Limericks

Objectives

• Students will read about limericks and read a limerick sample.
• Students will tap their fingers along with the rhythm of the poem and count the number of beats per line.
• Students will record their findings and compare them with those of their classmates.

Description

This Web site was created by PBS. Other poetry links on the site include narrative, haiku, free verse, lyric, what's a poem?, write a poem, and read more poems.

Suggested Activities

• Give students a chance to write a limerick together as a class. Most limericks begin with the phrase "There once was a . . ." so it might help to write this phrase on the board to get things started. Encourage students to come up with an interesting character to write about. If they feel stuck, have them use the poem on the Web site as a model, beginning each new line with the opening words used in the poem by Sue Ellen.

Level Activities

• Have students connect to http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poemcategory.aspx?CategoryID=12 and choose a revised nursery rhyme to read. Next, have students:
underline the words that rhyme and come up with new words to rhyme with them.
underline the words that rhyme, come up with new words to rhyme with them, and write couplets using the new rhyming words.
do all of the preceding and also put the couplets together in a completed limerick.