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Children's Poetry Prize

Every year the Jewish Book Council organises a Jewish junior school poetry competition in the run up to Jewish Book Week.

Prizes are awarded in two categories: for those in school years 3-4, and those in years 5-6. The first prize in each category is a £40 book token, and there will also be two prizes of £20 book tokens for the runners-up in each category.

£50 book tokens will be awarded to schools that send in over 50 entries.

The competition will be judged by a panel including top children's authors and some other experts in the field. In 2008, the judges will include Elaine Sacks (Chair) children’s author Andy Stanton and poet Jacqueline Saphra.

Here are some tips for entrants from Jacqueline Saphra:

*Look around you and pay attention to what you see and how it makes you feel. Listen to the voices in your head.

* When you start writing your poem, don’t be afraid of being silly or weird -often the craziest thoughts are the most interesting.

* Remember to read your poem out loud to yourself as you’re going along. The way a poem sounds is just as important as the meaning of the words.

The winners will be announced at Jewish Book Week by Caroline Lawrence on Sunday 24 February at 3.15 pm. They will receive their prizes at the traditional tea party given by Elaine Sacks.

2007 Winning Poets

The Poets

Years 3-4:

First Prize, Moshe Waxman, Broughton Jewish Primary School

Second Prize, Emily Kenton, Wolfson Hillel

Joint 3rd prize, Natalie Deller, Naima JPS and Sarah Carroll

Broughton Jewish Primary School

Years 5-6:

First Prize, Ella Grodzinski, Kerem School

Second Prize, Arielle Domb, Independent entry

Joint Third Prize, Tamar Haschel, Menorah Foundation and Gabriel Segall, Hertsmere

The Poems

First Prize

Moshe Waxman

Broughton Jewish Primary School

The Wild Colours

Blue is

A blue bell ringing to the Sun

Yellow is

An autumn leaf

Red catches

A bull eye with rage

Green grass

Is a cow’s prey

Orange is a mighty tiger

That can not resist a deer

White is the shivering

Snow drop

Second Prize

Emily Kenton

Wolfson Hillel

The Colours in my room

My bed is made of thick brown wood

With covers in pink, purple and wite

My bedside table is also brown wood

With my books and purple bedside light.

I have a long white bookshelf

With some pictures, teddies and a purple clock.

So many books of different colours,

And my secret diary with a silver lock.

My big white desk is in the corner

With my green desk chair which can spin

I have a pink CD music player

And a silver rack to put my CD’s in.

I’ve got a closet on one wall

Full of outfits in purple, blue and green

Along with socks, shoes and tops

There are pyjamas in yellow and tangerine

So long my friends

The poem is over so

Toodledo and I will see you later

Joint 3rd prize

Natalie Deller

Naima JPS

Blue is the Colour of….

Blue is the colour of water splashing around…

Blue tastes like cold ice feeling its way through me…

Blue is the colour of Tali’s eyes…

Blue is the sky in a sunset and the colour of rain drops.

Sarah Carroll

Broughton Jewish Primary School

Feelings

When I feel happy it’s like a

yellow lemon

And when I feel angry it’s like

dum blue

And now I’m lonely it’s blowing red.

And

Just

Forgot

Sad, sad is like dark black like

Night sky

Years 5-6

First Prize

Ella Grodzinski

Kerem School

Colours

What was he thinking

When he created the world,

And the blue of the sky and the sea.

What went through his mind

When he fashioned the flowers

And the blue of the sky and the sea

Did he smile when he made

The little white lamb,

Or the blue of the sky and the sea.

How could he think of,

The solid black of the night,

Or the blue of the sky and the sea

What power could shape,

The colours of the earth,

And the blue of the sky and the sea

Second Prize

Arielle Domb

Independent entry

Noah’s Ark

Noah stares into the day

Only rain-an endless grey,

Colours gone, locked under sea,

Oceans forming gradually,

Leaden skies hover above

Only G-d will send the dove

Up so high it’s his delight

Reaches out, the dove’s in sight.

Crimson Hawks soar above,

Our g-d sent colour with love,

Lavender sparkles yellow lights

Opal fires, shimmer bright,

Under the heavens, vivid gleam

Rainbow promise fills our dream.

Joint Third Prize

Tamar Haschel

Menorah Foundation

The world is multicoloured

I could paint the whole world yellow

I could paint the whole world red

But red is a colour of blood and danger

So I might paint it pure white instead.

Perhaps I will paint the world purple

There’s a chance of me painting it blue

With all the various shades that there are

I’ll paint the sea and sky too.

I could paint the whole world orange

I could paint it the colour peach

It’s such a difficult decision

So I’ll use a bit of each.

