A Little Bit of Nonsense

This week in our Forest School the children were asked to create nonsense poems and then share them in a variety of ways.

Before going outside, we read some well known hedgehog poems and discussed the humour often found in this type of verse. We looked at where the rhyming words often sit in a verse and why starting with a word bank can help the process. The children practiced in class before setting off into the Forest School for some inspiration. Working in teams they created their nonsense rhymes. Once they had the first good draft, they were encouraged to repeatedly read their work aloud to make sure they had the correct amount of syllables in each line and that it made sense (all be it silly sense).

They then made their hedgehogs and props for their poem using clay and any natural materials that they found around them. Once all creatures and props were completed and set them up in a “scene”, they then read out their poems to the class whilst their team used the props to act it out. The field was filled with the sound of children’s laughter all afternoon. The poems were then shared again back in class where the children decided on their favourite lines, which poems were more exciting and the difference that a range of vocabulary makes.

The poems will be written up in our Forest School so that other children can enjoy them and perhaps be inspired to write some poetry of their own.