Every Friday we have a whole class carpet session where we learn to recite a poem from ‘The Poetry Basket’. By building up a library of poems we are helping our children to encounter, learn and make sense of new vocabulary in a meaningful context and support them to make thoughtful predictions as to the meaning of new words. Our children will learn actions to support their recall, and we talk about how to add expression and intonation.

Reciting the poems increases children’s memory and supports the development of phonological awareness skills such as rhyme and rhythm. It will also help build children’s confidence reciting and performing the poems together as a class.

We will send regular tapestry posts out with resources to help your child practise these poems at home.

Benefits of Poetry Basket:
 

• Learning poems together is an enjoyable way of experiencing the play of language.
• Reciting poetry together is a bonding experience.
• Saying poems out loud emphasises the sounds and rhythms of language or the syllables contained in each word, a vital part of learning to read.
• When reciting a poem with actions, children discover and use new words in an almost effortless way. It is as if the rhythm and the structure of the verse give context to these unfamiliar phrases.
• Poetry develops the skill of prediction, where the rhyming structure of the poems allows children to guess what word might come next.
• As children recite poetry, the neurons in their brain light up. By repeating and learning new poems regularly, they strengthen their ability for memorising in this way.
• The more poems children hear and recite, the more capable they become of recognising and memorising patterns, a vital part of early maths.
• And finally, the most important benefit... Learning poetry together is FUN.