Reading – performance poetry!

Friday 05 July 2024

Year 3 have been reading a poem recently called ‘Sky In The Pie’ by Roger McGough.

Waiter! There’s a sky in my pie,
Remove at once if you please,
You can keep your incredible sunsets
I ordered mincemeat and cheese.

I can’t stand nightingales singing
Or clouds all burnished with gold,
The whispering breeze is disturbing the peas
And making my chips go all cold.

I don’t care if the chef is an artist
Whose canvases hang in the Tate,
I want two veg and puff pastry
Not the universe heaped on my plate.

Ok I’ll try just a spoonful
I suppose I’ve got nothing to loose…
Mmm the colours quite tickle the pallet
With a blend of delicate hues.

The sun has a custardy flavour
And the clouds are as light as air,
The wind with a chewier texture,
With a hint of cinnamon there?

This sky is simply delicious
Why have I not tried it before?
I can chew my way through to eternity
And still have room left for more.

Having acquired a taste for the cosmos
I shall polish this sunset off soon,
I can’t wait to tuck into the night sky,
Waiter please bring me the moon.

We picked out the tricky vocabulary and discussed the meanings…

We completed a RIC based on the poem too…

Retrieval: answer is in text

Interpret: use clues and knowledge to find the answer

Choice: author’s choice of vocabulary

Finally, we spent some time preparing and performing the poem! What makes a good performance?

Some of us even memorised the poem! Here’s just a couple of performances.

Help at home by performing this different poem by Roger McGough:

Sound collector poem