Category Archives: Children’s poem with teacher notes

TEACHER’S REVENGE! by J R Poulter

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TEACHER’S REVENGE !

“Time, boys time!” the teacher said,
“Enough’s enough, now off to bed!”
At least ten minutes we stayed before
Cautiously opening the dormitory door,
Held our breath and tiptoed out.
Everyone was just about
Ready to raid the pantry when –
‘“So! Caught out red-handed then!”

Right, left, right to the dorm we went,
Each of us dreading sir’s intent –
Very grounded the rest of term or
Each of us feel the cane’s full furor!
Now we all think twice about
Going forth after lights are out!
Everyone KNOWS what waits without!

J.R.POULTER

ACROSTIC – TEACHER’S REVENGE Teacher Notes by J.R.Poulter

My father was sent to boarding school from an early age. His stories of life in a large boarding school, about what the boys got up to, inspired my acrostic.

School life today is both the same and very different.

Activity: List ways school life has not changed.
List ways in which it has changed.
Are the changes for the better or worse?
In giving you answer, write an acrostic using the word,
YES, for changes to the better, and the word, NAY, for changes for the worse.

Legs In The Air by Jeanie Axton

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What have you been eating Brock?
That is causing quite a stink
Was it green and red?
Or yellow, brown and pink?

What have you been eating Brock?
The smell is really bad
Was it a piece of carrot cake?
You stole from snoring Dad

What have you been eating Brock?
The whole house it does reek
Was it from the garbage bin
That’s been sitting there all week

What have you been eating Brock?
Your gastric juices churning
One whiff and we will leave the room
Today not be returning

Brock, your plan is very clever
As you work your inner gut
To get your favourite seat at home
You whistle out your butt

Legs In The Air by Jeanie Axton

JEREMY JAMES JOHNSON by Margaret Pearce

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Jeremy James Johnson was a very naughty boy.
Fatty fried junk foods were all that he’d enjoy.

Now Jeremy had a little dog, his name was Mut
He sat under the table, his mouth never shut.

Mut liked cauliflour, carrots and celery stewed,
He ate every scrap because he just liked food.

So Jeremy was able to show a plate scraped clean,
And demand two helpings of chocolate ice cream.

He got away with this for month after month,
Jeremy got thinner and Mut strong and plump.

Jeremy looked at Mut who shared his day,
And saw how fast he ran around to play.

“Mut’s not tired and runs faster than me.
Why does he still have so much energy?’

His father with glee got to Jeremy at last.
“Mut eats all his vegies that’s why he’s fast.”

Jeremy James Johnson is now very very good.
He eats all his vegies as every child should.

And fatty fried foods make him feel very sick
Because Jeremy is now on a fitness kick.

 

Monkey Mia with Teacher Notes

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Monkey Mia
​
Word runs round the campsite
They’re in! They’re coming in!
Instantly the baking beach is crowded
We stand knee-high in sea
Yearning, stretching towards the horizon
Where the dolphins appear

A meeting, we trust, of minds
Eager as ours, for contact
For reaching across the species barrier
In love

They nudge our legs
We stroke their satiny sides
Well away from the eyes and
​blow-hole vents
Each name age and relationship
Is learned from the dorsal fin
Distinctive, notched or bent
This is the larger part of the pod
Females and young

In supreme trust one mother
Allows her baby to come closer
Guarded and shepherded by its
​big sister
To swim between the legs
Right at the shore
Oh little one! we greet it
With rapture

They leave
The beach is deserted, desolate
Under the searing sun,
the blusterous hot wind

We leave
Drive back through the bright jewels
Strung on their breathless chain of heat –
Stromatolites and Pinnacles aeons old
A gorge and its curving
Stone-carving river –
There is a snake, a lizard
And woe! a car-slaughtered emu

Leaving its life-long partner
Disconsolate

In Perth a small news item –
The dolphin baby is dead
Killed, it seems, by effluent from the camp
Oh little one!
It was our manure that was your doom

Home again
We bear bright cameos
Of beauty and strangeness and difference
Of wildness and creatures who trust
Of encounters with alien minds
Paid for by us with guilt and grief
Paid for by them with their lives.

Virginia Lowe

Notes by Jeanie Axton

This poem is an opportunity to discuss the environmental impact of Tourism. It was published in 1996. You could look at the changes that have been made in Tourism in Australia from then to protect the environment and our animal friends.

