Ideas for displays and ‘publishing’

Classrooms should be full of published poems. Why shouldn’t some of it be by pupils? Printing or publishing poetry validates both the work and the writer – plus it’s a great way to showcase young talent. Here are a few ways to get the work up on the wall and out into the wider world.

P.S. Don’t forget to add a poetry-friendly touch to school paperwork! Every letter to parents or memo could include a poem by a pupil somewhere on the page.

Activities

To help you create exciting displays and get work printed we have a few downloadable templates for you: an origami starbook, bookmarks and footprints.

Origami starbook

The starbook is an origami mini-book. It looks wonderful when finished and is fun to make. If the original artwork and text is done in black the original can be unfolded and photocopied. These copies can then be cut and refolded to create a little ‘print-run’ (the starbook’s folds ensure all the work is on only one side of the paper!).

A starbook has eight pages; six, if you use two of them as a cover. It can contain a six word poem, or a six line poem plus illustrations (depending on the size of the child’s writing). If you want, card covers can be stapled on afterwards. Colour can also be added to photocopied versions. Starbooks encourage children to study the mechanics of book design: preliminary pages, dedications pages, designing an ‘imprint logo’ (like the penguin of Penguin!), and the concept of ‘double-page spread’. You can even fold the covers to have a tiny spine. This is an ideal activity for Children’s Book Week.

Download the origami starbook

Bookmark

Bookmarks can be designed by pupils and filled with poems on the computer, or written by hand. They can then be photocopied onto coloured card, cut and used in the school library, local public libraries or given to parents and governors.

The bookmark’s shape is ideal for a poem! Popular poems for bookmarks are Kennings (Nordic riddles). For example a poem for ‘My Dog’ might be

tail wagger
earth digger
loud barker
bone hider
cat chaser
love giver

Writing out any short poem to fit onto a book mark helps pupils to play with enjambment (the ways sentences can flow over lines) and understand how shorter lines create a slower pace.

Download the bookmark

Footprint

Footprints help pupils make a physical connection between physical space and their poetry. The poem can relate to an actual journey (real or imagined). What does it really feel like to walk under the sea, across a desert, over snow, on the moon? The footprints can be made by the pupils, or by literary characters at certain points in their story: Red Riding Hood in the wood; stepping though the wardrobe into Narnia.

Cut them out, fill them with poems and let them track along corridors, floors walls and even ceilings!

Download the footprint