Encompasses the poetry requirements in National Curriculum programmes of study for Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing. The text identifies eight ways for children to experience poetry: listening; speaking; reading; memorising; conversation; through the arts; writing; and performing.

Children and poetry: poetry and the National Curriculum; the minds of young children; poetry in the primary school; the work of Clwyd Poetry Project; poetry and the National Literacy Project; the perspectives offered in this book. Ways of working with poetry: listening; speaking; reading; memorising; creatively conversing; expressively engaging; composing; presenting, performing and publishing. Planning, assessment, recording and reporting: the making of choices; aims and schemes; assessing children's poetry-writing; the literacy hour and beyond. Literacy hour lessons: interpreting the National Literacy Project's framework; the literacy hour and the Clwyd Poetry Project model; preparing for and conducting a poetry literacy hour; a week's lessons for - reception, yr1, yr2, yr3, yr4, yr5 and yr6. Dreams and the imagination: children's thinking; reverie and imagination; developing imagination in the classroom; using poets' work; projects for Key Stages 1 and 2.