26 Interesting Facts About Our Alphabet

Here is a bunch of fascinating facts about the alphabet for you to share with your class. How many did you or they already know? My favourite is the letter ‘B’ being a nuisance letter!

Five Reasons Why You Should Be Using Poetry In Your Classroom

If you are not using poetry in your classroom on a regulat basis then this is the post for you!

Hopefully by the time you get to the end you will be energised to introduce more poetry activities to your children.

Another Quick Writing Idea

Name That Band

Get the children to imagine they have heard a brand-new pop band. They sound great, they look great, their songs are great – they will be great! The only thing they don’t have is a great band name.

This is where The children come in: the band has asked if they can to come up with some possible names for them.

They need 13 names altogether to choose one from. This is the pattern they have given you:

The + adjective + noun

The adjective and noun must follow the sequence A-B, C-D, E-F, G-H, etc. as in the extract  below, all the way to Y-Z.

The Aeronautical Bananas
The Curious DemonsT
he Electric Feathers

The band want a very unusual name for themselves, so the children need to do their very best to find the weirdest, most unlikely pairings of adjective and nouns they can. Encourage them to be different!

Have fun!

This idea is taken From David Horner’s book, ‘Cracking Creative Writing’. It contains 100+ activities to inspire children to write creatively and independently.

Have you read David’s latest poetry book? It is called ‘All Good Things – A Book of Utterly Brilliant Poems’. It also contains 10 QR codes which, when scanned, will take you to fun, animated readings of some of the poems.

A Quick Writing Idea

Here is a quick writing idea to try out with your class all about collective nouns.

Explain to the children that a  collective noun is the term we use for a group of things. For example, a flock of sheep, a bunch of flowers, a class of students.

Here are some rarer ones they might not know:

a tissue of lies,
a hand of bananas,
a murder of crows,
an ambush of tigers,
a blessing of unicorns,
a kingdom of rats

Search the Internet for lots more.

All of these collective nouns – and many, many more – were invented in the past. Now it is the children’s turn. You are going to get them to make up some new collective nouns.

How many can they invent? Get them to write down lots to start with – quickly. Then look back through them all and choose the best ones. Keep between eight and ten.

To get them started, here are six nouns:pirates, drink cans, snails ambulances computer games dentists

Invent a collective noun to describe a group of any of them.

Have fun!

This idea is taken From David Horner’s book, ‘Cracking Creative Writing’. It contains 100+ activities to inspire children to write creatively and independently.

Free Poetry Posters for Your Classroom

Here is a set of five free poetry posters for your classroom. Each with its own unique QR code.

A Letter To Santa

Have you sent your letter to Santa yet? In this poem from our poet in residence, David Horner ,we find out what one little boy would like Santa to bring him this Christmas.

Get Your Class To Write Nursery Rhymes For Grown-Ups

Here is a great idea for you to try out with your class. Take a simple Nursery Rhyme and make it ridiculously long-winded and complicated!

How To GoRound The World In 26 Letters

Armed with a dictionary, a thesaurus and, of course, an atlas you are going to take your children on an exciting journey round the world in exactly 26 letters!

How To Write An Acrostic Autobiography

Here is a fun activity and a great way to get your class to tell you something about themselves.

Thirteen Amazing Things To Do With A Poem

Have you ever sat down and made a list of different, whacky things you could do with a poem?

That is what we are going to encourage you to do with your children. Here’s how.

You Are The Estate Agent For Magical Houses

Just imagine you were the estate agent for magical houses. What would you sell? Who would buy your houses? Would some of the properties be a little creepy?