Football Poetry Fun for the World Cup! ⚽🌍
The FIFA World Cup is the perfect excuse to bring football fever into your KS2 classroom through poetry. In this blog, we’ll explore Football in the Living Room and use it to inspire a fun writing challenge — imagining football in unusual places.
👉 For another great way to capture pupils’ enthusiasm, see my blog Performance Poetry in Primary Schools.
Football in Unusual Places
One of my poems Football In The Living Room explores how playing football in the wrong place can lead to disastrous (and very funny) consequences. This idea can be taken further – imagine a football game breaking out in the most unlikely settings: space, the jungle, a shopping centre, a swimming pool, under the sea, on the moon, or even in the classroom staffroom!
Here are some short examples to inspire your children:
Float, spin, very black
Wait for aliens to attack
Ball zooms off without a trace…
Football’s great out here in space!
Freeze, shiver, very white
Ball is buried out of sight
Polar bear just scored a goal…
Football at the North Pole!
Cup in pieces on the floor
Teachers peer through broken door
Headteacher comes and starts to fume…
Football in the staffroom!
Writing Challenge ✍️
The structure of this poem is very simple. Each verse consists of four short lines with two rhyming couplets (AABB).
The challenge for your children is to:
Find fun rhymes that fit the setting.
Imagine ingenious and unusual places to play football.
Use lots of verbs – how does the ball spin, bounce, skid, crash or soar?
Think about movement and feeling – playing football on ice is very different from playing in the desert!
Children could write a whole poem set in one location, or challenge themselves to switch settings in every verse.
👉 Need more inspiration? Take a look at my Quick & Easy Poetry Starters for KS2.
Extra Fun Activities 🎉
⚽ Performance Poetry – Put the children in small groups, assign each group a verse, and let them perform it with actions, sound effects and football mimes. You could even stage a “poetry penalty shootout” where each team performs their verse and the class votes for the funniest or most imaginative.
🎨 Illustration Task – Ask the children to illustrate their poem. What would football look like under the sea? In outer space? In a castle? These pictures would look fantastic in a class poetry anthology or on a display wall.
🎤 Choral Poem Recital – Create a whole-class poem by combining verses written by different children. Then practise reading it aloud with dramatic pauses, echoes, and chants – like a football crowd!
📜 Match Commentary – Let the children write their poem as if it’s being read by a football commentator. Encourage them to exaggerate excitement: “He shoots… he scores! Oh no – the crocodile’s eaten the ball!”
🎲 Poetry Game – Give children a dice with different unusual settings on each side (space, desert, underwater, jungle, staffroom, supermarket). Roll the dice and challenge them to create a quick-fire verse in that setting!
👉 For more classroom fun, explore my Creative Classroom Challenges.
Ready-Made Framework 📑
To make life easier, I’ve prepared a Football Poem Writing Framework that will guide your class through creating their own football poems.
👉 You might also like my blog 10 Fun Poetry Activities for KS2, which includes more quick, engaging ideas.
Final Whistle 🏆
This World Cup, why not kick off your poetry teaching with something fun, lively and a little bit different? Whether your pupils are football fans or not, the creativity, rhythm and imagination of these poems will get everyone on the pitch.
👉 Want to explore more funny football poems? Check out my full collection here: Football Poems KS2 – Funny World Cup Poetry & Classroom Ideas
Best wishes,
Ian Bland
👉 To explore poems like this in your school, book me for a Poetry Day or join one of my online workshops.
➡ Poets in Schools – Ian Bland
