Off By Heart: Poems for Children to Learn, Remember and Perform

By Roger Stevens

A brilliant, dip-in collection of poems to be read aloud, with tips and advice on how to be the best poetry performer!

This wonderful anthology is full of poems that are easy to remember and perfect for reciting out loud. It includes new, modern and classic poems, ranging from very short to long and written by a diverse range of poets from Joshua Seigal to Christina Rossetti and from Lewis Carrol to Debjani Chatterjee. The poems are arranged in order of length, making it easy to select the right poem for every level. Featuring tips for readers, teachers and parents on how to memorise poems and on performing them out loud, this book is perfect for the memorising and performance elements in the primary National Curriculum.

Book Band: Brown
Aimed at readers aged 7+

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jun 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781408192955

Roger Stevens

Roger Stevens is a children's author and poet who visits schools performing and running workshops. His books include The Jumble Book, compiled for Dyslexia Action and Why Otters Don't Wear Socks. Roger also runs the Poetry Zone, a website for children and teachers.

Book preview

Contents

A Poem That, Despite Being Only One Word Long, Can Sometimes Make a Crowd be Quiet and can be Easily Understood by a Baby

Roger Stevens

Visiting the Library

Josephine Bodsworth

What’s the Difference?

Graham Denton

The Witch! The Witch!

Eleanor Farjeon

Feeling Sniffy

Matt Goodfellow

Revenge

Coral Rumble

An Autumn Greeting

Anon

The Fly

Andy Croft

The Old Man of Blackheath

Anon

Owl

Graham Denton

Old Doc Macdonald

Philip Waddell

Hey Diddle Diddle

Roger Stevens

At the Zoo

WM Thackeray

Puddle Muddle

Judith Nicholls

The Crocodile’s Brushing His Teeth

Colin McNaughton

Animal Sneezes

Roger Stevens

Anything

Bernard Young

The Eccentric

Anon

John Wesley

Anon

Baby Seeds

Anon

My Sari

Debjani Chatterjee

Flint

Christina Rossetti

The Crocodile

Lewis Carroll

Weave Me a Poem

Eric Ode

The Dragonfly

Eleanor Farjeon

I Went to the Animal Fair

Anon

My Puppy

Debra Bertulis

Caterpillar

Christina Rossetti

Answer to a Child’s Question

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Butter Betty Bought

Carolyn Wells

Chicken Soup

Roger Stevens

Like Grandad

Joan Poulson

Gingerbread Man

Celia Warren

Bumpety, Bumpety, Bump!

Anon

A Silver Birch

Roger Stevens

Eletelephony

Laura Elizabeth Richards

The Moon

Robert Louis Stevenson

Ways to Come to School

Roger Stevens

Doggerel

Alan Murphy

When I Swing

Matt Goodfellow

Emergencies

Tony Mitton

Big Red Boots

Tony Mitton

What is Pink?

Christina Rossetti

The Rooks

Jane Euphemia Browne

Performing Monkey

Joshua Seigal

Snow

Jane Clarke

Fat Cat

Roger Stevens

Chocolate in the House

Andy Seed

I Am a Princess

Roger Stevens

Ladybird

Brian D’Arcy

The Cats’ Party

Trevor Harvey

Don’t Be Such a Fusspot

Brian Moses

Zim Zam Zoom!

James Carter

Mrs Sprockett’s Strange Machine

Michaela Morgan

There Are No Such Things as Monsters!!!

Roger Stevens

Pirate Hat

Roger Stevens

Whisper, Whisper

Kit Wright

My Little Pet Cattery

John Rice

The Chickens

Anon

Little Raindrops

Jane Euphemia Browne

The Garden Year

Sara Coleridge

The Way Through the Woods

Rudyard Kipling

Have You Met A Wolf?

James Carter

The Jumblies

Edward Lear

Tips for Learning by Heart and Performing

Make Learning Fun

How to Learn Poems

Tips for Memorisation

Bring a Poem to Life with Performance

Goodbye Rhyme!

James Carter

Acknowledgements and Copyrights

Note

1

A Poem That, Despite Being Only One Word Long, Can Sometimes Make a Crowd be Quiet and can be Easily Understood by a Baby

Shhhhh…

Roger Stevens

Although this poem is only one word long, you do have to learn and say the title too!

2

Visiting the Library

Look!

Book!

Josephine Bodsworth

2

What’s the Difference?

A dog is like a puppy...

just a little more grown-uppy!

Graham Denton