Poetry: The Ballad

Ballad - For Students

Undoubtedly the most famous Australian ballad it 'The Man from Snowy River' by Banjo Paterson.


From: http://www.underdown.org/poetry-formats.htm
The ballad stanza is also one of the most popular forms of poetry for children. A ballad stanza is a group of four lines. That group is called a stanza. The ballad stanza has a rhyme at the end of line number two and line number four.

The Bee Poem
A poem is a busy bee
Buzzing in your head.
His hive is full of hidden thoughts
Waiting to be said.

His honey comes from your ideas
That he makes into rhyme.
He flies around looking for
What goes on in your mind.

When it's time to let him out
To make some poetry,
He gathers up your secret thoughts
And then he sets them free.

Some good examples of ballads can be located here, and a creative 'how to' can be found here.

An example of a 7 Year old Poet Olivia Binfield reciting her poem is here.

Poetry: Week One

I'm starting a 5 week poetry unit tomorrow and I'm busy resourcing my lessons.

Mrs Smoke has a wonderful 'Making Teachers Nerdy' blog with a great page on all sorts of poetry links.

This week we will be focusing on writing an ode here are the steps!

- Select a subject to write about: person, place, or thing.
- Write phrases describing how your subject makes you feel and why you feel this way.
- Write many phrases telling unique qualities of your subject.
- Explain why your subject is important to you

Revise your lines following these steps:

- take away any lines that are too similar
- add more feeling to any meaningless lines
- pick a good opening line or sentence
- order the remaining lines into their best sequence
- select a good closing line that clearly expresses your feelings about the subject
- Rewrite your ode in a final draft and maybe even add an illustration.

This video may be a little difficult for year 5&6 students but is a good guide for the teacher.

How to Write an Ode -- powered by ehow

A fun story that is told using emoticons:

Introduction to Poetry

In Week 6 we wil be moving on from the discussion text type and into poetry.

Here are some clips recommended for discussion by 'the 'White ribbon' Poetry competition.





Domestic violence (unable to embed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcodyFKKdVM&feature=related