National Poetry Day – Vision, and a Firework Poetry Craft Idea

This year’s National Poetry Day word is VISION! If you are a school you can sign up to the NPD Newsletter so you can be first to hear about all the amazing lesson plans, poems, a schools toolkit to plan your National Poetry Day, and all sorts of give-aways such as posters and badges, and exciting opportunities.

Here is my first VISION poem. It is about fireworks – I don’t like fireworks that bang as they scare birds and horses and other farm animals, our cat used to be terrified every firework night, and my assistance dog also trembles all evening. I’m a big fan of SILENT fireworks which all VISION and no violence, so that is what my poem is about!

Read my poem, and then you can follow the instructions to write your own firework poem and decorate it with some crafty-firework fun!

 

A Silent Vision

 

Shooting to space in the freezing night air

we wait in suspense as they fly

then in a splash of colour and light

they burst into being in the sky

 

a theatre of sparkles and spangles they flash

reflected as stars in our eyes

we marvel and wonder, we ooh and we aaah

as we turn up our faces and sigh

 

there are streamers and twinkles and lingering sprinkles

a sky full of flare and surprise

and then they’re just ghosts in a cloud of white smoke

which melts into darkness – goodbye!

 

Liz Brownlee

 

So would you like to write a firework poem? My poem above rhymes – but this poem is not going to rhyme. YOU are going to be the firework – you will write the poem from a firework’s point of view.

Your first line will describe what you can hear as you wait. Think of what is happening – a bonfire, people watching, sparklers, toffee apples for sale, people trying to keep themselves warm, chatting etc. This is my first line:

The bonfire flames lick and spit through wood

Your second line describes the anticipation and excitement; you will use a simile – you feel ‘as excited as’, or ‘excited like’.  This is my second line:

I’m as excited as a shaken fizzy drink 

Your third line uses another simile to describe your flight through the air. This is my third line:

until I whizz through dark like a shut umbrella

Your fourth line describes what happens next – this is my fourth line.

and open into the sky as a thousand glittering stars!

You have finished your poem! Here is mine, written out:

 

Firework

The bonfire flames lick and spit through wood

I’m as excited as a shaken fizzy drink

until I whizz through dark like a shut umbrella

and open into the sky as a thousand glittering stars!

Liz Brownlee

 

You can write your poem on a piece of paper, and draw fireworks, or you can make some fireworks from coloured paper like this – read all the instructions first so you have everything you need and someone handy to help:

Get a square of coloured paper and fold it so it is a triangle:

Fold that triangle in half so it is a smaller triangle:

Then you have to fold this triangle in from both sides so that it folds into thirds, like this – you may need help at this stage:

When you have done that the triangle has two little sticky-out bits:

On one side there is a straight line – cut a straight line across that line so the sticky-out bits come off.

Now you are left with another triangle:

Hold your triangle so the open end is at the top:

And cut into the near edge to make curved triangle shapes making sure you do not cut too near the tip of the triangle on the left there or go TOO near the opposite edge. Cut into a point at the top. You can draw in pencil to plan where to cut if you like – I did. This can be hard if the paper is thick – I used origami paper. Get someone to help if it is hard, as the cutting has to be quite precise.

Then very carefully open up your paper. It should look a bit like a firework opening in the sky.

You can leave it like that or, like I did, you can carefully cut through where the pattern joins, except in the middle, to make it look more firework-like.

I then did it all again using a smaller square of contrasting colour.

You now have fireworks to put on your poem paper:

Draw four pencil lines with a ruler as shown on a piece of paper and write your words along them in pencil – try to keep the poem in the bottom half of the paper.

Then write over the poem in ink, rub out the lines, and staple or glue your ‘fireworks’ on the top – turn your paper up the other way, and voila, your firework poem is complete!