Category Archives: Australian children’s poetry

“Find Your Treasure” by Stephanie Boase

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Find Your Treasure
What hidden treasures
Lie beneath the cover of this book?
Anticipation fills me up
As I carefully open it
To take a sneaky look.
Interest peeks
As I peruse
The Contents Page and more
The blurb is certainly enticing me;
That’s one thing I can say for sure!
What hidden treasures lie
Between the pages of this book?
I’ll just have a little read;
And then a little more.
The treasure I’m uncovering
Is dazzling, for sure.
And now I’m being drawn
Like a fish upon a hook,
Deeper down into the depths
Of this amazing book!

 

“Eat Your Vegies” by Stephanie Boase

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Eat Your Vegies!

 

Eat your vegies,

Hurry up!

They’re good for you, you know.

Eat the greens and in-betweens

And big and strong you’ll grow!

Lettuce, tomatoes, beans and such

Give vitamins and iron;

All the things your body needs

To keep it running fine.

And afterwards

We’ll have dessert,

Your favourite fruity treat;

Ice cream served with apple pie.

So eat your vegies now,

My Sweet!

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“Cacao Beans” cinquain by Jeanie Axton

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Cacao beans

brown, bitter

Grind, texture, pour

The sweet aroma floats

Hot Chocolate

“Coco Cough-not” by Celia Berrell

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Coco Cough-not

A wintery cough

can feel rather tough.

 

Persistent and hacking

it sends our smiles packing

then steals counted sheep

so we can’t get to sleep.

 

Now would you cheer up

to know help’s in a cup?

 

It turns out that coco

all jolly and ho-ho

can soothe our cough ills

even better than pills.

 

This chocolate goldmine

contains theobromine

and as we’d expect,

has no ill-effects.

 

With this coco-cough link

have a hot chocolate drink!

https://www.newscientist.com/article/1919209-persistent-coughs-melt-away-with-chocolate/

An ingredient in chocolate may actually be a more effective cough medicine than traditional remedies, a new study suggests.

“Hot Chocolate” by Stephanie Boase

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Hot Chocolate

 

With happy anticipation,

My fingers hug my mug,

Warming my hands

And body whole.

 

Smooth and soothing,

The chocolatey trickles,

Down my throat as I sip;

Warm ripples of contentment roll.

 

Soft melting marshmallows

Float atop;

Silky pillows of sweetness.

Comfort for a busy mind

Nurturing body and soul,

Hot Chocolate!

Stephanie Boase

 

“Playing With Your Food” by Chris Owen

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Playing With Your Food

 

The beans stood on the boundary.

The spuds were in the slips.​

The carrot stood at silly point.

At gully were the chips.

At deep square leg the celery was ready with the dips.

 

The VI Peas were in the stands and banking on a draw.

The soup came steaming in to bowl.

You should’ve heard the roar.

But the apple read the line and length,

and tonked the ball for four.

 

The veggies needed wickets, so they introduced a spinner,

an aubergine, that many times had proved to be a winner,

and now it had the chance to gain the upper hand at dinner.

 

A fizzing ball just clipped the pads.

“Howzat!” cried Brussel Sprout.

The spuds appealed in unison.

There wasn’t any doubt.

The pepper grinder quite agreed and gave the lemon out.

 

The fruits were looking shaky, so the veg sent on their quicks,

who fired down some bouncers with a googly in the mix,

but the avocado wasn’t fazed and smashed them all for six.

 

Now the apple at the city end just needed one more run,

and when it smacked a cover drive it knew the game was won.

Oh, what a way to end the match and score a maiden ton.

Yes, playing with your food is wrong, but also heaps of fun.

 

Chris Owen 2018

“The ghost who stole my Vegemite” by James Aitchison

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The ghost who stole my Vegemite

 

Have you heard of the ghost

who stole my Vegemite toast?

A disgusting event —

more disgusting than most!

 

I’d spread it on thickly —

’twas the way I liked it —

but the ghost just took it,

and then he hiked it.

 

So if you spy a ghost

whose mouth is all black,

please do the right thing

and give him a whack!

 

James Aitchison

“Grandma’s Stew” by Ron Marsh

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GRANDMA’S STEW.

Sometimes I visit grandma,

And ofter stay for dinner

She always has an Irish Stew

But it is not a winner.

 

It has sweet potato and turnip

And awful parsnips too

These are things I do not like

To tell you of a few.

 

I wish she had a roast like mum’s

Now that is quite a treat

With proper roasted vegetables

And the very best of meat.

 

But grandma does her very best

She’s set in all her ways

She’s made stew for fifty years

And twenty seven days.

 

I know for we sat down one night

With almanacs and such

She worked it out, she is so bright

She hasn’t lost her touch.

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“Queen of Dried Fruit” by Celia Berrell

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Queen Of Dried Fruit  

A sultan many years ago

was lounging on his patio

and eating grapes fresh from the vine

that had a mellow yellow shine.

 

A sultan is a kind of king

who never cleans up anything.

He didn’t finish all the bunch

before he went inside for lunch.

 

His naughty servants didn’t care

and left the plate of grapes out there.

With all the sun and wafting breeze

those grapes dried to the size of peas.

 

Their wrinkly skins now golden brown

provoked the king to make a frown.

But thinking they were some new treat

those old dry grapes he tried to eat!

 

The servants feared he might get ill

then one of them he’d want to kill.

But as he chewed he tapped his feet

then said, Yum-yum.  They taste so sweet!

 

Their name’s sultana, like my wife.

The queen of all that’s sweet in life.

But was it that he also knew

she’d soon go brown and wrinkly too?

“Monster Veggies” With Teacher Notes by JR Poulter

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Veggie Monster – teacher notes –

Activity – Class debate on “Advertising and Prime Time TV, Their Role in Demonising Vegetables” 

Activity – Make up an advertising campaign to popularise vegetables. Research TV advertisements and  prime time TV shows to see what sort of food is promoted and how. I can think of one popular TV soapie, which has its cast eating pizza and drinking beer in most episodes. What does this say to young viewers. 

Note what sort of advertisements come on between 4.00pm and 8.00pm, the time many children, families and young folk would be watching TV. How might you use your campaign to change this?

Activity – Make up recipes with vegetables as the main ingredients – they must be delicious enough that YOU would want to eat them! If there are any vegetarians in the class, ask them to be a consultative panel and to judge the result of the class cooking attempts to make veggies into taste tempting foods!