Twimericks: The Book of Tongue-Twisting Limericks

Twimericks: The Book of Tongue-Twisting Limericks

By: Lou Brooks
Ages: 9-12

"A twimerick is a limerick and a tongue twister all rolled into one (xii)."  This book is filled with challenging twimericks for students to read and try to read as fast as they can.  Lou Brooks provides the reader with clear definitions of limericks, tongue twisters, and twimericks so that there is no confusion.  This collection of poems will get students thinking about poetry in a positive way as well as get them thinking about their own poetry.

Theme:  Students will learn about poetry (limericks) through challenging themselves with tongue twisters.

About the Author:  
Lou Brooks has been illustrating for a long time.  When he came up with the idea to write twimericks, he was simple writing.  Lou Brooks had not come up with the title and did not know that it would end up being a book.  By publishing this book, Brooks wanted to show the world that poetry is fun.

Pre-Reading Activities:
Ask students: What do you think a twimerick is?  What is a tongue twister?  What is a limerick? 
After these discussions, the teacher should introduce limericks and their individual qualities.

Post Reading Activities:
Have students create their own limerick and challenge them to by having them make it a twimerick.  These can all be compiled to make a class book.  

Chicken Soup With Rice: A Book of Months

Chicken Soup With Rice: A Book of Months

By: Maurice Sendak

Grades: K-5

This is a book that consists of a poem for every month of the year. It is a book that can be read throughout the year while discussing each month or in a short period of time while discussing poetry. 

About the Author:

Maurice Sendak became interested in books and fantasy when he was a child because he was sick a lot of the time and stuck inside so he turned to books.  In the 1950s he published about fifty children's books.  Sendak wanted the illustrations of his books to create more mystery rather than simply describe the pictures.

Theme: Students learn about months and poetry at the same time.

Pre-Reading Activities:

Work with the class to come up with a class definition of poetry.  What does poetry mean to you?

Post Reading Activities:

At the end of reading each poem, ask the students why they believe that the author chose to write about the specific thing that they did for that month.  Have them come up with other ideas that could have been used for that month.

Have the students write their very own poems.  For the younger students have the class work together to make their very own Chicken Soup With Rice poems.  For the older students have them work on their own to write their very own Chicken Soup With Rice poems for each month and put them together so they have their own book with a poem for each month.