The Magic Box: Poems For Children

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The fate of the Supermarket Market Manager; I thought this was a fun description of an overly generous Shop Manager that ends up getting fired because of his good nature, it encompasses very good examples of rhyming prose for students learning the nature of poems. Following this you could get students to write a poem about their own quirky character in a similar style to this example. There are plenty of jokes and things to smile about. In Kit’s books you’ll meet a cast of crazy characters, including the dreadful Dave Dirt. And like Dave, the poems are never afraid of a bit of slobber or snot. Kit uses rhythm and rhyme as well as assonance and alliteration to create poems that sound pleasing to the ear. Some use repetition and refrain and sound almost like a song. Some are quite twisting for the tongue! I have provided opportunities for children to work with their talking partners to support their composition. This book has a vast collection of poems, in a variety of shapes, sizes and styles, rhyming and non-rhyming suitable for different age groups. The book would be an excellent addition to support the subjects across the National Curriculum, particularly to stimulate the children’s imagination and also boost literacy and children’s comprehension of abstract words and settings.

The imaginative poem ‘The Magic Box’ by Kit Weight provides a wonderful opportunity to appreciate, perform and compose a fantasy poem. These resources are presented beautifully to also evoke an individual written response from the learners. Additional tip : Print off nets of cubes and cuboids ( photocopiable card ) and ask children to decorate their magic boxes then assemble them. Other witty examples included: It’s Spring, It’s Spring and It’s Winter, It’s Winter, these poems are a bit different than what you expect and would be an excellent fun poem to present in class and get the children to figure out what has gone wrong. Presentation B provides an opportunity to concentrate on the final 3 verses of the model poem - the ‘impossible things’ verse, what their box is made of and where they will travel in their box. I have looked at three poems from Kit Wright to explore his style: 'The Sea in the Trees, Watch your French', Heads or Tails

I have also provided a simple comprehension task which can be used to aid comprehension of the model poem if required. There are many opportunities for incidental learning e.g. grammar and word choice particularly adjectives, powerful verbs, similes and alliteration. Wright’s reading voice is an example of what “well-spoken” refers to. He is clearly aware of the assumptions this can lead to, teasing himself for it in ‘How the Wild South-East Was Lost’, which he introduces as an attempt “to describe my upbringing as though it had been other than soft.” Other introductions include explanations of references, inspirations, and allusions to other poems – or songs. One of the high points, ‘The Orbison Consolations’, suggests to the singer of ‘Only the Lonely’ that he should restrain his hyperbole, giving a list of other types of people who, right up to “lastly the ghastly / Know the way you feel tonight.”

The Magic Box’ is probably Kit Wright’s best known poem. Just like the magic box, his poetry contains an extraordinary collection of contrasts. My favourite poem was “The Magic Box” the book is named after. This is a imaginative abstract that describes a variety of beautiful, strange and wonderful things the narrator would put into their magic box. This would be a very effective at stimulating pupils’ imagination, and would be a good compliment to an English or Art lesson as you could get the children to describe what they would put in their magic box or get them to draw a picture of the magic box and all the wonderful things that were inside.

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A great poem to read aloud and perfect for children to use as a starting point for their own poetry.