You are T I N Y. So small
you can walk, like a fly, upside down.
You can run up glass, dance across water,
tiptoe across your sister's ice cream...

You are T I N Y. So small
no one sees you. You can go anywhere.
Secret places, busy places,
or right here... on this page,
(be careful! I might SNEEZE!)

You are T I N Y. So small
you've disappeared from this classroom.
» Where might you be?
» How do things round you look and feel
now that you are so... T I N Y?

The workshop deals with an idea common to poetry - that everyday things become extraordinary when viewed from another perspective. The children can make, or imagine, a magical 'ticket' that allows them to go anywhere. The poems are like postcards telling us what they saw and did when they got there.

Physically you can introduce the idea of scale to the children by asking them to look at things from a different perspective: lying on the floor or being at eye-level with a shoe, a pencil, a comb or a key. Together you might want to list some ideas. Here are a few:

• you are walking across the page of a book - how might the letters look?
• you are inside a falling snowflake - what do you hear and see?
• you are on the end of someone's nose - what might you do?

The resulting writing may sound like a story, or a list of impressions exploring texture, sounds and shapes. Discuss with the children how the finished poem might look (this is a good opportunity to have fun with text size and shape). Have fun!

© Mandy Coe

Want to take your poetry teaching further?  
poetryclass poets are available for INSET - details here

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