English Year 2 Spring Humorous Poems

Essential Texts
Aliens Stole My Underpants by Brian Moses

Day 1 Teaching
Read ‘Aliens Stole My Underpants’ by Brian Moses to the children. Explore the layout and feeling of the poem. Experiment with how to read a poem in a way that will interest the audience.
Activity
Children read through the poem and then answer the comprehension questions (see resources) about the poem.

Day 2 Teaching
Re-read ‘Aliens Stole My Underpants’. Discuss how we might be able to memorise the poem and techniques to help us do this. Explore rhythm and rhyme.
Activity
Organise children into mixed ability pairs. They have copies of two consecutive verses from ‘Aliens Stole My Underpants’ (see resources). They read through and begin to memorise each, using the features discussed. They perform their verses.

Day 3 Teaching
Read the poem ‘Out of a Cloud’. Discuss the feel of this poem and how it differs from ‘Aliens Stole My Underpants’. How has the poet achieved this?
Activity
Children work in pairs to discuss then write about where they think Desmond might have gone. They have discussion questions: Where do they think he is now? What is he doing? Do they think he is happy? Some children work in a group to explore their ideas before share writing a paragraph of their thoughts.

Day 4 Teaching
Read ‘Abducted by Aliens’ to the children. What did they think about the poem? Compare to other alien poems they have read. What would it be like to be abducted by aliens?
Activity
Organise children into ability groups and give each table copies of the three poems; ‘Lost in Space’, ‘The Blob’ and ‘New Kid at School’. They discuss each and decide on a favourite and why. Some children have copies of the one poem ‘Alien’s Dinner’ (see resources) to read in their group.

Essential Texts
Aliens Stole My Underpants by Brian Moses

Presentations
Grammar PowerPoint: noun phrases

Day 1 Teaching
Read ‘My Stepdad is an Alien’ from Aliens Stole My Underpants by Brian Moses and discuss the poem. Look at the Poetry Aliens Presentation (see resources) and show slides 1,2,3, and 4. Look at the poem and underline nouns in one colour and adjectives in another colour.
Activity
Children have copies of ‘My Step Mum is an Alien’ (see resources). They identify all the nouns in one colour and adjectives in another colour.

Day 2 Teaching
Re-read ‘My Step Dad is an Alien’. Recap nouns and adjectives on the Poetry Aliens Presentation (see resources). Look at slides 6 and 7 and discuss adverbs in detail.
Activity
Children have copies of the Alien Descriptions (see resources). The read through and underline the adverbs. They replace each with an alternative from the list at the bottom.

Day 3 Teaching
Re-read ‘My Step Dad is an Alien’ and then revise adverbs. Look through the rest of the Poetry Aliens Presentation (see resources). Introduce idea of writing a description of a family alien!
Activity
Children draw an oval shape in the centre of their page. They write descriptions of their family aliens using some adjectives, adverbs and some phrases. Display the Adjective and Adverbs Poster (see resources) to support children.

Grammar PowerPoint: noun phrases
Learn about nouns, adjectives and adverbs and how to put them together to make descriptive noun phrases.

Essential Texts
Aliens Stole My Underpants by Brian Moses

Day 1 Teaching
Read ‘The Alien Football Team’ (p42) from Aliens Stole My Underpants by Brian Moses. Ask children to rate the poem out of 5. Discuss reasons to back up opinions and sort ideas into 5 headings: Subject / Layout / Rhyme / Rhythm / Description & Vocabulary.
Activity
In pairs children read the poem ‘London’s Sky’. They discuss and analyse the poem using the 5 headings.

Day 2 Teaching
Read ‘Star Walker’ (p38) and rate it out of 5. Analyse the poem together using the 5 headings. Ask for opinions again but this time with reasons to support their opinions.
Activity
Give pairs of children copies of the poems ‘Tale of the Unexpected’ (p59) and ‘On Some Other Planet’ (p36). Children rate the poems out of 5 and give one good reason for their opinion relating to the headings. Some children have ‘The Yaffling Yahoo’ (p13) to read and discuss.

Day 3 Teaching
Challenge children to remember the 5 poems read so far. Remind them of the 5 headings. They think of their best and worst poem.
Activity
Children discuss their choices further and then write a comparison between their best and worst poems using the differentiated Comparison Writing Frame (see resources). Some children work with an adult in a group to support their ideas.

Essential Texts
Aliens Stole My Underpants by Brian Moses

Day 1 Teaching
Read ‘Dear Alien’ (p20). Explain he wants to improve his Earth-Speak! What could the Sprong words mean? Look at ‘Fribble’ is it a noun or adjective? Think of a translation. Repeat with other words.
Activity
Children have copies of poem and they ‘translate’ the Sprong words. They identify each as a noun or adjective. Some children work with an adult for support.

Day 2 Teaching
Re-read ‘Dear Alien’ (p20). Agree on the alien’s name. Write happy, sad, nice, nasty, dull and bright on the board. Discuss how these adjectives can be turned into a noun by adding –ness. Add this suffix to each. We can also make nouns from verbs by adding the suffix –er.
Activity
Children have copies of the Word Cards (see resources). They decide if it is an adjective then they add –ness or if it is a verb they add –er. Most children write 6-8 words. Some children write 10-12 words.

Day 3 Teaching
Re-read ‘Dear Alien’ (p20). Introduce idea that they are going to write a letter to the alien. They must include three –ness words and three –er words.
Activity
Children write their letters, discussing their ideas first and then writing. They use three –ness words and three –er words. Some children have support by having a list of these words.

Essential Texts
Aliens Stole My Underpants by Brian Moses

Day 1 Teaching
Look back over some alien poems. Discuss what aliens might look like. Look at pictures of aliens (see resources) and children describe these using good adjectives. Children write on sticky notes and display with alien.
Activity
Children have A3 paper and draw an alien in the middle. They brainstorm adjectives then on the Alien Body Sheet (see resources), they use adjectives to describe the alien body parts in detail, using full sentences. Some children brainstorm adjectives around their alien picture.

Day 2 Teaching
Explain they will plan and write their poem to perform. Read the start of the poem from the Poem Writing Frame (see resources) and talk about how to make the language poetic.
Activity
Children have their copies of the Alien Body Sheet from Day 1 (see resources). They begin writing their poem in the structure: one skinny body, two pudgy, hairy feet etc. Some children use a blank Alien Body Sheet (see resources) to build up their adjectives from Day 1.

Day 3 Teaching
Copy and display a child’s work from Day 2. Discuss the good things about their poem so far and what they might do to improve it. Discuss the editing process.
Activity
Children think about how they might improve their poems so far. They have time to concentrate and focus on this before writing up their poems in neat using the Poem Writing Frame (see resources).

Day 4 Teaching
Tell children they will be memorising and performing the poems today. Discuss good techniques to help memorise and how to add expression and interest to their performances.
Activity
Children work in small groups or individually to learn and perform their poems.