I was recently working at Legsby Primary School near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire with a class of Y3, 4, 5 and 6 children. The children were really up for a poetry workshop and the youngest ones gave as much in the oral sessions as the older ones. Unsurprisingly, the theme was Autumn and the children responded to various species of leaves with individual poems as well as to fine art prints of Autumn scenes. One discussion was about symbols. I asked the children what could symbolise Winter, Spring and Summer then concentrated on Autumn. The general idea about ‘symbol’, arising out of my focus on the school’s badge as a symbol for the school, was that a symbol is a sort of logo. The following whole class poem was made and at least 80% of the children participated in the discussion and contributed to these stanzas:
AUTUMN LOGOS
A rainbow
of yellows, oranges,
reds, maroons and browns.
Sweet damsons
with stones removed
bubbling in a cauldron.
Apples tumbling
down a tube into
the juicer – squish-squash.
Mist rises, hovers
like smoke, makes us
damp and short-sighted.