Year 2 Poetry Unit 3 – Silly stuff

Chapters

Silly stuff (2 weeks)

Overview

• Children hear, read and respond to silly poems and other humorous texts that play with language, forexample riddles, language puzzles, jokes, nonsense sentences, etc. They write their own silly poems orpassages as a way of exploring language use. They focus on adventurous and entertaining language, as forexample in alliteration, or the juxtaposition of surprising and unusual elements, without necessarily beingconstrained by sense or meaning. (The meaningful communication of observation and experience is thefocus of Year 2 Poetry Unit 2.)

• As a class and in groups, children hear and read a range of silly poems and other short texts that play withlanguage. They perform some of the poems, jokes, silly sentences and riddles, individually or together, usingactions and sound effects where appropriate to add to the humour. They are encouraged to respond to theseexamples of language play in a variety of ways, for example through dance, drama and art. They discusswhat they think is funny or surprising. They think about the way the writer has chosen and used words toachieve this effect.

• With extensive contribution from and involvement by children, the teacher models and explores the writing ofsilly sentences, jokes, humorous rhymes, etc. This makes extensive use of such devices as alliteration,onomatopoeia, puns and word–play, etc., as well as repeated patterns, sentence/verse 'starters', etc., withthe emphasis on the playful and surprising selection of words and phrases. Opportunity is taken to focus onimaginative and adventurous language choices, further developing children's vocabulary and their wordreading and writing skills in the process.

• Following on from this modelling, children in pairs or individually (possibly then working with a responsepartner) write their own silly sentences, poems, etc., developing their writing in response to prompts providedby the teacher or by other children. Time is given to children exploring language through play andexperimentation before and during writing (both collaborative and competitive word games have a placehere) and this is extended through talk into writing. Outcomes are then shared, discussed and possiblyperformed or published on paper or on screen.

1998 Framework objectives covered:

Year 2, Term 3: T6 and T8 read, respond imaginatively, recommend and collect examples of humorous stories,extracts, poems; discuss meanings of words and phrases that create humour, and sound effects in poetry; T11 usehumorous verse as a structure for children to write their own by adaptation, mimicry or substitution; to invent ownriddles, language puzzles, jokes, nonsense sentences, etc., derived from reading; write tongue–twisters or alliteratesentences; select words with care, rereading and listening to their effect.

Source URL: primary/primaryframework/literacy/planning/Year2/Poetry/unit3

Published on www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/NationalStrategies 16-Dec-2010

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