Joe's children's poetry
 | Writing poetry for children can be hard. You weren't expecting that were you? I bet you thought that writing poetry for youngsters would be a doddle. Just dash off a few words, maybe make them rhyme a bit and, voila, you're done. Not too! Writing poetry for children, in fact any writing for kids, is really a tough job. Kids are very discerning customers. They won't pay attention to any old rubbish and aren't fearful of saying what they mean. So, how would you write a poem for kids that'll ask them to engaged from the first word to the very last? Read on for tips on how to produce the perfect poem for youngsters.
prose silly Choose Your actual age Group Poetry for kids is normally targeted at certain age brackets, such as pre-school, 4-7, 7-11 and 11-15. There exists a very good reason for this too - it helps you to remember the experience the children may have at this age. What I mean by this is you cannot assume that that which you, or another adults, find funny will be funny to some ten year old. And, the chances are small children will likely have a limited comprehension of emotional issues, including death and love therefore it might be best to avoid these. prose silly Just how is it possible to discover what experience children have at a certain age? That's easy, read other popular books written for youngsters of the age. This can be a part of your general market trends and may demonstrate the amount of language and ideas and ideas used. See Life growing up This could sound a bit odd, but get down on the floor, in the level of your audience and find out exactly what the world appears like from on the bottom. It'll provide you with a completely new perspective on life. Observe the things surrounding you and you may notice how intimidating a pair of adult legs can seem to be, how funny the dog's nose looks from below and the way big the entire world seems. It also helps you remember what it is want to be a child and may prompt memories of the items you really liked as a kid that you can incorporate into your poetry. You can extend this concept by thinking like a child. Consider what's vital that you a nine years old. Are you experiencing family pressures? What can you watch on television? What toys can you like? What can you wear? Picking out the Subject of Your Poem That's where you should have no problems, as pretty much anything could be the subject of the children's poem. However, there are several areas you ought to avoid, namely sex and violence for apparent reasons. Other than that, enable your imagination run wild. In order to earn extra points with teachers, choose subjects that be visible on the institution curriculum. You can discover what they are by searching on the Internet. Don't forget, poetry is a superb learning tool. The rhyme, rhythm and alliteration could make subjects that might be boring written in simple prose fun and memorable. Make 'em Laugh Should there be something which gets children thinking about poetry, it's humour. Kids love nothing more than being silly once they read. So, getting them to make 'moo', 'oink' and 'meow' noises will probably be a winner. Laughter will also make it far more memorable. You could try using slap-stick, puns, funny content or jokes turned into poems. Vocabulary Choose you words wisely. Needless to say there's no point using words that the children won't understand. So you must ensure your vocabulary is: concrete - this implies using clear, precise words as opposed to abstract ones uncluttered - be concise, don't waste words and remove small, non-essential words - a clever trick is to remove 'the' present tense - increase the risk for action happen now, instead of previously. This creates a feeling of involvement and tension because the child waits to find out the result from the action easy - the little one should be able to comprehend the poem after the first reading. It doesn't mean you need to dumb-down the vocabulary, rather you need to only use words you are aware a kid of the target age are fully aware of and understand. However, that doesn't mean that you simply can't drop in the odd new word; after all, that's how a vocabulary is expanded. Keep it 'now' Avoid using words which are from the bygone age, such as thee, thou, yonder etc. The children may have no clue whatever they mean and they're going to not impressed. The one exception for this would be when the language is used in a comedic way, for example, such a knight would tell his fair lady. |
