Send me your ships, your schooners,
and my rocks and reefs will take them.
Send me some seven hundred,
and howling wrecks I will make them.
Give me stormy nights and surging tides,
give me captains who lack in skill,
and I will show you shipwrecks
that no other coastline will.
Teacher’s note: By day, the coast appears calm and safe. But Victoria’s treacherous, storm-tossed 130-kilometre Shipwreck Coast, from Cape Otway to Port Fairy, has claimed around 700 vessels.
In County Down,
there’s no brighter green,
and the peaks and valleys
are a sight to be seen.
‘Tis old Ireland they sing of
when bleak winter falls,
and by firesides the heart of
Ireland still calls.
And when storms the crags
of the mountains have crossed,
they tell of great battles
forgotten or lost.
Close your eyes and picture a dog:
A Maltese terrier crossed with a poodle.
She’s a lovely dog is Izzy,
And she’s proud to be a moodle.
Moodles have oodles of energy,
And they’re always very busy.
They run in circles everywhere
And never ever get dizzy —
(CRASH)
— like Izzy!
It’s morning in the valley,
the air is crisp and sweet,
the irrigation’s on
before the noonday heat.
The cows are grazing quietly
the day’s work has begun,
across Australian farms
a living must be won.
Teacher’s note: This morning scene was captured at Moyhu in Victoria’s King Valley.
For five years across the fields
Brutal shells crashed down.
Destruction claimed a savage cost
In every ruined town.
Lethal waves of metal rained,
Stole eight million men.
And when the guns fell silent
They said, “No war again!”
But the hearts of men are dark,
War runs through their veins.
It seems that peace is fragile
Compared with wartime’s aims.
In response to November prompt Remembrance Day
Teacher’s note: When the First World War ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day, 1918, everyone called it “the war to end all wars”. Using this poem, students can discuss why wars break out and how we can avoid them in future.
Aboard an old steam loco,
many years ago,
the driver and the fireman
worked by the firebox glow.
They stood upon the footplate,
wood layered over steel,
where the engine driver could
control the loco’s wheels.
The fireman shovelled coal —
he had no time to dream —
heating water in the boiler
to keep up lots of steam.
I wonder who lived here;
I wonder why they went?
What fate struck these pioneers
and left their spirit spent?
They built their dreams to last,
stone by golden stone,
but now these dismal relics
lie ragged and alone.
Teacher’s note: One of many abandoned dwellings in Burra, South Australia.
You can carry a laptop to school,
but it wasn’t always that way.
The first computers were huge,
way back in the day.
They were used to break secret codes,
so we’d know the enemy’s plans.
And after the war was over,
they were soon in everyone’s hands.
We take them for granted today,
but once they didn’t exist.
If we didn’t have them now,
do you think they would be missed?
Teacher’s note: During the Second World War, Alan Turing (1912—1954) was a code breaker who worked in Hut 8 at Bletchley Park in England. Pictured above is a bombe, the electromechanical machine which cracked the enemy’s Enigma code. Turing’s pioneering work in computer technology sped the development of today’s computers. It is estimated that his code breaking computer science shortened the war in Europe by more than two years and saved over 14 million lives.
I bought a tube of toothpaste
and squeezed it from the top.
I was getting lots of toothpaste out,
till people yelled for me to stop!
“You should squeeze it from the bottom,
then roll the tube up neatly.
That way you won’t waste toothpaste
’cause you’ll use it all completely!”
Teacher’s note: Use this poem to ask students how they avoid wasting toothpaste and other products around the home, and why it’s a good idea to avoid wastage of any kind.
We’re celebrating pasta
all around the world,
spaghetti and linguine
are being swirled and twirled.
Ravioli’s all the rage!
Rigatoni’s lots of fun!
I think my gnocchi rocks!
Some penne anyone?
Macaroni and fusilli,
canelloni, fettuccine,
tagliatelle, vermicelli,
agnolini, tortellini —
Let’s celebrate them all,
every kind of pasta!
There’s nothing like a pasta
to fill your tummy faster.
In response to Celebrations prompt.
Australian Children’s Poetry 