Wednesday 

Peculiar Pets is about to take your classroom on an adventure that’s creative, exciting and lets imaginations run wild!

What could your Peculiar Pet be? An acrobatic bunny? A tech savvy puppy? A vegan crocodile? A giraffe that likes to race? A superhero cat?

You can create animal mash-ups, be inspired by your perfect pet or make your own awesome animal to write your poem about. Watch the video below as an introduction! 

Tips to help you plan your poem 

Ideas to inspire your pet

Tip #1

• Pupils can create their pet inspired by eyes – big eyes, one eye, multiple eyes, telescopic eyes, antenna, glasses, a monocle, goggles…
•  Pupils’ peculiar pets be inspired by what they can see. This could be in the classroom, at home, in a book, from a photo or scene…
• Go to the future, what are your visions of what a futuristic pet would be like?

Tip #2

• Pick 3 animals. These can be insects, sea creatures, pets, farm animals, wild animals or mythical beasts. e.g. snake, T-rex and chicken.
• Now you need to decide what animal parts go where; chicken head and feet, T-rex body with snake tail and tongue.
• Next, you need to think about where it lives, its diet, camouflage, what it does etc. You now have created a peculiar pet to write your poem about!

Tip #3

Animals have lots of natural superpowers...
• Invisibility
• Flying
• Super speed
• Breathing underwater
• Super strength

A porcupine can fire its spines, a lizard can regenerate a limb and an elephant can use its trunk as a hand and straw! What special powers will your animal have? 

Thursday

Now it is time to write your poem! Before you begin, watch the three videos below - see if you can pick out some techniques the poets are using to really make their poems stand out. 

Watch the explanation video below before writing your poem - this will give you examples of great poetic techniques you can use that will give you a good chance in the competition!! Your teacher will send you a specific link to enter the competition, should you wish to. Good luck!