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33 Rhyming Poems

Page
166
from
Write Away

Rhyming Poems

Start-Up Activity

Have a volunteer read the rhyming poem aloud to your class. Then lead a discussion about it.

  • What words in this poem rhyme? (Grow and toe, eyes and size)

  • Where do the rhyming words appear? (At the end of the first two lines, and then at the end of the third and fourth lines)

  • What else makes this poem fun? (A grasshopper can't hurt an elephant, and elephants can't talk.)

Let students know they will get to play with rhymes in this chapter and come up with their own silly (or serious) poems.

Think About It

“I wrote my first poems and stories perched on a fire escape. It was my very own magic carpet.”

—Sharon Bell Mathis

State Standards Covered in This Chapter

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.4

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.5

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.8

LAFS Covered in This Chapter

LAFS.2.RL.2.4

LAFS.2.W.2.5

LAFS.2.W.3.8

TEKS Covered in This Chapter

110.4.b.11.C

110.4.b.11.D

110.4.b.7

TEKS Covered in This Chapter

Page 167 from Write Away

More Rhyming Poems

Before you teach the two rhyming forms on this page, ask students to write down as many rhyming words as they can think of for the following words:

  • Day (Play, may, say, lay, tray, bray, pray, bay, gray, hay, fray, stray, and so on)
  • Go (Row, toe, mow, foe, show, low, blow, know, dough, pro, crow, throw, and so on)
  • Sea (Knee, me, tree, flee, bee, she, he, flea, pea, see, free, agree, tea, and so on)

Once students have made and shared their lists, they will have many rhyming words to work with to build couplets and triplets.

Read aloud the poems on this page. Point out the rhyming words at the ends of the lines. Then have students try their own poems. They should pick out two (or three) rhyming words and experiment with writing lines that lead up to them, creating their own couplets (or triplets).

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.2.RL.2.4
NE ELA Standard:
LA 2.1.6.c

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 2
Mode:
Creative Writing
Form:
Poem
English Language Arts:
ReadingPrewritingWriting

Page 168 from Write Away

Quatrain

If students stack two couplets, they get one kind of quatrain (first and second lines rhyming, third and fourth lines rhyming). They can write another kind of quatrain by rhyming the second and fourth lines.

Read aloud the two examples on this page. For each example, go back to point out the rhyming words.

Then have students add more words to their banks by writing rhymes for the following words:

  • Hi (Sigh, lie, try, buy, fly, cry, die, pry, shy, guy, spy, wry, high, ply, dye, pie, and so on)
  • True (New, do, flew, shoe, grew, stew, Lou, who, you, Sue, blue, blew, chew, and so on)
  • Stop (Cop, drop, flop, bop, hop, slop, crop, prop, shop, chop, top, mop, and so on)

Have students use some of their rhyming words to create quatrains, following one of the patterns shown on this page.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.2.RL.2.4
NE ELA Standard:
LA 2.1.6.c

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 2
Mode:
Creative Writing
Form:
Poem
English Language Arts:
ReadingPrewritingWriting

Page 169 from Write Away

Making Pleasing Sounds

After students have experimented with rhyme, they are ready to play with other types of sounds.

Introduce each type of sound on this page, one by one. After reading the example, stop and ask students to try out the technique, giving them the following instructions:

  • Alliteration: Write a line that repeats the sound st at the beginning of many words.
  • Onomatopoeia: Write a line with words that sound like wind in trees.
  • Simile: Write a line that compares two things using "like" or "as."
  • Personification: Write a line that makes a nonhuman thing do something human.

Now ask students to write a rhyming poem entitled "When I Am Happy." It can be a couplet, a triplet, or a quatrain. Ask them to include one or more of the types of pleasing sounds they have practiced on this page.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.2.RL.2.4
NE ELA Standard:
LA 2.1.6.c

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 2
Mode:
Creative Writing
Form:
Poem
English Language Arts:
ReadingPrewritingWriting