Walking with My Iguana

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I actually introduced this poem by reading it myself, in the dullest way possible. The children recognised immediately I was making a point. Then we listened to the performance of Brian Moses, the poet, found on the link. CBBC commissioned him to write a poem for the Queen’s 80th birthday and he was invited by Prince Charles to speak at his Cambridge University teachers’ day in 2007.

Brian Moses (born 1950) is an English poet. He mainly writes for children, has over 200 published works and is a children's poet. His poetry books and anthologies for Macmillan have sold in excess of 1 million copies. Moses was asked by CBBC to write a poem for the Queen's 80th birthday. I would share a couple of performance audio clips but refrain from doing so as I no longer am at the school (it being one of my placement schools) and I don’t have permission of the parents to share anything online, even if it is only their voice.

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To find out more about Brian Moses and his poetry, visit his blog at http://brian-moses.blogspot.co.uk/ and be inspired by his and others’ performance poems. He is also founder & co-director of a national scheme for able writers administered by his booking agency Authors Abroad. What primary classroom would be complete without Please Mrs Butler? Let’s face facts, this poem is virtually your birth right if you are in junior school and is certainly a poem that every teacher should read to their children. It’s iconic, it’s cheeky and it’s fun- what more could we ask for? As well as just learning for the sheer joy and enjoyment it brings, performance poems can have additional and powerful fringe benefits. They can, for example, be a great way to inspire children to write their own verses or new poems, they can be an introduction to new and exciting vocabulary and could also be the catalyst that sparks an exciting and informative debate on contentious issues relevant in the KS1 and 2 classrooms. They can also ultimately be the inspiration for all different genres of writing including plays, interviews, diary entries, stories and much much more. Ahlberg has created a lovely simple structure to the poem which plays out as a dialogue between the whining child and the indifferent teacher- and we’ve all met that kid Derek Drew!!!

There is lots of great vocabulary to explore here which gives could give children the impetus to find out more about Georgian England. The relatively simple rhythm and rhyme scheme makes it easy for children to write and add in their own verses perhaps supplying the poem with a new and happier ending!? Whole class activities Activating prior knowledge; discussion. Before reading and listening to the poem, ascertain with the class what an iguana is. If possible, play a video or multimedia web image of an iguana in its habitat.Brian Moses has been a professional children’s poet since 1988.. To date he has over 200 books published including volumes of his own poetry such as A Cat Called Elvis and Lost Magic: The Very Best of Brian Moses (both Macmillan), anthologies such as The Secret Lives of Teachers and Aliens Stole My Underpants (both Macmillan) and picture books such as Beetle in the Bathroom and Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe (both Puffin).