New
New
Year 2

Reading and responding to 'Home Time' by Rachel Rooney

I can give a personal response to the poem and read it aloud.

New
New
Year 2

Reading and responding to 'Home Time' by Rachel Rooney

I can give a personal response to the poem and read it aloud.

warning

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Home Time is a poem about the end of the school day.
  2. Home Time is a poem written from the perspective of the classroom clock.
  3. Home Time is a poem that uses personification.
  4. Personification and perspective can be an imaginitive way to create humour.

Keywords

  • Perspective - the point of view or position from which the poet writes

  • Personification - a way of describing a non-living thing as if it acts or feels like a human

Common misconception

Pupils may think that a poem cannot be written from the perspective of an object that isn't alive.

Teach pupils that personification is a fun and imaginative poetic technique to know and use.

You may wish to play a fun game where you speak to the class as if you are an object in class and they have to guess which object you are.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You need a copy of the poem ‘Home Time’ in the 2014 Frances Lincoln Children's Books edition of ‘Life as a Goldfish’ written by Rachel Rooney for this lesson.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

Loading...

6 Questions

Q1.
True or false? A team is a group of people gathered together to watch or listen to a performance.
Correct Answer: false, False
Q2.
When being a member of an audience, it is important that you do which of these?
Correct answer: Be quiet when the performance starts.
Cheer loudly while people are speaking.
Correct answer: Be respectful and clap at the end.
Q3.
True or false? Performance in poetry refers to the act of presenting or reciting a poem in front of an audience.
Correct Answer: True, true
Q4.
What type of poem is 'The Morning Rush' by John Foster?
a scary poem
Correct answer: a humorous poem
a sad poem
Q5.
True or false? Volume refers to the loudness or softness of the voice when speaking or reading a poem.
Correct Answer: true, True
Q6.
True or false? A loud volume could show excitement or amazement.
Correct Answer: true, True

6 Questions

Q1.
Rachel Rooney was born in ...
Luton.
Correct answer: London.
Liverpool.
Q2.
Rachel Rooney is known for writing imaginative poetry for ...
adults.
Correct answer: children.
teachers.
Q3.
'Home Time' is a poem written from the perspective of which object?
a teacher's desk
Correct answer: a classroom clock
a playground climbing frame
Q4.
Which word from the poem tells us that the clock is angry with a child?
Correct answer: "disgrace"
"digital"
"relief"
Q5.
What is the clock 'relieved' about in the poem?
that the children have arrived on time
that the teacher is there
Correct answer: that the school day is over
Q6.
Which word is repeated at the end of the poem to show that it is now quiet and that time is continuing?
Correct answer: "ticking"
"glueing"
"sticking"