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Lesson 5 of 12
  • Year 4

Reading and responding to 'When the Wind Blows' and 'Heatwave' by John Foster

I can generate additional ideas about the wind that mirror a poem's structure.

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Lesson 5 of 12
New
New
  • Year 4

Reading and responding to 'When the Wind Blows' and 'Heatwave' by John Foster

I can generate additional ideas about the wind that mirror a poem's structure.

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

Copyrights help

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

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. ‘When the Wind Blows’ describes the impact of the wind on the environment; 'Heatwave' describes a very hot day.
  2. The poems are split into verses with different numbers of lines in each.
  3. Poems can create a positive or negative impression of something through the language choices made.
  4. Considering and understanding the poet's language helps us form an impression of their poems.
  5. We can be inspired by a poem and create a mirrored version of it.

Keywords

  • Verse - a single line or a group of lines within a poem

  • Atmosphere - the mood created in a section or whole of a text

  • Repetition - the repeated use of sounds, words, phrases or structural elements that are repeated for emphasis or for a particular effect

Common misconception

Pupils may think that every poem has to include rhyme.

Rhyme does not have to be included in each poem. Should pupils wish to include rhyme, a list of rhyming words can be generated with the whole class, in line with the positive imagery.


To help you plan your year 4 English lesson on: Reading and responding to 'When the Wind Blows' and 'Heatwave' by John Foster, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

To widen pupils' awareness and repertoire of poetry, additional poems based on the weather from the collection (such as 'Winds' and 'The Wild Wind') could be shared.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You need a copy of the poem ‘When the Wind Blows’ which is featured on page 138 in the 2007 Oxford University Press edition of ‘The Poetry Chest’ written by John Foster for this lesson.

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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