🛝 Playground Poems KS2 | Clapping, Chanting & Marching Rhymes for the Classroom
The playground is alive with rhythm — clapping games, chanting rhymes, marching songs, and arguments shouted across the football pitch! That makes it the perfect inspiration for KS2 poetry.
In this post, you’ll find playground-style poems for KS2 that capture the fun, rhythm, and noise of breaktime, plus classroom activities to help your pupils create their own.
👉 In my Poetry Days in primary schools across the UK I work hard to get the children excited about writing and performing their own poems. I visit over 100 schools every year and I’d love to work with your children and teachers.
📅 You can book me for:
-
In-person Poetry Days across the UK
-
Online Poetry Workshops (affordable and flexible)
➡ Secure your date here: Poets in Schools – Ian Bland
👏 Clapping Poem: In the Playground
Clap, clap,
Tap, tap,
Two steps forward,
Then step back.
Clap, clap,
Turn around,
Stamp your feet,
And touch the ground.
Clap, clap,
Shout “Hooray!”
That’s the end
Of our school day!
✍️ Activity Idea: Clap & Create
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Teach pupils this poem as a clapping rhythm.
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Challenge them to invent their own clapping chants in pairs or groups.
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Link to syllables in English lessons (one clap = one beat).
👉 Related blog: Music and Rhythm Poems KS2
🚶 Marching Poem: Playtime Parade
Left, right,
March in time,
Down the playground
In a line.
Step, step,
Don’t be slow,
Where the skipping
Children go.
Left, right,
Swing your knees,
Marching’s easy
As you please!
✍️ Activity Idea: Playground Parades
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Pupils march around the classroom/playground chanting the poem in rhythm.
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Invite them to write extra verses about where their “playtime parade” goes.
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Brilliant for performance poetry and for linking with PE/music.
👉 Related blog: Performance Poetry KS2
📣 Chanting Poem: The Playground Chant
We want football!
We want play!
We want sunshine
Every day!
No more queues,
No more rules,
We want freedom
In our schools!
✍️ Activity Idea: Write Your Own Playground Chant
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Discuss with the class: “What do children always shout in the playground?”
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Groups write their own short chants in pairs of rhyming couplets.
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Perform as a call-and-response: one group chants, the rest respond.
👉 Related blog: Riddle Poems KS2 (call-and-response structure works well).
🙈 Relatable Poem: Playground Arguments
“It’s in!”
“It’s out!”
“No goal!”
“I shout.”
“My ball!”
“Not yours!”
“I quit!”
“Big snores!”
“You cheat!”
“No way!”
“I won!”
“No, I say!”
✍️ Activity Idea: Playground Drama
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Divide the class into two groups, each taking one side of the argument.
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Add claps, stamps, or sound effects.
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Challenge pupils to create their own “argument poems” about playground disputes (skipping ropes, swings, football).
👉 Related blog: Anti-Bullying Poems KS2
📋 Playground List Poem
Ask children to make a list of everything they see, hear, and do in the playground. For example:
Skipping ropes slapping on the ground,
Laughter echoing off the wall,
Trainers squeaking on the tarmac,
The ice cream van bell at home time.
✍️ Activity Idea: Sensory Playground Lists
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Pupils begin each line with “In the playground I…”
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Encourage sound words (onomatopoeia: thud, whizz, crash).
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Perform with actions — stamping, clapping, laughing.
👉 Related blog: Poetry Writing Starters KS2
🎯 Why Playground Poems Work in KS2
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Relatable: every child knows the playground.
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Rhythmic: clapping, chanting, marching = natural poetry.
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Flexible: can be funny, noisy, or thoughtful.
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Great for PSHE links (friendship, fairness, peace).
👉 In my Poetry Days in primary schools across the UK I work hard to get the children excited about writing and performing their own poems. I visit over 100 schools every year and I’d love to work with your children and teachers.
📅 You can book me for:
-
In-person Poetry Days across the UK
-
Online Poetry Workshops (affordable and flexible)
➡ Secure your date here: Poets in Schools – Ian Bland
