Here’s an open letter to my 6-year-old nephew, Bertie. I sent him a postcard from the Liangma River in Beijing with a link to this blog post written on the postcard. If he receives it, it will give him some fun themed activities he can access himself or with his class mates if his teacher thinks it might be relevant. I sent the postcard to him via his school.

This blog is part of a series on a similar theme. If you would like to read another blog post in this series, click here: A postcard from the Temple of Heaven, Beijing

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Last night, I went for an evening walk around the river near where I’m staying. I’m so glad I went because there was a light show! What was meant to be a normal evening walk turned out to be a spectacular event! Have you ever seen a video projected onto a building? Sometimes it’s done to tell a story. I was mesmerised by it all!

I particularly liked how the buildings, bridges, and trees reflected in the water. Everything looked so real and if it wasn’t for the tiny ripples in the river reminding me it was a reflection, I would have reached out to try and touch it.

Here’s a short video from my walk for you to enjoy. If your friends are interested, you could ask your teacher if you can watch it together in class:

What did you think of the video? Seeing such vibrant colours reflecting in the river inspired me to write a diamante poem. I used these two words reflection and river as my starting point as I felt the light reflecting on the river was beautiful. Here’s my poem, let me know what you think:

This is a diamante poem – it’s shaped like a diamond – and written in a special way. As I have already mentioned, in order to write it, I took two things that inspired me from my walk, the reflection and the river. With these two words, I followed a pattern to write my diamond shaped poem. Note the words in orange relate to the word reflection and the words in blue relate to the word river. Look at the poem another time, can you work out how I wrote it?

I would like to tell you how I wrote it. Let’s go through the steps with another example. I’ll keep it simple and use two naming words, winter and summer.

I think winter is usually wet. Can you think of another word to describe winter? Can you guess the missing word below? It’s how you might feel if you aren’t wearing a coat outside:

Did you guess the missing word? I was thinking of the word cold. Next, I need to think of three action words ending with -ing related to the word winter. Can you guess the words I was thinking of? Take a look below:

When I think of winter, I think of it being freezing and if it gets very cold, it might start snowing. In those conditions, I might start shivering.

In the next line, I need to think of two naming words related to winter. It could be words like snowball and snowman or snowflakes and icicles. Instead, I’ve decided to focus on clothes. Can you guess which two winter items of clothing I’m thinking of? Take a look below:

Yes, I was thinking of two important items of clothing to keep you warm, a hat and a scarf.

Next I need to look at the word summer. When I think of summer, I think of it being very dry, especially if it hasn’t rained for weeks. Can you think of another word to describe summer? Can you guess the missing word below? It’s how you might feel if the sun is very strong:

Did you guess the word? Yes, it’s the word hot. Next, I need to think of three action words ending with -ing related to the word summer. Can you guess the words I was thinking of? Take a look below:

If the sun is too strong, it will be burning. I might even be sweating. I better drink some water as the weather is sizzling.

Finally, I need to add two naming words related to summer. I’m going to keep with the same theme of clothes. Can you guess what the missing words are? Take a look below:

Now I have the complete poem! Take a look:

Would you like to try and write a poem yourself? You can choose any subjects you want but here are a few ideas to help inspire you:

• Naming word subjects:
  • Spider-Man and Iceman.
  • Roblox and Minecraft.
  • Sonic and Mario.
  • Rugby and Football.
  • Basketball and Volleyball.

• Describing words:
  • Hot – cold, fast – slow, tall – short, small – large, clean – dirty, difficult – easy, funny – serious.
  • Blue, green, yellow, red …
  • Crazy, careful, crowded, busy, wild, funny, tough, nice, famous.

• Action words ‘-ing’.
  • Eating, playing, speaking, seeing, watching, listening, shouting, running, sitting, dancing, thinking, building, laughing, learning, winning.

You don’t have to use the ideas above but they may help you. Once you have a theme, follow this pattern:

Now write your poem! It’s nice if you can use colours and maybe some drawings to bring your ideas to life. Also, try and write it in a diamond shape. It is after all, a diamante poem!

Take care and I’ll send you another postcard soon!

Uncle Oliver x

References:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamante_poem

Are you a teacher? If yes, you might be interested in these adaptable games and board games, including a language dominoes template: Games and board games