Rhyming Poetry Lesson

     The lesson we started with for our poetry unit with AIM was the use of rhyming words to write poetry. We watched a Sesame Street video clip to demonstrate how to rhyme words. The students made a connection to the familiar characters of Sesame Street. After watching the video and discussing the idea of rhyming words, students listened to Mrs. Kneeland read some poems by Shel Silverstein. She used expression in her voice to show a change in character and the mood of the poem. She also emphasized the rhyming words as she read them. Students were ready to do some rhyming on their own. Students were partnered up.  The first task was to have one partner choose an object out of a mystery bag and the other had to find the anchor chart that matched the object. The students had to come up with 8-10 words that rhymed with the object they selected from the bag. The objects in the mystery bag were a jet, ball, chair, car, pen, clip, bat, dog, ring, dice, and block. After the students generated a list of 8-10 words that rhymed with their object, they had to write a four or more line rhyming poem. The last word in each line was to rhyme with the object they selected from the mystery bag. The students did a pretty good job creating their poems. A few students needed extra attention to complete their rhyming poem. After the groups were done writing their rhyming poem, they practiced reading it, then shared it with the class. The "poets" seemed to enjoy sharing their new rhyming poems.