Teaching poetry to third graders …

My honorary stepdaughter, Wendy Emery, sent me this. I think it's ingenious, and it's obviously effective, as you can see from the poem that resulted. "Persinottious" is a reference to the students' teacher's name, which is Personotti (Wendy was subbing).

Poetry Lesson #1

Based on Edward Gorey’s Gashlycrumb Tinies

Have students write 3 things about themselves that are unique or funny (or both)

Pair students up alphabetically.

Have each pair create a rhyming couplet, both lines of which follow the pattern, 

A is for Alice who….. 

B is for Bartram who…..

Using each student’s own initial and name, of course.

Give examples:  H is for Harry who often falls on the floor. 

Ask for ideas and help a group come up with a couplet.  Show how to change the sentence 

around if the subject is good but the rhyme isn’t satisfactory.

As pairs come up with satisfactory rhymes, have the students help other pairs who are having 

trouble.

Have students illustrate their own sentences.

Read entirety and put together into a book, with poem and illustrations.

Can read Gashlycrumb Tinies to students if they want (and can handle a story in which something 

bad happens to everyone).

I is for Ingrid who’s as tall as the door.

Poetry Lesson #2

Can’t Stop Moving

Good if done after Lesson #1, after students have practiced creating rhymes and have a sense of 

how to do it and the power of the whole.

Students also work in pairs, but not alphabetically.

First, have students think of ways of moving – jumping, hopping, skipping, leaping, running, 

walking, dancing, twisting, reaching, stretching, bowing, bending, etc

Now students pair up.  Have each choose a movement word.  Again, make rhyming couplets 

following the pattern, 

We like (movement word), …….

Another line that helps the first line

Examples: 

We like running, up and down hills,

Tall ones and short ones, just like Jack and Jill. 

We like jumping, jump high and jump low, 

Jump in the rain and jump in the snow.

As pairs come up with satisfactory rhymes, have the students help other pairs who are having 

trouble.

Have students illustrate their stanzas.

Read entirety and put together into a book, with poem and illustrations.

The Persinotious Crinkle Twiggies

A is for Aerawen who climbs really well.

C is for Carver whose voice rings like a bell.

E is for Emilia who plays with her toes.

F is for Finn who won’t pick his nose.

G is for Gregory who doesn’t like bats.

H is for Harper who loves fuzzy cats.

H is for Harry who really likes s’mores.

L is for Laura who’s as tall as some doors.

L is for Louella whose feet are so small?

M is for Masaki who goes out for baseball.

M is for Mischa who lays in the sun.

N is for Naima who jumps to have fun.

N is for Nico who catches mice with a net.

P is for Peter who loves his four pets.

Q is for Quinn who just DOES NOT CARE 

That S is for Shea who shakes her butt in the air.

V is for Vivian who says, ‘I’m hungry’ to friends.

W is for Wendy who writes, ‘Now we’ve come to the end.’