Reading Lesson Plan: Rhyming Word Poems

Students love to use the wooden pointer stick to “find” the rhyming words on overheads.  Later, they use highlighters to highlight the rhyming words in their own poem book, coloring each pair in a different color. **Encourage students to write additional lines for the poem.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn about rhyming words.
2. Practise finding rhyming words.

Materials:

1. transparency of rhyming poem.  If you can’t find one, see below:  rhyming poem
2. overhead machine
3. overhead markers, in at least 2 colours
4. wooden pointer stick
5. copies of poem for each student (shrink a copy of the poem to 50%, put 4 on an 8 1/2″ X 11″ page, then copy 6 or 7 pages, so you have enough poems for each student…saves on photocopy numbers. Save the 8 1/2″ X 11″ page with the 4 poems on it, in a poem folder along with the full-size transparency, for next year’s class.)
6. highlighters for each student (we use these for reading, for identifying special words, and for math, for showing number patterns on calendars and Hundreds Charts…)
7. white glue (for all students to use to glue poem in their own poem books)
8. pencils for all students

Method:

1. Introduce the new poem and hand one out to everyone. Have someone read the title aloud. Talk about the title and what it MIGHT be about. Do NOT tell them what it is about. (They’ll figure it out in a few minutes.)
2. Have them glue their copy of the poem in their poem books and put inside their desks OPEN to let the white glue dry.
3. Put the overhead transparency on the overhead. Turn off the lights. Read the poem with students, so they become familiar with it. Either follow along with your finger on the overhead or with the pointer on the screen, to keep the pace slower for everyone, and to keep the class reading together, so some students don’t race ahead. Encourage students to interrupt by raising their hands if there is a word or something they don’t understand. (You will be reading the poem many times. The first time is to clarify all the words.) After you are finished reading, ask the students to tell you what the poem is about. If they cannot, or if they show that they do not understand it, read it together again, with no interruptions.
4. Ask students if they know what rhyming words are (check prior knowledge). Show them two types of rhyming words, two words that are spelled the same (like boy and toy) and two words that are spelled differently (like more and pour), circling them on the overhead transparency.
5. Begin reading the poem together, again, asking students to raise their hands when they hear two rhyming words.
6. Choose a student each time you’ve read a pair of rhyming words and hands go up, getting them to point and read the two rhyming words, (give them the wooden pointer) while you circle each word with the overhead markers on the transparency. (You may want to circle rhyming pairs whose endings are spelled differently with a blue marker and circle rhyming words that end with the same spelling with a red marker. After you finish finding all the rhyming pairs, you can ask students what is different about the pairs in red and the pairs in blue.)
7. After the poem is finished, and all rhyming pairs have been found, ask students to take out their poem books, and mark the rhyming words in their new poem with highlighters. Each pair can be done in a different colour, or at least alternating colours, so that it is easy to see the rhyming pairs.
8. You may want students to write out the rhyming word pairs, as well. They can print them on the same page as their poem, surrounding the poem with the rhyming word pairs.  **Students can also be encouraged to write new rhyming lines for the poem.

(rhyming poem:)

Look Around For Trees and Bees and Bats and Cats by Mrs. Z.:

• I look all around and what do I see?
• I see words that rhyme like tree and bee.

What’s that flying in the sky?

It looks like a beautiful butterfly.

• Who has a mouth like a straw to drink?
• Hummingbirds who fly faster than you can blink!

Who sleeps hanging upside down?

Bats who fly around and round.

• Which one would you like to pick?
• The puppy who likes to do that trick.

Who likes to cuddle on your knee?

The cat who likes to climb the tree.

• Around and around in his ball.
• Hamsters are tiny, so very small.

Look around and you will see,

Many rhyming words like he and she.

Tags: identifying, poem, rhyming words