Writing and performing poetry - nonsense poems
In autumn, Year 2 completed a poetry unit in English, with a focus on nonsense poems.
The children’s favourite poets were Michael Rosen and Spike Milligan. The classes had great fun listening to and learning different poems, especially “On the Ning Nang Nong”, which was a favourite.
To help the children learn the poem, they visualised it and illustrated a copy of the poem with the fantastical images that they saw in their heads. Year 2 then learnt the poem off by heart, as a whole class. Imitation is considered the greatest form of flattery, so the children decided to write their own poems based on “On the Ning Nang, Nong.” The children worked carefully to keep the same rhyming patterns, rhythm and structure, but they changed the nonsense words, to create their own versions which they performed to each other.
Finally, the classes used their word processing skills to type up a section of their original poems. They hope other people enjoy reading them as much as they enjoyed writing them.
