Heard it in the Playground

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The poems are very comical and each child should be able to relate the topics to their own school experiences. The excellent use of rhythm and rhyme mean this book would be a great introduction to poetry in year 4 and upwards classrooms.

This is a great book to read for children as not only does it give an insight into school life - it lets children know that we all experience similar things at school. With songs and poems such as:

Meet Billy McBone and the Mad Professor's Daughter, be amazed by the Longest Kiss Contest, shed a tear for the Boy Without a Name and - if you're a stressed teacher - sing the Mrs Butler Blues. Allan Ahlberg's collection of poems and songs paint a funny and accurate portrait of primary school life, with highly appealing and atmospheric illustrations by Fritz Wegner. Allan has collaborated with many illustrators, including Andre Amstutz, Gillian Tyler and Katharine McEwen, as well as his late wife, Janet Ahlberg (nee Hall) and his daughter Jessica Ahlberg. He has won numerous awards for his books including, the Kurt Maschler Award in 1986, The Children's Book Award in 1987, the Blue Peter Book Award 2001, and The Children's Book Award: Books for Young Children award 2002. Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home > Heard it in the playground is a wonderful collection of poems, based on the setting of a primary school. The book is divided into sections of short, medium and long poems, which means it could adapted to many classes and also to the school day and time constraints. I feel this could make a great group read at the beginning or end of the school day as the short poems could be easily used. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-10-16 19:08:42 Associated-names Wegner, Fritz Boxid IA1972109 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

Allan Ahlberg is one of the UK's most acclaimed and successful authors of children's books - including the best-selling Jolly Postman series. Born in Croydon in 1938, he was educated at Sunderland Technical College. Although he dreamed of becoming a writer since the age of twelve, his route to that goal was somewhat circuitous. Other jobs along the way included postman (not an especially jolly one, he recalls), gravedigger, plumber, and teacher. This illustrated collection of amusing poems and songs celebrating primary school life won the Signal Poetry Award in 1990. Meet Billy McBone and the Mad Professor's Daughter, be amazed by the Longest Kiss Contest, shed a tear for the Boy Without a Name and, if you're a stressed teacher sing the Mrs Butler Blues. About This Edition ISBN: Billy McBone is a light hearted and amusing poem about a boy in school who is a bit of a day dreamer. The structure and rhythm is rigid throughout with repetition of the first two lines: "Billy McBone, Had a mind of his own" used to begin each stanza. The end of each line rhymes in the format 'aabccb' and this adds to the repetition to create a feeling of frustration and going through the motions on the part of Billy. This one certainly is a blast from the past! I remember my mum (a primary school teacher) carrying a very battered copy of this in her bag to and from school. I remember the boys in my class turning the poem ‘Heard it in the Playground’ into a rap in the style of Vanilla Ice!! And I remember ‘Leavers’ Song’ from my primary school leavers’ assembly. I really like the humorous approach as I think it makes the poems very relatable to children who will be able to compare themes within the poems to their own school day.Allan always dreamed of being a writer, but tried his hand at many other jobs before he achieved his ambition. He was a postman, grave-digger, plumber's mate and teacher - it was teaching that gave him such sharp insights into the minds of children, and enabled him to write his perfectly observed poetry about primary school life