| Warm-Up Activities
  
    Students work in pairs or a small group.  Each group receives a 
      limerick that has been cut into strips (along with its accompanying 
      illustration if there is one).   They then put the strips of paper into what they 
      think might be the correct order.  Instructions
    
         Across the top of a blank sheet of paper, each student writes 5-6  
        places s/he's lived or visited.... cities, provinces/states, countries, 
        addresses, etc. 
       Choose the 2 places that are easiest to rhyme (this may take some 
        experimenting and more than one try).   Students can help each other 
        "brainstorm" rhyming words which they then write in columns underneath 
        the place names.   This can be done using only the last syllable of the name.
 Example:
 Beijing:  bring, fling, king, Ming, opening, ring, sing, sling, sting, 
      thing ...
      Using one or both of the templates, students write limericks by 
        filling in the blanks with their own rhyming words.  Use past tense. 
        
        Example: There once was a        man       from       Beijing         .
 All his life he hoped to              be  King         .
 So he put on a crown,
 Which quickly fell down.
 That small silly man from         Beijing.
  
            Template   A:There once was a ______________ from __________________.
 All the while s/he hoped _______________________________.
 So s/he _______________________________.
 And _________________________________.
 That ___________________ from ___________________.
 
 Template  B:
 I once met a _________________  from ___________________.
 Every day s/he _______________________________________.
 But whenever s/he ______________________.
 The _________________________________.
 That strange  ___________________ from ___________________.
 Follow-Up Activities
    Students' work can be compiled into a class anthology or wall display for reading,
      autographing, souvenirs, and so on. 
Students can illustrate poems with hand-drawn or computer-generated images.  |