Miss Antrobus

TEACHERS and parents, why do you think your children enjoy poetry?

Look at your language arts programme. Why does poetry appear as the core? It is important that you give this some thought.

By now, you have come across so many fun poems with words that involve physical action. Apart from that, through poetry, children engage in wordplay and word creation, and understand and use poetic tools to express ideas figuratively.

Today, you see another such poem. Just like the many arms of the octopus, you too must be armed with manifold ideas to make learning language through poetry an all-round enjoyable experience!

Activity A

1. Let’s have a fun “Question and Answer (Q&A) Session”; a reading session. Two people read. You can change the way you read: i. Ask each question separately and give the

answer separately. ii. Since there are four answers, you can question Miss Antrobus four times instead of two times, at one go. Give the answers also at one go, like in the poem.

2. Underline all the action words. Practise the actions. Now, do the actions as you read the poem aloud again. Make sure to add rhythm to it.

Activity B

Do you know that songs are a form of poetry? So, let’s sing! But first, let’s compose the lyrics.

1. You all know how to sing “Twinkle, twinkle little star”. We will sing our octopus song to this tune. Given below are three lines. Sing the three lines to yourself. Then, add another three lines that come to your creative mind to complete the verse:

Octopus, oh octopus

How many arms and legs do you have? Deep down in the sea you live...

Now, sing the song with actions and hey, have fun!

2. Word game: You know that the octopus has many arms and legs. Draw an octopus and fill its body with as many words that you can make from OCTOPUS. You can begin with two-letter words, then three and see how far you can go. (No googling! Only mind juggling allowed.)

Activity C

Writing game: choose one from the two creative writing exercises below (or you can do both):

1. Write a two-paragraph story using some words that you created in Activity B(2). Or, write a little poem using those words. You can include a drawing or a sketch if you like.

2. Get creative! Write a story or a poem about how a bad octopus grows another arm or leg when it behaves cruelly towards another sea creature, or someone like this naughty octopus in the Comics section of Sunday Star.