ABSTRACT
The first word that many people – children and adults – associate with poetry is ‘rhyme’. For children to become confident and competent writers in rhythm and rhyme, they need to practise their rhyming and rhythmical skills in and out of the context of poetry. This chapter concentrates on this area, and provides a range of workshops. One basic rule of rhythm is that readers shouldn’t just include words to help the rhythm flow. The chapter presents a number of activities in which children can focus on rhythm in order that they can appreciate how it works in poetry. To write rhyming poetry young writers need to have a sound appreciation of poetic rhythm as well as a wide vocabulary to produce end-of-line rhymes as well as the patience to rework lines so that the rhythms and rhymes are working well.
