Here are some suggestions to help get your students writing poems based around the theme of the future.

Firstly, you could begin by brainstorming topics related to the future through acrostic poems or pictures. Ask your students to imagine they're living in the year 2100. What's life like? What can they see around them? How far has space and technology advanced?

Example poem:

• You could use either of the poems below as a model for your students:
  

  When I look into the future There are robots There are aliens There are saucers in the sky But there aren't any birds.

  When I look into the future There's a memory stick in my head There's a tracking device under my feet There's a monitor behind my eyes But there isn't a computer.

  
  Example structure:
  
  When I look into the future
  There 's/are…
  There 's/are...
  There 's/are…
  But there isn't/aren't any …

• On a more personal note, the future could be explored through the senses. You could use this example as a model to elicit ideas from your students. Play some relaxing background music and ask them to close their eyes and imagine the sensations as they think of different words.
  
  Example:
  
  My / The future is… (yellow)
  It tastes like… (pasta)
  It smells like… (a lemon)
  It sounds like… (a mandolin)
  It feels like… (a cat)
  It looks like… (the sunrise)

• Ask your child/students to complete the sentences below to generate ideas for a poem about their own future dreams. Here are two possible structures for their poems:
  
  In my future life
  I might …
  I could…
  I may…..
  But I'll definitely…
  
  In my future life
  I'd like to be …
  I'd like to...
  And…
  Then…
  Please…
  
  Here's a poem on a lighter note as an example of what they could produce.
  

You can also get your students to join a poetry competition for Younger learners at British Council LearnEnglish Kids

Carolyne Ardron, British Council, Portugal

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