Pen Me A Poem » children

Children’s Clown Stripped After Terror Scare

Edward — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:29:37 +0000

A clown accompanying a crowd of children for a flight around the United Kingdom was stripped searched recently after his toy handcuffs alerted the airport metal detectors. Security staff were on hand to help PC Konk to take off his giant baggy trousers, massive shoes and to examine his bubble saxophone, toy camera and police-clown identity card. The latter had his photo and a description of him being in the Criminally Insane Department. The clown was later allowed to continue on his way, although his handcuffs were confiscated.

Terrorist clown?

Beware of clowns with coloured pantaloons
Who wear huge shoes and stand in airport lounges.
They might well be a terrorist, a threat!
Hiding water bombs and paper scissors –
Planes could burst with laughter!

Metal detectors, tootle with mirth
As security with indecent frowns,
Press the children’s jester to promptly disrobe.
Toy handcuffs, seized from his still chuckling girth,
Impounded! On Britain’s safety grounds!

The full story of this humorous airport encounter can be found in this Daily Telegraph article from the 21st of December.

NHS Poem Especially for Children

Edward — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:07:17 +0000

This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the inception of the National Health Service (NHS) in Great Britain. To honour the occasion, the NHS commissioned the children’s laureate Michael Rosen to write a poem that young people would understand. The aim was to inform new generations of the ‘good healthcare should be available to all’ motto of the health service that has been so important to society as a whole over recent decades.

Michael Rosen, a great admirer of the NHS, was honoured to be asked to write the poem. The fact that the institution had seen his five children born in their hospitals and had later saved two of them from septicaemia and pneumonia was not something to be ignored or taken for granted.

“When I came to write this poem, I wanted to express the idea that it serves us cradle to the grave, but I also wanted to celebrate everybody in the service.” said Rosen. “There are many different kinds of essential work going on every minute of the day and I wanted to show that.”

Children asked about the poem gave it raving reviews which was the most important feedback the poet needed.

Theo, aged nine, a pupil from a school in Camden said: “I liked the way it had a constant rhythm a bit like a heartbeat. I think it would cheer up children going into hospital.”

Teachers too have been delighted with the piece.

“I think it is a delightful idea getting the children’s poet laureate to write a poem celebrating the NHS at 60,” said Steven Buzzard, a teacher. “We studied the poem and found it a really good way of teaching the children about the NHS and how long it has been going.”

Hospital directors, paediatricians, politicians and parents have all noted over the years how important the National Health Service has been to the country. However there is still work to be done and more children needing treatment and a sense of security. It’s hoped that Rosen’s poem will go a long way to helping bring down the mystery or anxieties of hospitals.

The poem is as follows.

‘These are the Hands’

These are the hands
That touch us first
Feel your head
Find the pulse
And make your bed.
These are the hands
That tap your back
Hold your arm
Wheel the bin
Change the bulb
Fix the drip
Pour the jug
Replace your hip
These are the hands
That fill the bath
Mop the floor
Flick the switch
Soothe the sore
Burn the swabs
Give us a jab
Throw out sharps
Design the lab.
And these are the hands
That stop the leaks
Empty the pan
Wipe the pipes
Carry the can
Clamp the veins
Make the cast
Log the dose
And touch us last.

by Michael Rosen

Poetry Competition for Children

Edward — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:42:49 +0000

As a child of 7, I remember being forced to learn a poem every week which was later to be recited on Friday mornings before the rest of my classmates. At the time it was a harrowing ordeal and the steely eyed look of the teacher didn’t help bring the words to mind. However there is one poem I have never forgotten from those days of purple blazers and grey shorts. That piece being William Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’. Whilst I might not have felt I was benefiting at the time, I now realise the rather strenuous learning of poetry stood me in good stead for the future.

The BBC is seeking to help children engage in learning and reciting poetry. Every primary school in the UK is being encouraged to enter a child aged 7 – 11 to compete for the title of UK Poetry Recital Champion, and the chance to represent their school and region in an upcoming competition to be shown on BBC TV in spring 2009.

Pupils taking part will stand in front of their fellows and deliver poems ranging from The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear to Rudyard Kipling’s The Way Through the Woods. Winners will be chosen from each school that holds the competition. The group will then be narrowed down to 12 finalists chosen in regional competitions held at local libraries. The grand final will then take place next April in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford.

“Poetry is a bit of a dying art and the only way we will get it back to the front of the nation’s consciousness is to teach it to kids,” says author and television presenter Daisy Goodwin. “This will be great fun. It won’t be The X Factor. It will be a warm, friendly competition.”

As many people will concur with, last year’s Ofsted report branded the teaching of poetry in schools countrywide as “dull” and “lightweight”.

Daisy Goodwin believes that the answer lies in starting young. “A seven-year-old might miss every nuance of Kubla Khan or Ozymandias. But learnt young, the poems will stay in the head for life, adding to the lustre of good moments and illumination in the bad.”

The scheme has already been tried and tested in Ireland and the United States where one Kansas teacher has said, ““Success in reciting poetry gives even reluctant learners a feeling of success in an area in which they have had little interest.”

For more information visit the BBC website’s Off By Heart.