Twas the Night Before Christmas – Lower KS2 Poems: Festive Writing Resources Pack

Keep pupils in Year 3 and year 4 engaged and motivated to write right up until Christmas using our writing pack based on the classic poem ‘Twas the Night before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore.

Pupils will read and perform the poem, exploring new vocabulary and the author’s use of language before writing additional stanzas for the poem in a similar style. Finally, pupils will write their own short poems about Christmas morning, based on the classic poem by Clement Clarke Moore.

This resource pack should be completed over several sessions and could be used as a writing unit to be used within English lessons.

What is included in this KS2 Poems resource pack?

• Model text: ‘Twas The Night before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore – A classic poem to inspire writing
• Vocabulary cards – for sorting and display
• Comprehension questions – question cards to prompt group discussion about the poem
• Idea cards – inspiring prompts for pupils to write additional stanzas for the poem
• Poetry planning sheet – a worksheet for pupils to plan their own short poems about Christmas morning
• PowerPoint presentation – to guide teachers and pupils through the tasks
• Themed writing paper – attractive sheets of lined paper for pupils to use for writing, ideal for display
• Teacher’s notes – guidance on how to use the resource is given, divided into a series of six lessons; additional activities are also suggested

National Curriculum English programme of study links

Reading

• Pupils should listen to and discuss a range of … poetry
• Pupils should prepare poems to read aloud and perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action
• Pupils should recognise some different forms of poetry

Writing

• Pupils should plan their writing by discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar
• Pupils should be taught to draft and write by composing sentences orally, progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary
• Pupils should be taught to draft and write by organising paragraphs around a theme
• Pupils should read aloud their own writing, to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that the meaning is clear

This resource is part of the Calendar Resources collection.
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• Model text: ‘Twas The Night before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore – A classic poem to inspire writing
• Vocabulary cards – for sorting and display
• Comprehension questions – question cards to prompt group discussion about the poem
• Idea cards – inspiring prompts for pupils to write additional stanzas for the poem
• Poetry planning sheet – a worksheet for pupils to plan their own short poems about Christmas morning
• PowerPoint presentation – to guide teachers and pupils through the tasks
• Themed writing paper – attractive sheets of lined paper for pupils to use for writing, ideal for display
• Teacher's notes - guidance on how to use the resource is given, divided into a series of six lessons; additional activities are also suggested