Here is a link to information on the current operation. Up to three rangers are on duty at any time and only selected people feed the dolphins.

http://www.australiascoralcoast.com/attractions-events/monkey-mia-dolphins

And a link to a YouTube clip:

The Stray, Christmas morning by JR Poulter

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Teacher Notes:

English writing skills

Write a short description of what you would feel if you woke Christmas morning to not one present. Compare this to finding your Christmas wish granted had been granted.

 

Drawing and emotional intelligence

Draw a four frame comic showing the changes a thoughtful gift can make to a sad person’s facial expression.

 

Team work:

List ways the class could work together to make a difference in the lives of less fortunate folk this Christmas. With your teacher’s guidance, implement one of your class’s projects.

Sequencing:

Make a photo diary of how you all worked to achieve your outcome as a class.

 

Pic and poem and teacher notes by J.R.Poulter

“The Singing Spaniel” by Jeanie Axton

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Lee and Jazz

On the grass

Ukulele in hand

Learning fast

Tune in the air

Jazz’s ears prick

She starts to sing

Learning real quick

Songs in the garden

Float down the street

A boy and his dog

Sounding so sweet

A bond forged in music

A love made to last

The sounds of friendship

In music is cast

Jeanie Axton

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Putter Putter” with Teacher Notes

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Let’s go to …. by James Aitchison

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 Let’s go to Toowoomba,

The two of us by bus,

Toot, toot to Toowoomba,

We won’t cause any fuss.

 

 

Let’s all go to Weewaa,

We’ll ride there on a horse,

Whee-hee-hee to Weewaa,

I’ll bring tomato sauce.

 

 

Let’s all go to Bairnsdale,

Upon a fleecy sheep,

Baaaaaaa to Bairnsdale,

But please don’t fall asleep.

 

 

Let’s all go to Hawthorn,

We’ll ride a donkey there,

Hee-haw-haw to Hawthorn,

Without a single care.

 

 

  

“Progression” by Virginia Lowe

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Progression

 

She showed it

to her slavedriver

who saw the possibilities

He promoted slave Hannah

to supervise

the sawing team

 

Before,

hundreds pulled the immense stone block

on its log rollers

A team of twenty waited at the back

to grasp the log-load

when it had been run over

The back log had to be

hauled to the front

to be run over yet again

 

If only the stone could stay still

on the logs while they kept rolling

Clearly impossible. Hannah scowled

But a slice of log sawn from one end

would roll the same way

With a hole in the middle

supporting – well we’d call it an axle

and a second round piece from the log

On her model it worked perfectly

Wheels! Wooden wheels!

The first cart

 

Wheelbarrows, trains, cars, trucks

cogs, pulleys, clocks,  machines

 

Life on earth would never be the same.

 

Virginia Lowe

“The Fur-O-Saurus” by Jaz Stutley

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The Fur-O-Saurus moved in one day

And I’m sad to say that it’s here to stay.

It raids the cupboards and fridge for food;

When you’re not looking, it’s up to no good.

Fur-O-Saurus; Fur-O-Saurus;

Its eyes and teeth are quite enormous.

Fur-O-Saurus; Fur-O-Saurus:

A cat or a dog; or is it a walrus?

 

The Fur-O-Saurus sleeps on my bed.

I have suggested the roof instead.

Rodents don’t interest it at all –

“A rat – what’s that? A mouse? Too small!”

Fur-O-Saurus; Fur-O-Saurus;

Its eyes and teeth are quite enormous.

Fur-O-Saurus; Fur-O-Saurus;

If there was a tune, this would be a chorus.

 

The Fur-O-Saurus is not polite.

It lazes all day and yowls all night.

It’s large and lumpy and striped and strange;

It has fleas and flies and mumps and mange.

Fur-O-Saurus; Fur-O-Saurus;

Its eyes and teeth are quite enormous.

Fur-O-Saurus; Fur-O-Saurus;

In a certain light, it is weirdly gorgeous.

 

I tried to donate it to the zoo:

“A Fur-O-Saurus – it’s old but new.”

But sad to say, they turned it down;

I’ll wait till the circus comes to town.

Fur-O-Saurus; Fur-O-Saurus;

Its eyes and teeth are quite enormous.

Fur-O-Saurus; Fur-O-Saurus;

What a spectacular performance!