Year 4 Poetry inspired by weather worksheet

“Dancing stars and me” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 4 English unit “Poetry inspired by weather”, for children aged 8 to 9, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 32 to 34 of the year, 12 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Dancing stars and me

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 4 · English · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can respond to a poem in my own way and explain the picture it makes.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which word is dance with -ing added?
dancingdancesdanceing
2.
Put these parts of a story in order. Write 1, 2 and 3 in the boxes.
1. The music stops and everyone cheers.
2. Ola puts on her shoes and runs outside.
3. Ola hears music from the park.
3.
Which word means the same as glad?
happygloomygrumpy

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ben and Mia both read the title 'Night Party'. Ben pictures stars spinning like sequins. Mia pictures a quiet sea. Who is right?

A quiet beach at night with a wide sky full of stars, and no people

Watch me

Ben reads the title 'Night Party' and pictures stars spinning like sequins.

Mia pictures a quiet sea.

Both pictures come from the same title, so both are right.

Now you

1.
The poem is called 'Cosmic Disco'. What do you picture when you read the title? Write one sentence.

C Your turn6 min

Read each card or question. Each row changes one thing, so notice what is different.

An empty dance floor lit by shining lights under a dark sky

1.
Put each card in the right column. A fact about the poem or the poet goes in From the text. A picture you imagine goes in My own response.
Grace Nichols was born in Guyana.I picture stars spinning like sequins.The title joins space and dancing.The sky looks like a glitter ball to me.
From the text My own response
2.
Which sentence is a metaphor?
The stars move across the sky.The stars are silver sequins on the dark cloth.The stars are very far away.
3.
Read the title again. Point to the weather on the scale that matches how you feel. Write a feeling word for it.
4.
Write one metaphor about the night sky. Say that something in the sky IS something else.

Say it out loud: How did you know which kind of sentence you were reading? What was the clue?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Two empty chairs by a window looking out at a night sky

Kit says: “There is only one right answer to a poem, so when two friends disagree, one of them must be wrong.”

1.
Who is right? Read the three answers and choose the best one.
Kit is right, because a poem has only one meaning.Both can be right, because readers respond differently.Neither can be right, because poems have no meaning.

E Think deeper3 min

Two mugs on a table next to an open window with a night sky

1.
Write two responses to the title 'Cosmic Disco' that are different from each other. Say why both can be right.

How did it feel?

Think about how it felt to picture the poem in your own way. Is there one right feeling? Talk about it with your grown-up.

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Dancing stars and me · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. dancing If they choose dances, they only added s. If they choose danceing, they kept the e. Say: drop the e, then add -ing.

2. 1 Ola hears music from the park. · 2 Ola puts on her shoes and runs outside. · 3 The music stops and everyone cheers. If the order is muddled, the child may be reading from the end. Ask: what happened first, before anyone ran outside?

3. happy If they choose gloomy or grumpy, they are picking a sad word. Point to the sun on the scale and ask which word goes with it.

B

1. Look for: A sentence that describes a picture of space, stars, the sea or dancing, in the child's own words.

C

1. From the text: Grace Nichols was born in Guyana., The title joins space and dancing. · My own response: I picture stars spinning like sequins., The sky looks like a glitter ball to me. If a picture card is in 'From the text', ask: is this a fact anyone can check, or did the reader imagine it?

2. The stars are silver sequins on the dark cloth. If they choose 'The stars move across the sky.', that is a plain statement with no comparison. Ask: is one thing being called another thing?

3. Look for: One feeling word, such as amazed, calm or excited, that the child chooses for their own response.

4. Look for: A sentence where something in the night sky is said to be something else, such as a moon that is a silver drum. If the sentence says the sky looks like something, check the word 'is'. A metaphor says it IS something else, with no 'like' or 'as'.

D

1. Both can be right, because readers respond differently. If they choose Kit, they think a poem has one meaning. Ask: what did the poem make you picture, and did your friend picture something different?

E

1. Look for: Two different personal responses to the title, plus a reason that both can be right, such as different pictures or feelings.

Words to use

Say“What did you picture first? Tell me your picture, and I will tell you mine. Both can be right.”

Instead of“That is not what the poem means. Look for the right answer in the book.”

After the sheet

Step outside at dusk and each of you describes one thing you see in the sky, in your own words. Swap, and say why you are both right.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

11 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Metaphors, similes and more(with a plan)
Performing with pace and voice(with a plan)
Ideas from a windy poem(with a plan)
Wild or gentle wind(with a plan)
Poem questions and pictures(with a plan)
Counting beats in snow(with a plan)
Rain words to collect(with a plan)
Rain poem with rhymes(with a plan)
Heat words toolkit(with a plan)
Counting heat syllables(with a plan)
Publishing your poem(with a plan)

Every Year 4 English worksheet

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