1 - Voice Recording by author, Josie Whitehead 2 - PDF for your classroom screen 3 - Word Document with permission from author to print off for class use. POETRY PERFORMANCE This is a wonderful poem for children to perform, with lots of speaking parts for the children. Written in iambic heptameter, with words that dance across the page, and excellent rhyming, it is a poem that will be easy for children to learn. It is also a funny poem which I know that children love. LISTENING AND SPEAKING The voice recording, which I've made, is fun for children to listen to, even if it is just to break up hard study that has been done during the course of the day. I do so believe that children love to listen to a poem for fun, and as a break during their day, that, at the request of the children for whom I wrote my poems, I've added many voice recordings so that children can go themselves to my perfectly safe website and just listen and enjoy hearing the poems they like over and over again. This is a wonderful poem for performance with many speaking parts. ART Oh do get your children to do some funny pictures to go with this poem, and any particularly good ones you can always send to me to put with the poem on my website. I do hope your children enjoy my work, and teachers, you also of course.

1 Sound file: Voice recording by author, Josie Whitehead 2 PDF to project onto your classroom screen. 3 Word document with permission to print. 4 Worksheet which helps to perform poetry really well, and also explains what Dactyls are, with the chance for them to write some sentences. Why not get them to look at people's names in the class. They are often dactylic: eg JER e my; AN ge la; (my own: JO se phine) - JENN i fer; PAM e la; JESS i ca; OL i ver; PERFORMANCE POEM: Do get your children to perform this poem. There are many speaking parts. It is very important that children should listen to poems and by Googling JOSIE'S POEMS they can regularly hear me reading many of the poems that I've written. I made the recordings at the request of children at my local primary school who wanted to hear the poems over and over again at home. Put a sheet up on the wall where they can add any dactylic words they can find - perhaps other than names: EL e phant; AM bu lance; TERR i er; TEL e phone; CEN ti pede; DAN ger ous; BLUS ter y; CIN e ma; THE a tre; etc This is a good exercise and helps children to realize that we have little accentuations within our words that make the rhythms in poetry - and helps to promote phonemic awareness, ie the ability to break down words into sounds.

1 - Sound file: Recording by author Josie Whitehead 2 - PDF of The Taste-Taker by Josie Whitehead 3- Word document of this poem with permission from me (author) to print for your class. 4 - Worksheet for your children - permission to print off. DRAMA: This is an excellent poem for performance. ART: Why not put this poem as a centre-piece on your wall. Also get the children to do a picture like the one on the PDF with the tastes mentioned going into her bag? Put it on the wall with pictures of things mentioned around it. ENGLISH: This poem relates to one of the five senses, ie the sense of taste - a subject dear to the hearts of children for certain. It also teaches them how they might relish fruit, vegetables etc if the other items tasted horrible, ie a healthy option. VOCABULARY: I've used many words for "take" in my poem. The children will understand that a good writer uses a wide range of vocabulary. I've also used many words to represent the various tastes of foods, and words that mean "without taste" or "tasting bad" etc. SPEAKING AND LISTENING: I would strongly recommend that before they listen to the poem, they say which foods they love and what would they be like without taste? Listening: Listen to the poem many times. I've tried to put expression into it. Let the children take parts in the poem for a performance, learning and reciting the poem well. There are many places for various voices to be used in an expressive way. I've done my best to do this as an example. IAMBIC HEPTAMETER: An explanation of what this is and how it is used in this poem, with an opportunity to try writing some after several of my examples. ALLITERATION AND ASSONANCE: I've explained how a writer, and especially a poet, would use these in headings for poems, with several examples. Get the children to try writing some simple ones themselves or to bring into the class examples. There are many on my website in the lists of poems. NAMES FOR TASTES: I've given a list of taste-names, or textures for foods and the children can supply the name of a food that they think of which relates to this. I hope they enjoy my poem and that you will find it useful. It is a brand new poem and you are the first to see it. Do let me know if it is useful. Josie Whitehead If any teacher would like to make lesson plans to go with my poems, please do approach me. You can reach my website and email via my profile on TES. Thank you.

This is a poem on the subject of Vision, which was the chosen subject for National Poetry Day. Also on my own website. EYESIGHT versus VISION ​ The subject for National Poetry Day 2020 is VISION. I ask myself whether there is a difference between these two subjects and for certain a philosopher would say ‘yes’. I would say that sight, such a really valuable thing for all living things, is really important - yes - but I see vision as being very related to the mind rather than to the eyes. ​ VISION: an understanding of what is seen - ie information from many sensory systems to create a perception of reality. ​ Even small children can visualize things. Try this: ‘Do you want a sweet or a biscuit?’ Do they understand these words? Yes, even my dog understands many words because the word brings a link to their visualization of the thing they have learned to enjoy. Threats can lead to visualization: ‘If you don’t finish your dinner then you can’t have your pudding.’ This was often said to children of my generation and we visualized our pudding as being something we really enjoyed, without seeing it before us.

1 - Voice Recording of poem by author Josie Whitehead 2 - PDF of poem for your screen 3 - Word document with permission to print off my poem 4 - Explanation and further examples of personification in poetry and explanation of iambic tetrameter with examples and the opportunity for children to try writing it, following simple examples. DRAMA: This is a wonderful poem for performance with its good steady iambic beat. It is an opportunity for children to learn to throw their voices clearly across the classroom, putting expression into their voices to make their recitals interesting. ART: Why not put this poem as a centre-piece on your classroom wall-board and ask children to take photographs over Easter to illustrate the poem? They will see lots of signs of spring arriving I hope. LISTENING AND SPEAKING: Listen to the voice recording several times and let the children join in. WRITING: There is the opportunity for children to give examples of personification in other poems. If they go to my website to the "Weather and Seasons" Index, they'll find lots of examples in the poems and can also find the poems I've already mentioned on the worksheet. Let the children try writing some simple iambic sentences, recognizing that the heavy beats come from the way we have small stresses in our words in the English language, which makes our language beautifully musical.

1 - Voice Recording by author, Josie Whitehead 2 - PDF of poem 3 - Word document of poem with permission to print by author. 4 - Word document explaining metre, with exercises to help children understand iambic heptameter. 5 - Colouring Page of Easter eggs.