Suitability
This ‘Kindness Poem’ activity can be used for Key Stage 2 pupils. It is most suited to Years 4-6 as it includes the use of abstract nouns, however, it can be easily adapted for younger pupils.

Overview

The activity asks pupils to create a poem about kindness using their senses. It asks them to think about how they can describe kindness (an abstract noun) using adjectives, adverbs and nouns (extending to using similes, metaphors and personification).

Introduction

• Introduce the word kindness to pupils.
• What do they think this might mean for themselves and for others?
• Discuss with pupils when they have been kind to somebody or someone has been kind to them. What happened? How did this make them feel about being kind?

Main

• Look at what an abstract noun is and your own definition of it.
• E.g. An abstract noun represents something that can’t be be seen, heard, smelt, felt or tasted, for example truth, danger, freedom, happiness, rather than a concrete object.

Mind maps

• Ask pupils to create a mind map about kindness separating it into what colour it might be and also into senses, e.g. what it might look like, smell like, taste like, feel like (as in touch), and what it might sound like.
• Encourage pupils to add in adjectives and adverbs for each part of the mind map. E.g. Colour – yellow, pink, green etc… Sight – looks like butterflies, birds etc… Smell – rain, flowers in spring. Taste (this one can be tricky) – candyfloss, chocolate etc… Touch – wind etc… Sound – music etc…
• Challenge pupils to come up with as many adjectives and adverbs as they can think of for each section of the mind map.
• Invite pupils to share their ideas with a partner or in a small group and to add any additional ideas to their mind map.

Creating poems

• Ask pupils to choose their favourite word from each section, highlight it and use a thesaurus to find different words to mean the same thing.
• Challenge pupils to extend these into phrases adding in lots of description to each phrase, e.g. Kindness is the colour of sunshine yellow bursting through the clouds on a dark and dismal day….
• Ask pupils, either working alone or in pairs, can come up with their poem for kindness using a format similar to below or a format of their own choosing

Kindness is the colour of…
It smells like…
It sounds like…
It feels like…
It looks like…
It tastes like….
When I am kind I feel…

Plenary:

• Share the children’s poems as a whole class and make a kindness display including their work.

Ideas for extension:

• Encourage children to use expanded noun phrases as well as similes, metaphors and personification in their poem.