Remembrance Poetry

Source: Chris Holley

On Friday, we remembered all those who had died or been affected by war. This year, the Royal British Legion wanted us to remember not only those who died in World Wars One and Two, but also those affected by wars since then and even today.

We had a special service at 10:45am, ending with a two minute silence and reflection at 11:00am. Can you remember why we hold our silence at exactly 11:00?

In the week before the service, we made poppy artwork and a wreath to offer in memory of the victims of war. Children from every class offered their wreath during the service. It was very special, moving and sombre.

Some children from St. John's class read their wonderful poems in the service. Lots of classes also wrote beautiful Remembrance poetry, including these lovely examples:

 By St. Francis' Class

 By Elohor, St. John's Class

By Jack G, St. Paul's Class

Your War, Our Fight

We were the living, we are the dead,

Below the crosses our bodies lie,

Upon the blood-red poppies, dropped shells from above,

In our dreams, they still reach for us.

Watching our brothers die, we struggled on,

Drowning for your freedom,

We thought we would be heroes and yet we perished,

Now we lie beneath the mud, on which we fought your war.

We loved, but love no more,

Families weep receiving tragic telegrams,

Those who loved us; love us more.

The poppies grow above our hearts, which hold the Lie they told us,

Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori.

By, St. Clare’s Class

Happy National Poetry Day!

We have had a lovely day today celebrating National Poetry Day! We found quotations from famous poems all around the school- can you remember any? Which was your favourite?

Classes all across the school have been writing poetry today.

We can't wait to hear Year 6's Pizza Advert Poems!

Here are some wonderful poems by St. Bernadette's Class:

Here is a wonderful poem written by St. Clare's Class today:

Haunted Forest

The forest was as dark as an ebony dragon,

Splish! Splash! Splosh! The rain poured down,

Bang! Crash! Stones hit the ground and cracked in half,

Suddenly lava started to pour out, it was horrific,

All the dragons started to leave the country,

They were all scared of the Lava,

Bang crash the conkers fell off the trees,

The trees started to fall down,                                           

The wolves were running from the trees scared and shivering as they run,

All of a sudden it went silent,

Then the noise of trees creaking,

Everywhere there was lava- I had to get out of there,

Then suddenly… whoosh! A ghastly ghost emerged from the lava,

How can I escape?

I looked back but an army of ghosts were behind me I searched for a wat to get out,

Scary and goulish the forest was,

The trees fell as I looked back,

A tree which looked like a bear,

Its arms were creaking out towards me,

Lumps and monstrous eyes,

Birds flapping their wings,

The moonlit sky above me, I feel a cool breeze blow past,

Under a green mossy tree, a flock of birds screech by,

I heard a scream and stumbled,

Tree twigs fell to the muddy ground,

I’d never seen anything like it before,

The creatures started to approach,

Something grabbed me as I sank into the ground.

By, St. Clare's Class, 6/10/16


Did you write a poem at school today? If you have any poems you would like to share with us (written at school or at home), please show Daniel O, Mrs Parrott or one of our Talent Spotters!

Fantastic Writing!

Congratulations to all of the wonderful writers we have chosen this week!

Our 'Writer of the Week' is Max in St. Patrick's, for his marvellous story opening. We all wanted to read more of the story- we hope you'll write the rest of it soon, Max! Well done!

Congratulations to Mia in St. Anne's for this excellent comic strip. Ms Yanez was especially impressed by how hard you worked on Thursday. Well done!

Well done Aurora, in St. George's, for this lovely poem (with beautiful illustrations) that she wrote at home. We love to see work that children have done at home!

This incredible 'Flood' story was written by Jessica in St. Clare's. We loved the way that the tension builds and found the story so dramatic. Well done!

 

This fantastic emoji story was written by Natalia in St. Thomas'- it was the winner from Mrs Parrott's group on Tuesday. Hooray!

Take a look at these revolting menus created by St. Paul's Class. We were so impressed (and rather disgusted!) by their elaborate ideas and hideous imaginations! Yuck!

Powerful Poetry!

This week, St. Agnes Class showed off their poetic skills to create this marvellous poem! Inspired by reading 'The BFG', they worked together with Mrs Parrott and Ms Bibbon to write a spectacular poem:

The children offered ideas for lines for the poem and we wrote them on strips of paper. We made sure that we included some similes, alliteration, interesting adjectives and powerful verbs. Then, we made a ladder with the strips of paper and moved them around until we felt that it was in the correct order. Next, we went through the editing process, changing a few words to improve the rhythm of the poem and adding punctuation where necessary. Our final job was to come up with the perfect title for the poem. 

Here is our wonderful (if a little gruesome!) final poem- we are very proud of it!

Nether Nightmare

I was having a gruesome nightmare,

Scary snakes slithering slowly,

Crocodiles munching like scarab beetles crunching.

Creepers exploding as they drag you through the screaming portal,

Revolting vampires gobbling people's disgusting brains,

Fire-shooting ghosts floating like hot air balloons through Nether.

Will I ever wake up?

By St. Agnes' Class

Can you spot any similes the children have used? Can you see any alliteration? 

Here are some excellent examples of poems that children in St. Agnes wrote on their own after our shared poem:

In Year 5 this week, we have also been writing poetry. We spent some time analysing William Blake's 'The Tyger'.

Source: nassrgrads

The children were able to identify some complex ideas demonstrated in the poem- they discussed Blake's use of metaphors and the connotations of the words he used and why he might have chosen particular combinations. We looked at the rhyme scheme, which led to some impressive linguistic detective work- we realised that the pronunciation of some words in English must have changed since 1794, when the poem was written.

Inspired by Blake, we wrote our own poem about a dangerous animal- the wolf:

Wolf, Wolf, Stalking Death

(After William Blake)

Are you sure you are as frightening as a yeti?

Wicked wolf, eyes piercing through the dark like fireflies illuminating the void,

Its bold grey-coated fur shining in the obscured moonlight,

Creeping silently, covered in pearl white snow, invisible to others,

The blood-thirsty phantom looming through the night forest,

Ravenous beast stalking his fated prey.

The powerful hound dancing with the wind,

Panting with mighty breath, as warm as the logs on the burning fire.

Death-defying animal from the wild, rapidly dashing through the haunted dark forest,

Rattling the sound barrier with its desperate howl,

Its hopeless prey crying out, like a baby without its mum, to its pack,

The blood-curdling beast cloaks its prey,

As fierce as a hyena, the wolf takes a pounce and grabs on with his claws.

Are you as deadly as a Widow Spider? 

By St. Clare's Class