Welsh Poetry As Reading Material

Welsh Poetry as Reading Material

Rhymes, be they songs or poems, are an excellent way to help children acquire new language in an enjoyable way.

Teulu Mawr is about a family and their pets living in a house so it supports the teaching of patternseg‘Blerwytti’nbyw?’ ‘Dwi’nbywyn/ mewn...’ ‘Mae Jacynbywyn/mewn...’ ‘Mae brawd/ chwaer/ ci/ cath/ bydjigydafi’ and their associated themes egfamily, pets and homes.

Gwyn fel yr eirais all about colours expressed as similes. It supports the teaching of basic colour recognition and vocabulary‘Pa liwydyhwn?’

Dwy Ran i’rCorffis nicely themed to work withtopics involving the body or doctor’s surgery or even PE. It is great fun to perform and works well as part of a foundation phase PE warm-up (chant and actions).

Mutations.We do not teach the rules of mutations in the primary phase at present but we believe that children need to become accustomed to seeing and hearing them and to accept that the first letter of a word is not a reliable clue when reading in Welsh.

All three poemscontain familiar language patterns and are very easy to learn off by heart. Poetry recitation still has a strong following in Welsh culture. It is an art form that is contested very strongly, by groups and individuals, in every eisteddfod. Therefore teaching children how to recite (llefaru) is good for CwriciwlwmCymraeg also.

As you work on these poems as reading exercises, most pupils will learn them off by heart, so taking that a tiny step further into performance with actions gives the units a strongly artistic dimension.

If you do not do so already, consider using items like this, that are part of your Welsh planning, for school Eisteddfod performance.