Suffice to say the Y1s and 2s found all sorts of ways of putting the verses together and writing their own. We had a good time with voices and glue-sticks and pencil and crayon drawings of dragons. 

And as a bonus - for me at any rate - I now have a percussionist to work with. A shame this blog isn't a podcast - must see what I can conjure up!

Next - a magic poem, by request.

They had a lot of fun writing their own verses and arranging those and the original ones in to different orders.  When I return on Thursday, we'll see some of the final versions.

Using a regular and obvious rhyme is important in this. Some children of this age have got the idea of rhyme, some haven't - though they like it when they hear it!  One of the reasons older children think poems have to rhyme is because we tend to use rhyming poetry with them from age 0 onwards. To move to unrhymed and then arthythmic poetry is a bit like weaning.

However, the Y5s and 6s at this school seem to have got through the process very well.  Lots of examples of all sorts is what I recommend.

And some were unfinished:

There’s a dragon in the town
And it’s playing in the park
There’s a dragon in the town
And it’s getting very dark

There’s a dragon in the playground
He’s excited, playing there
There’s a dragon in the playground
And he’s playing with a bear!

There’s a dragon in the playground
It’s burnt everything around
There’s a dragon in the playground
And it makes a roaring sound

There’s a dragon in the playground
It’s very big and green
There’s a dragon in the playground
……………………………………..

There’s a dragon in the playground
It’s very cross and fierce
There’s a dragon in the playground
……………………………………..

There’s a dragon in the playground
He’s green and has brown hair
There’s a dragon in the playground
……………………………………..

So I created some simple verses for them, using their suggestions, and asked them to decide which ones to use and which order.

There’s a dragon in the playground
And it’s playing on the swings
There’s a dragon in the playground
And it’s doing dangerous things

There’s a dragon in the playground
And it wants to be friends with me
There’s a dragon in the playground
Should I invite it home for tea?

There’s a dragon in the playground
Its wings are pink and lime
There’s a dragon in the playground
And it can tell the time!

There’s a dragon in the playground
And it’s stolen my football
There’s a dragon in the playground
And now it’s scored a goal!

There’s a dragon in the playground
And it’s looking at the sky
There’s a dragon in the playground
And it’s swinging very high

There’s a dragon in the playground
All it wants to do is play
There’s a dragon in the playground
And it’s sad you ran away!

There’s a dragon in the playground
He’s sad – he has no friends
There’s a dragon in the playground
And he tries not to offend

suddenly  wings  fire  sleepy  dragon  danger  frightened  Dillon  girl-bird  fierce  bright  the  scared  fight  helpful  once  kill  fantastic  evil  furious  good beautiful  played the park on the swings  telling the time  lime (coloured)  very angry looking in at the sky  sad no friends – girls no, boys yes  going to eat me  big, very naughty   burnt everything kill  friendly clean  sad no friends   excited because playing with a bear  big and green  very fierce  ran away  all he wanted to do was play  why why why do they run away  nasty   scaring  very very big  destroying everything  fierce  cool  Dianogan  Big and green  Kind  Played on the swings  Friends with me  Football – scored a goal  Tells the time  Green and has brown hair  Cross  because they said he could not play with them  Roaring  workful for children                        

The result of our brainstorming session.  We had a kind of pattern in mind - 'There's a dragon in the playground' first line and repeated in the third of each 4 line verse.

                

I'm working in a primary school near where I live and have promised to write a poem about dragons with KS1 children. We did a castle poem or two before half term and we've written stories together so there's a track record. However, although I've done some dragon poems before, they were for an older audience.  This time I want some of the ideas to come from them.  The problem with dragons, of course, is that we're reliant on what has been invented already; we can't go and observe them.

Tomorrow we'll see what we can come up with as a starting point.