Poetry in motion: top tips for performing poetry

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By Fe Luton, Director of Research and Content, Subject Leaders

Performing poetry is a great way to help children understand the meaning, melody and voice of a poem. And while plenty of children will love preparing and presenting a poem for performance, for others, it may feel more painful. However, with the right tools and techniques, poetry performance can be a fun and enlightening journey for even the most reluctant children.

Discovering and performing a range of quality poems helps children explore language, rhythm and an alternative form of expression. Recent research suggests that children who read poetry are far more likely to write their own. So, get reading, get exploring and get performing with our top tips.

Teacher Helping Male Pupil With Reading At Desk

Warm-ups

Get children warmed up orally, mentally and physically. Look at these voice warm-ups from the ENO to get the vocal cords ready for action. Children could also clap a beat and say their name in time to it or take a line from a poem and repeat it in a variety of voices: loud, quiet, boisterous, timid, fast, slow, etc. Do controlled breathing and whole-body warms-ups – shoulder rolls, body stretches and shake outs. This will help to get children in the zone and ready to perform.