Kids Haiku writing at Creative Writing week in Muff

As the Creative Writing week for children reached mid week today I decided to introduce them to something a little different. We embarked upon writing a series of Haiku’s and acrostic poems.
First on the menu was Haiku’s. A haiku is a Japanese poem consisting of 17 syllables and in the format of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables.
It took a bit of time counting the syllables and cutting or adding words, but soon the haikus were flowing. Some of the end results were as follows:
Fionnuala DeBrún (aged 11): I write with a pen/ Stories as long as giraffes/ My hand sometimes hurts.
Kayleigh Sweeney (aged 11): Writing is the heart/ If it doesn’t come from there/ It’s not meant to be.
Ciara Kelly (aged 11): Eyes glued to the page/ Curled up with a book for hours/ Mind sharp and alive.
Aoife Bradley (aged 10): Reading is awesome/ Reading can help you a lot/ Read and you achieve.
Anna O’Donnell (aged 8): My name is Anna/ I like to eat chocolate/ I like to read books.
Fionn Óg Bradley (aged 7): Winter is coming/ Snow will be arriving soon/ We should rake the leaves.
Declan Roe (aged 10): I just read King Lear/ I read Mid-Summer Nights Dream/ I liked both of them.
Colm Millar (aged11): I will read a book/ It will have a nice setting/ I will open it.
Evie Hilton (aged 9): I like poetry/ People who write poems are poets/ Poems are awesome work.
It was very touching as I walked around and watched as each child applied themselves to the creation of these haiku’s. The contentment on their faces when they achived their end result. It was clapping and word sounding to ensure the syllable count was right and it all was word perfect in the end.
As some of the kids took a break to continue reading their junior Shakespeare a few continued with writing Acrostic poems, spelling out their first names. And then they dedicated their little brains to composing poetry of letters only. No words were formed. And they all saw how ‘I C U’ and ‘Y C E’ can be such fun and made into a dramatic piece of work.
Another fun day was had and this Creative Writing week is proving to be more popular with each new day. Here’s to another fun one tomorrow where some speed writing, condensed writing and even more reading will take place. And whatever other word games and conversation develops.