Word Weavers: Poetry and Performance

You need: notebook and pencil · a timer · an outdoor space (school field, garden, beach or park)

1. Stand or sit still with eyes closed for two minutes. Just listen.
2. Write every sound you heard, near and far. Aim for 15.
3. Next to each sound, write what it reminded you of (a simile or metaphor).
4. Pick your best five lines and arrange them from quietest to loudest, or far to near.
5. Add a final line that tells how the place makes you feel.

How you'll know: Your poem uses real sounds you heard, not guesses, and a reader can picture the place without being told its name.

Safety: Stay inside the agreed boundary and within sight of the teacher. At the beach or a stream, stay well back from the water's edge.

Go further: Repeat the walk at a different time of day and write a second poem. Put them side by side.

You need: photocopied page from an old newspaper, magazine or school newsletter · pencil · black marker or dark crayon

1. Skim the page and lightly circle 15–20 words that jump out at you.
2. Read your circled words in order. Look for a message, image or mood.
3. Narrow down to the words that make your poem. Keep them in the order they appear.
4. Black out or decorate everything else, leaving your poem showing.
5. Give it a title and read it aloud to a partner.

How you'll know: Someone reading only the uncovered words can follow a clear idea or feeling.

Safety: Use markers in a ventilated room, and cover the desk.

Go further: Make a second blackout poem from the same page that says the opposite of the first.

You need: two piles of cards: one with objects (jandal, kettle, lighthouse, rugby ball…), one with feelings or ideas (courage, homesickness, Monday…) · notebook

1. Draw one object and one feeling.
2. Write three metaphors joining them: 'Courage is a lighthouse…'.
3. Add a detail that explains the link: '…still standing when the storm has gone home.'
4. Swap cards with a partner and try again.
5. Choose your strongest line and build a four-line poem around it.

How you'll know: Your metaphor makes a reader nod or smile because the comparison fits in a surprising way.

Go further: Turn one metaphor into an extended metaphor that lasts through a whole poem.

You need: a copy or recording of Denis Glover's 'The Magpies' · notebook · a local bird or everyday sound to use

1. Listen to 'The Magpies' and clap along with the refrain. Notice where it comes back.
2. Choose a sound from your own world (a tūī, a school bell, a washing machine, rain on a tin roof).
3. Invent an onomatopoeic refrain for it, one line long.
4. Write three short stanzas that tell a tiny story, with your refrain after each stanza.
5. Perform it as a group, with everyone joining in on the refrain.

How you'll know: The refrain changes feeling as the story moves on, even though the words stay the same.

Go further: Make the last refrain slightly different so it surprises the audience.

You need: notebook · a list of prompts: food, sayings, objects at home, places, songs, people

1. Brainstorm ten specific details from your life (not 'food' but 'Nana's pani popo on Sunday').
2. Begin lines with 'I am from…' and use one detail in each line.
3. Include at least one saying, word or phrase from your family's language or a place you love.
4. Group the lines into stanzas: home, people, places, dreams.
5. End with a line that looks forward.

How you'll know: The poem is full of specific nouns and could only have been written by you.

Safety: You choose what to share. It is fine to keep some details private or write about a place rather than people.

Go further: Write a 'where we're from' version with the whole class, one line each, for the anthology's first page.

You need: one sentence from your draft · strips of paper · scissors

1. Write your sentence out three times on separate strips.
2. Cut each strip into lines in a different place.
3. Read each version aloud. Where does your voice pause? Which word gets the spotlight?
4. Try putting one word on a line by itself.
5. Choose the best version and explain your choice to a partner.

How you'll know: You can explain why the last word of each line matters.

Safety: Use scissors carefully and pass them handle first.

Go further: Try a shape poem where the line breaks draw the subject on the page.

You need: a clean copy of your poem · coloured pencils · a partner · a phone or tablet to record (optional)

1. Mark pauses (/ short, // long), words to stress (underline) and places to slow down (wavy line).
2. Plan one gesture or movement that fits the poem's meaning.
3. Perform to your partner from the other side of the room.
4. Partner gives one 'keep' and one 'try'.
5. Perform again and notice the difference.

How you'll know: Your partner can hear every word from across the room and can tell you the poem's main feeling.

Go further: Learn your poem by heart and perform without the page.