🍟 Food Poems KS2: Funny, Creative & Performance Ideas ✍️
🌟 Why Try Food Poems in KS2?
Food is a brilliant topic for poetry because every child has an opinion on it! From favourite treats to hated vegetables, food inspires laughter, exaggeration, and lively descriptions.
Writing food poems KS2 helps children to:
-
Build rich vocabulary around taste, smell, and texture 🍓
-
Experiment with rhyme, rhythm, and repetition ✍️
-
Perform silly, memorable verses in front of an audience 🎭
-
Link poetry with PSHE themes like healthy eating 🥦
👉 In my Poetry Days, food poems are always a highlight. I perform some of my funniest food poems in assembly — including Chips and The Dinner Lady Dance — before leading workshops where children write their own verses. By the end of the day, classes are performing their poems with actions, voices, and plenty of laughter.
📅 You can book me for:
-
In-person Poetry Days in schools across the UK
-
Online Poetry Workshops for flexible, affordable access that let you bring a live poet into your classroom without travel costs
➡ Find out more here: Poets in Schools – Ian Bland
📝 Example Food Poems KS2
Here are some of my own food-themed poems that children love performing and writing from.
1. Dad Can’t Cook!
My dad sings like a pop star
And he can speak in French and Dutch,
He can dig and weed the garden
Though he doesn’t do it much,
He can make himself go cross-eyed,
Touch his nose with the tip of his tongue,
But when he tries to cook a meal
It goes very, very wrong!
My dad can juggle oranges
And can climb and swing through trees,
He can jump across our garden pond
With most impressive ease,
He can help me with my homework
When I’m well and truly stuck,
But don’t let him cook dinner because
DAD CAN’T COOK!
💡 Activity idea: Pupils write their own “(Person) can’t (do something)” poems — Mum can’t dance, My brother can’t sing. Funny exaggeration works best.
2. Ketchup I Love You!
Ketchup I love you
You’re my new best mate
I like how you dawdle
Then plop on the plate
Ketchup I love you
Although you’re a sin
The sound as I squeeze you
Makes all of us grin
Ketchup I love you
You’re my foodie dream
Not like your sad bitter friend
Salad Cream
Ketchup I love you
All sugary and red
Please keep this a secret
But I eat you in bed…
💡 Activity idea: Children pick their favourite (or least favourite!) food and write an ode to it. Great for performance as a silly “love poem.”
👉 Related blog: Valentine’s Day Poems KS2 – more fun “love” poetry ideas.
3. Chips
Chips all straight
Chips all wavy
Chips and chips and chips and gravy (rep)
Chips with ketchup
Chips with pizza
Chips in lessons with your teacher
Chips with mackerel
Chips with tuna
Chips with spicy chicken bhuna
Chips up your nose
Chips on your head
Chips while sleeping in your bed
Chips in the shower
Chips in your bath
Chips instead of doing maths
Chips all straight
Chips all wavy
Chips and chips and chips and gravy (rep)
Chips in the sun
Chips in the rain
Chips with glasses of champagne
Chips in trousers
Chips in pyjamas
Chips with bunches of bananas
Chips on a bike
Chips on a horse
Chips with lots of curry sauce
Chips with goulash
Chips with soups
Chips with bags of Hoola Hoops
Chips all straight
Chips all wavy
Chips and chips and chips and gravy (rep)
Chips with your gran
Chips with grandpa
Chips with lots of oompah loompahs
Chips on your lips
Chips on your chin
Chip you get out from the bin
Chips on plates
Chips on trays
Chips you have with mayonnaise
Chips are frying
Chips are cooking
Chips you pinch when no one’s looking
Chips all straight
Chips all wavy
Chips and chips and chips and gravy (rep)
Chips you fry
Chips you boil
Chips you dip in olive oil
Chips that are short
Chips that are long
Chips that burn you on your tongue
Chips from Rome
Chips from Pisa
Chips you get out of the freezer
Chips on the stairs
Chips in a lift
Chips you eat with Taylor Swift!
Chips all straight
Chips all wavy
Chips and chips and chips and gravy (rep)
💡 Activity idea: Children can write their own silly food list poems. Encourage them to be as outrageous as possible (chips with bananas, pizza in pyjamas). Perfect for group choral reading.
👉 Related blog: Funny School Poems KS2 – more humorous verses that children love to perform.
4. The Dinner Lady Dance
(Chorus)
Eat your dinner your last chance!
Do the dinner lady dance!
Eat your dinner your last chance!
Do the dinner lady dance!
Gets so angry in a crowd
Blows her whistle really loud
Always shouting in the hall
Stops you crying when you fall
Tells you off for telling lies
Hands on hips and angry eyes!
(Chorus)
Loves to jump in when you fight
Wears a coat that far too tight
Starts to panic in the rain
Dinner ladies they’re insane
Play a game and they will spoil it
Won’t let you go to the toilet!
(Chorus)
Keeps you waiting all the while
Makes you walk in single file
Always grumps and always pouts
Makes you eat your Brussel sprouts
Cleverest people in a way
They only work one hour a day!
(Chorus)
Makes you eat that fatty mince
Curly hair with purple rinse
Makes you stand up on the wall
Confiscates the playground ball
Think they’re nice then think again
They scared away the dinner men!
(Chorus)
💡 Activity idea: Perform this as a whole-class call-and-response poem with actions. Great for assemblies!
👉 Read the full blog: The Dinner Lady Dance Poem KS2 – includes performance ideas and the story behind the poem.
🎉 Extra Food Poetry Ideas
-
Recipe Poems – Pupils write a recipe for “The Perfect Pizza” or “Friendship Soup.” Great link to PSHE.
-
Menu Poems – Create a silly school dinner menu in poem form (Slime Soup, Worm Pie, Custard with Toenails).
-
Food Personification – Imagine chips talking back, or ketchup singing a love song.
👉 Related blog: Friendship Poems KS2 – great for “recipe for friendship” activities.
👩🏫 Teacher Pedagogy Notes
-
Curriculum links: English (poetic forms, humour), PSHE (healthy eating, friendship), Drama (performance).
-
Differentiation: List poems and odes are simple for everyone to try; challenge more confident writers with recipe or personification poems.
-
Engagement: Every child has an opinion on food — it’s an instant hook for reluctant writers.
🌟 Final Thought
Food poems KS2 are fun, silly, and full of energy. Whether children are praising ketchup, complaining about sprouts, or chanting about chips, food is the perfect theme for engaging poetry writing and performance.
🎤 Want to see food poems performed live?
For over 25 years, I’ve been inspiring children to love poetry through laughter, rhythm, and performance. In a Poetry Day, I:
-
Perform high-energy poems (like The Dinner Lady Dance and Chips) in assembly 🎭
-
Lead writing workshops where children create their own food poems ✍️
-
End the day with group performances that make every child feel proud 🌟
📅 You can book me for:
-
In-person Poetry Days anywhere in the UK
-
Online Poetry Workshops for flexible, affordable access — perfect if travel is tricky or you’d like to involve multiple classes at once
👉 Dates around World Book Day and National Poetry Day fill quickly, so book early.
Find out more here ➡ Poets in Schools – Ian Bland
