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Lesson 6 of 5
  • Year 5

Exploring themes of love in 'You Are' and 'Mum Says She Loves Me'

I can read and reflect on poetry about love.

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Lesson 6 of 5
New
New
  • Year 5

Exploring themes of love in 'You Are' and 'Mum Says She Loves Me'

I can read and reflect on poetry about love.

Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to

Copyrights help

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. ‘You Are’ and ‘Mum Says She Loves Me’ are both poems written by Valerie Bloom.
  2. Metaphors are used in the poem ‘You Are’; they are a way of comparing something by saying that it is something else.
  3. ‘Mum Says She Loves Me’ is a poem that offers a different perspective on the theme of love.
  4. One way we can reflect on a poem and its themes is to think about our own personal response to it.

Keywords

  • Theme - a big idea, topic or message that recurs within a text

  • Imagery - the use of language to create a mental picture or sensory experience for the reader or listener

  • Metaphor - a way of describing and comparing something by saying that it is something else

Common misconception

Pupils may initially think that 'Mum Says She Loves Me' is a poem which conveys a negative emotion.

'Mum Says She Loves Me' depicts love in a different family structure. This does not mean that the love is any less than the love depicted in 'You Are'.


To help you plan your year 5 English lesson on: Exploring themes of love in 'You Are' and 'Mum Says She Loves Me', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

You may wish to have some visuals for pupils to annotate to support them during their metaphor creation in Task A.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You need a copy of the 2021 Otter Barry edition of ‘Stars with Flaming Tails’ written by Valerie Bloom, illustrated by Ken Wilson Max for this lesson.

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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