The entire world is like a canvas

Each colour adds its own spice

It was really fun painting it

Next time I will need more advice

Joint Third Prize

Gabriel Segall

Hertsmere

Surfer on the Sea

On the ocean blue,

The waves come crashing to the shore.

The white seagulls hovering for fish,

And wanting more.

The little boy building golden sandcastles,

On the windy beach.

The climber stretches for a dark grey rock,

Just out of reach.

The surfer glides on white powered waves,

On his board so shiny and red.

Blue dolphins follow him, oh so brave,

While a grey shark swims ahead.

2006 Winning Poets:

Years 3-4

First Prize: Sam Rabin (Moriah Jewish Day School, Pinner) ‘The Mole’

Second Prize: Molly Kay (King David Junior School, Manchester) ‘Autumn is Here’

Third Prize: Francesca Hilton (King David Junior School, Manchester) ‘Autumn Poem’

Years 5-6

First Prize: Louisa Sober (Moriah Jewish Day School, Pinner) ‘Nature’

Second Prize: Ariel Tamman (Kerem School, London) ‘Nature’

Joint Third Prize:

Libby Viner (Moriah Jewish Day School, Pinner) ‘I am the Earth’

Yocheved Gehler (Menorah Primary School, London) ‘My Pets.’

The Poems…..

The Mole

Sam Rabin

Down in his burrow,

The mole lurks,

It turns summer

And he pokes his

Head out of the burrow

He stops, he hears the

Steps of the troubling dog

He fits his head back in, OUCH!

An insane boy treads on his burrow,

He pokes his head out again.

He steps outside and wanders

Like a lost soldier, he spies

On the juicy worm,

CRUNCH! One less

Worm in the world.

Suddenly he hears it,

The over-enthusiastic

Girl “Ma, Ma, look at that

Mole, isn’t he cute!”

He hides,

She’s gone,

He hears the,

Wailing owl,

He crawls,

Back to the burrow,

Steps inside.

All in a day’s work for a mole!

Autumn is Here

Molly Kay

Big and little leaves whirling around.

Going everywhere.

Not making a sound.

There’s so many colours like red, orange and brown.

And when they fall off the trees.

They twist and turn and go all the way down.

The days get shorter and the nights get long.

And when you hear the wind whistling.

It’s like a song.

In Autumn it gets colder.

The trees shed their leaves

And the wind becomes bolder.

Autumn is here.

And

I am another year older.

My Autumn Poem

Francesca Hilton

Autumn comes

Dull and dark

Howling winds pull apart

The lovely trees of summer.

Hovering like the seagulls

They zig zag down

Red, Orange

And Golden brown.

Multi coloured rain drops,

Fall from grey skies They dance and twirl

Before your eyes.

BANG! ZOOM! HISS! AND BOOM!
Fire works flash past your bedroom

The smell of burning fills the air

Hold a sparkler if you dare.

After autumn winds

Winter snow

Then spring awakens

And flowers grow.

Nature

Louise Sober

It’s not in my dog’s nature

To eat the pencil,

It’s not in my cat’s nature

To chase the dog,

It’s not in my fish’s nature

To do what I say,

It’s not in my rabbit’s nature

To swing on the light,

BUT they do it anyway.

Nature

Ariel Tamman

My teacher told me write a poem

About nature I thought disability My teacher thought not because it was

Not linked with nature I thought

Creation because that’s where nature

began. My teacher thought not

because too many others had done

it. I thought hard. What is nature? I

thought Nature is the crystal

mountains over looking the sky. I

thought nature is the blushing

blossom of the cherry tree. I thought

nature is the white rapid horses of

the sea rushing towards the sway

beach. My teacher said I write it

down, so I wrote about nature.

I Am The Earth

Libby Viner

I am the earth

With green leaves as my eyes,

I am the earth

With a tree as my nose.

I am the earth

With long roads as my hair,

I am earth

With a river as my lips

I am the earth

With countries as my teeth,

I am the earth

With sky as my body.

I am the earth

Who looks after you,

I am the earth

So please can you treat me well?

My Pets

Yocheved Gehler

There are so many creatures that I like to meet

Some of them are scary and some of them are sweet

My family never know what I’ll bring into the house

One day it’s a hippo, the next could be a mouse

Upstairs in my mother’s bedroom she found an armadillo

Fast asleep and snoring loudly on her silky pillow

My sister woke one day to find a very grumpy llama

She screamed so much it took us all, half a day to calm her

I went into the kitchen to make my dad some tea

I’m sure he doesn’t mind to have to share it with my flea

When my granny came to stay I took her woolly scarf

I thought it would look so cute upon my pet giraffe

My baby sister went to play with her very best toy

Only to find that my tarantula had had a little boy

All in all, it is really quite sad

That my interest in animals drives everyone else mad.