getting ready for National Poetry Day tomorrow...

By John William Waterhouse

I am going to be doing poetry activities with the children at the local school tomorrow. The theme is 'Water' so I have had an enjoyable day today reading different poetry anthologies and wallowing in various water themed poems, collecting some together to read with the children. For the reception class I have made the top half of a mermaid and I am going to get them to help me make her scales and write words on that they think describes life under the sea.

The Mermaid

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

I.

Who would be
A mermaid fair,
Singing alone,
Combing her hair
Under the sea,
In a golden curl
With a comb of pearl,
On a throne?

Stargazing: NPD 2012

If you don't have an iphone
you cannot hold it up to the sky
so that it translates the mystery

of the constellations, but instead
you could learn them off by heart,
view them through iris and sharp

memory, not dependant upon
battery power just the cold night
air sucked deep into your lungs;

Ursa Major, Taurus, Andromeda,
Lupus, Sagittarius and Hydra.