Students at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School were treated to a poetry masterclass by Australian champion bush poets Melanie Hall and Suzie Carcary on Thursday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The pair, who are from Lightening Ridge, are on a whirlwind tour of Orange primary schools to get students interested in poetry ahead of next year’s Banjo Paterson poetry festival.
The visit was organised by the Rotary Club of Orange, and will cover more than 400 students in the region.
St Mary’s students had a workshop which dealt with poem structure, had students act out poems, like Banjo Paterson’s The Man from Ironbark, and come up with ideas for poems.
One brainstorming method involved students throwing random words together, to get topics such as “astronaut Bill crazily digging excited fish”.
Ms Hall and Ms Carcary prompted students to ask “why is Bill digging fish? Why are the fish excited? How did Bill become an astronaut?” to get ideas.
Ms Hall said the pair loved their jobs.
“We really enjoy working with kids,” she said.
“It’s all about giving kids the means to express themselves.”
Year six teacher Sally Curran said the workshops were a good “springboard” to get students interested in poetry.
“They’ve really enjoyed it.”
“It’s been great to have kids watch that poetry be performed, but also to write their own,” she said.
“We’ve been writing ballards and limericks and they’ve really enjoyed doing that, but they’ve been able to see it performed and have now learnt about voice changes and include actions.”
Students have been studying poetry for the past week and a half, and Mrs Curran said the workshop was a “great culmination”.
“They’re really engaged and really involved because the workshops are a fun way of presenting poetry,” she said.
The Orange schools still to receive visits include Kinross Wolaroi prep on Friday October 20, and again on October 27, while Canobolas primary school will be visited on Friday.
Bletchington Primary School was visited on Tuesday, while Spring Terrace Public School’s workshop was on Wednesday.