’s Song (the title incidentally taken from my poem) and Wiggle Wonderful are for children in reception and primary 1. In this poetry series there is also Moonlight Shine (for year 2, primary 3), Rising into Sunlight (for year 3, primary 4), and Forgetting How to Fall (for year 4, primary 5). The books have been compiled by the lovely poet Catherine Baker, who also writes wonderful haiku.
Each of the above two books is beautifully illustrated in colour throughout- Wiggle Wonderful by Katie Cottle, Raquel Martín and Rekha Salin, and The Sea’s Song by Tika and Tata Bobokhidze, Marcela Calderón and Hsulynn Pang.
There is a wonderful variety of subject and tone, rhythm and rhyme which winds an imaginative path though humour, interaction, tenderness and beauty – they are perfect for sharing with this age group.
Teachers and parents – very much recommended. 5 Stars!
I have been busy making animated versions of some of my shape poems, helped by my film editor husband. It has been great fun – let me know what you think!
This poem is in Apes to Zebras, an A-Z of Shape Poems, by Liz Brownlee, Sue Hardy-Dawson and Roger Stevens. Available here:
Apes to Zebras – an A-Z of Animal Shape Poems
A beautiful, hardback oversized book – an A-Z of animal poems in the shape of the animal. Printed in two colours. Normally 14:99. Includes postage and packing.
There is an extra day this year, this week, to enjoy poetry – so thank you to all the poets who have sent marvellous leap year poems! Happy Leap Year!
The first one is by the really ridiculously talented rhymer, Colin West, who also supplied the wonderful illustration at the top, and the one for his wonderful poem – thank you, Colin!
February the 29th
An extra day to make up rhymes We have, this very month! (I’ve tried to do so, many times, But haven’t managed oneth.)
Of all the dates in his lifetime Fred loves Feb, the 29th which is his birthday each fourth year it means he’s younger than his peers who in their 80s aches a-plenty envy his more sprightly twenty!
Wake up, Wake up! Get out of bed Shake those dreams up in your head The Leap Year Fairy’s out to play With a billion days to give away So grab yours quick before it fades
Unwrap your gift of stars and sun of rivers, breeze and oxygen of seas and trees, of fun and friends of wishes, giggles, secret dens of new beginnings and new ends
Your present’s in the songs of birds in brand-new thoughts and brand-new words Enjoy it! Live it! Share it! Be! One extra day to hear and see It’s yours all yours and yours for free
So make it count and make it ring Be all you want, be Queens, be Kings But spend it wisely, give it song For gifts of days do not last long One second here, the next it’s gone
The Leap Year Fairy’s out to play A billion days to give away
And thank you to Rob Walton for this one, it's bound to be good!
A Leapy One!
There have always been 28 children in our class.
In Reception there were 28 children. In Year 1 there were 28 children. In Year 2 there were 28 children.
But this year because it’s a leap year there will be 29 in our class for one day only.
Our teacher asks what sort of classmate we would like for this one day only. We all shout A kind one! A nice one! A funny one! One who helps us with our homework! One who lets us copy the answers in spelling tests! One who invites us for tea and gives us five fish fingers!
What we get is a rabbit.
I don’t remember anyone shouting A leapy one!
She’s lovely, but you don’t want to get behind her at the salad bar.
I’ve been having such fun trying to think of ways of animating the animals in my shape poems. I love puffins, we are so lucky to have them in the UK! I hope you enjoy the animation.
Today I’m posting a shape poem from Being Me, Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings. The nightingale is a bird that does things a little bit differently, and that is what we love him for!
If you would like to find ways of chatting to your children about their worries, feelings etc, then why not get a copy of Being Me – the first poetry book of its type. Send me an email at poetliz @ mac. com with your address and if you would like a dedication, let me know who to dedicate it to!
Being Me, Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings, + p&p UK
A unique and wonderfully illustrated book of poems supporting wellbeing in primary children – perfect to help parents and teachers discuss sensitive topics. Signed by me – if you would like a dedication, please let me know what you would like!
Poetry Roundabout 