Are you looking for inspiration to get your children writing some Halloween Poetry? We have some three spooktacular writing resources available in the Goodeyedeers Shop at TES or our TpT Store. Each one is packed with ideas to help you have a great lesson with your children this coming Halloween.
Halloween
Halloween is also known as All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve, is a celebration observed every year on October 31 – the eve of the Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day, also known as All Saints’ Day. It is thought that it originates from the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain, meaning ‘Summer’s End’ which celebrated the end of harvest season.
Gaels (Gaelic speaking people from Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man) believed it was a time when the walls between our world and the next became thin, allowing spirits to pass through and come back to life on the day. Places were set at the dinner table to appease and welcome the spirits. Gaels would also offer food and drink, and light bonfires to ward off the evil spirits.
The carving of pumpkins originates from the Samhain festival, when Gaels would carve turnips to ward off spirits and stop fairies from settling in houses.
The phrase trick-or-treat was first used in America in 1927, with the traditions brought over to America by immigrants.
In Czechoslovakia, chairs for each deceased family member are placed by the fire on Halloween night alongside chairs for each living one.
In Austria some people leave bread, water and a lighted lamp on the table before going to bed. It is believed this will welcome dead souls back to Earth.
In Germany, people hide their knives to make sure none of the returning spirits are harmed – or seek to harm them!
Writing Halloween Haiku
This PowerPoint lesson (TES or TpT) starts by explaining what a Haiku poem is and then has the children recognising and counting syllables. Haiku are three-lined, unrhymed poems, with a syllable count of 5 – 7 – 5.
The children have a chance to complete some half-finished Haiku. This can be done as a whole class, in pairs or groups or individually.
Finally, the children are given some picture prompts to help get them started on writing their own spine-chilling Halloween Haiku.
Writing Halloween Cinquain
In this PowerPoint lesson (TES or TpT) the children are introduced to cinquain poetry and how it is made up of five unrhymed lines and a syllable count 2-4-6-8-2.
This form of poetry is said to have been invented by an American poet called Adelaide Crapsey.
The lesson takes them through some half-finished examples which the children work together to finish before going off and writing some of their own.
Writing Halloween Cinquains
In this PowerPoint lesson (TES or TpT) the children find out what a Kenning is and its origins in Anglo-Saxon times.
Kennings were so popular in Anglo Saxon poetry that around a third of Beowulf, the best known Anglo Saxon poem, is comprised of them. And ‘Beowulf’ is itself a kenning, meaning ‘bee-wolf,’ or bear (since bears are famous for robbing bees of their honey).
The ‘scop’, or poet, of Anglo Saxon times relied to a great extent on the metaphor to describe everyday objects in a colourful language. The type of metaphor that he used, known as the kenning, was a compound composed of two words which became the formula for a specific object.
The first kennings used by the ‘scops’ were comparatively simple in structure: they expressed a single idea or thought and were compounds usually composed of two words. Examples of these simple kennings are ‘sun table – the sky’ and ‘battle serpent – arrow’.
They are then shown how to write some modern Halloween Kennings which they then put into couplets to create their blood-curdling Halloween poems.
Happy Halloween from Mike and David at Goodeyedeers.
Have you tried David’s new poetry book? It’s called ‘All God Things – A Book of Utterly Brilliant Poems for Children’.
There are over 40 poems in the book and 10 of them contain QR codes somewhere on the page. These QR codes will take you to an animated video reading of that poem!
Check out our TpT Store below for more great teaching resources.
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