We talked about what ‘a poet’ and what ‘an artist’ is and learned about Maya Angelou and Jean Michel Basquiat.

‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’ is a poem written by the great Maya Angelou. The paintings in this book are by the iconic artist Jean Michel Basquiat. I have been using this work for a number of years to talk with children about fear, worries and what can help us to have courage when we need it. We talk about poetry – what poetry is, how it can be used to express ourselves. We explore rhythm, language, performance and the children’s own ways of expressing thoughts and ideas creatively through such means.

We learned parts of the poem and children added their own words and ideas. Children got really interested in the artwork and we talked about Basquiat’s paintings.