Category Archives: Poem with teacher notes

‘Europa’s Secrets’ by Celia Berrell

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Europa’s Secrets by Celia Berrell

 

There’s hope Europa has a sea

where living things could really be

because this moon of Jupiter

has lots of solid ice water.

 

The pictures of Europa show

a crusty surface white as snow

with many lines and ridges mixed

like ice sheets that have cracked and fixed.

 

As Jupiter’s great gravity

distorts Europa’s cavity

that energy and friction heats

and melts some water underneath.

 

We think this frozen water layer

could make a sea that’s hiding there.

So just below that crusty shell

it’s possible some microbes dwell.

 

Or what if it turns out to hold

some animals both weird and bold

that roam Europa’s chilly sea.

True aliens to you and me!

 

First published in Scientriffic (March 2011)
Reproduced with permission of CSIRO
www.doublehelix.csiro.au 

Discovering life exists in places beyond Earth – like Jupiter’s icy moon Europa – could be a reality in our lifetime.  Thinking about it makes my imagination run wild!  What might these creatures be like?

‘Mermaids and Monster Trucks’ by June Perkins

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Mermaids and Monster Trucks

Monster Truck Boys, Monster Truck Boys

they love to drive their Monster trucks.

 

Mermaid Girls, Mermaid Girls

swimming with the dolphins

go the Mermaid Girls.

 

Mermaid Girls and Monster Truck Boys

Now they go to school

Could there be a duel?

 

Mermaid Girls watch the Monster Truck Boys.

Monster Truck Boys watch the Mermaid Girls.

 

Mermaid Girls, Mermaid Girls

super diving Mermaid Girls.

 

Monster Truck Boys, Monster Truck Boys

super driving monster trucks.

 

Mermaid Girls and Monster Truck Boys

They’re playing at magic school

which has a friendly rule.

 

Mermaid Girls can play with Monster Truck Boys.

Monster Truck Boys can play with Mermaid Girls.

 

Mermaid Girls talk to Monster Truck Boys.

Monster Truck Boys talk to Mermaid Girls.

 

Soon Monster Truck Boys 

like swimming in the sea.

They’re jumping and bumping 

in the sea.

 

Now Mermaid Girls 

like driving monster trucks

as if they’re giant seals.

 

Mermaid Girls and Monster Truck Boys

They’re all cool 

And they all love school

Their friendships are like jewels.

 

Monster Truck Boys, Monster Truck Boys 

swimming with the dolphins 

now they’re Mermaid Boys.

 

Mermaid Girls, Mermaid girls

Super driving, super dreaming

Now they’re Monster Truck Girls.

 

By June Perkins

EDUCATORS NOTE:  This poem was originally written as a song, to be performed by Monster Truck Boys and Mermaid Girls in a prep to grade two composite classroom.  It was to gently encourage them to try different games and not stereotype themselves but also so they could just have fun.  I recommend to teachers who have the talent to write poems and songs for their pupils to do so as it enriches the classroom experience.

Mungalli by June Perkins

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Mungalli

Mungalli
We came
Sang, shared sisterhood
Brotherhood, unity, treasure hunts
Peace

Little
Things sing
To the heart
Picking a song’s tune
Guitar

Unity
In camp
Everywhere we walk
Glow worms in line
Night

By June Perkins

EDUCATORS NOTE: This poem was written to reflect on a mentoring camp held at Mungalli Falls.  I wanted a very simple structure to convey this in just a few words and was inspired by, but not restricted by the cinquain form.  A traditional cinquain, would be 

  1. A subject noun – one word
  2. Two adjectives – two words
  3. Three verbs – three words
  4. A phrase – four words
  5. Return to the subject noun – one word

Instead I went   

  1. Subject noun – one word (however, in verse 2 and 3 I put the subject noun at the end)
  2. Short phrase-two words,  
  3. Longer phrase- three words (line 3,4, and line 2 closely linked)
  4. A phrase or a list of things- four words 
  5. Overall feeling or the subject noun

I think it is important when working with set forms to be able to play with them and reinvent them to fit your purpose, whatever is best for the poem

About June: I am presently working on two sequels to my first full length collection, Magic Fish Dreaming,  https://magicfishdreaming.com/ and dearly hope to find traditional publishers for them or to crowd fund them.  

One is another collection of poetry for children filled with a sense of magical realism, fun and optimism, and the other is especially for mothers who might have fallen in love with the poetry of Magic Fish Dreaming, and will include both poetry and prose reflections on mothering and being mothered.  

I have been keeping a poetry blog for several years, http://ripplepoetry.wordpress.com and am presently blogging on the topic of how poets play with words and images to make their poems https://ripplepoetry.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/poetatplay2/

What Koala Saw by JR Poulter

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Possumbled by JR Poulter

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About JR Poulter: “I’m writing all the time – poetry is a bit like a journal for me.  It is there 24/7. I have more books coming out – one a prose poem “The Passing” and one a humorous narrative verse story “A Raw Deal!” and then there is my poetry collection [for grown-ups] “Blood and Other Essentials” which hopefully coming out this year.”

“Lost Dream” by JR Poulter with Teacher Notes

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“Earthworms” by Elizabeth Cummings with Teacher Notes

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EARTHWORMS

 

 

Earthworm, you burrower extraordinaire

How can you stand to live down there

With no arms of legs in the soil so dark?

With your one cylindrical digestive tract

You move with the muscles that you contact

To make your body first short then long

And those bristles help propel you along

Through leaf litter, topsoil or deeper down

You help to mix up the stuff in the ground

This makes you the base of many a food chain

Yet your many skills are the environment’s gain

Your talent with organic matter is biological

And mixing tall the nutrients is a flair so chemical

Then there’s your physical ability of aerating

So the soil ecosystem’s restoration you’re helping

Thus let’s take some time to show a bit of gratitude

For how you improve the quality of our food!

 Elizabeth Cummings 

 

About Elizabeth: “Worms both disgust and fascinate me! I remember my brother holding a worm in his hands as a toddler and exclaiming; ‘One worm two worms!’ as he pulled it part😱. After that I had nightmares about worms for years until one of my pupils brought a worm farm into the class and taught us all about he important work of the humble earthworm… a teacher can always learn from their students!”

Teacher Notes by Jeanie Axton:

Read this poem to the class a few times and then ask a student to write key words on the whiteboard. As a class research and make a timeline of life in the worm farm. Look at how worms are a sign of a healthy garden and how worm tea helps condition soil and grow healthy plants.

If your really brave have a “Bring your gumboots day” and go out and collect worms to bring back to the classroom. Watch how they move and write a worm poem.

Remember to take the worms back to where you got them after the lesson. They belong in the environment.

 

POEMS by Kylie Covark

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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.

Monkey Mia by Virginia Lowe

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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: