Limericks [With pictures!]

It's almost St. Patrick's Day! This year our school is having a shindig that lands on the holiday and includes an open house, so I decided to have the students do something special I can put on display for parents. The CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam) happens to be the week before St. Patrick's Day this year, too. That means the schedule will be messed up and that sophomores (the bulk of our high school) will be missing from classes for two days. So, putting other lessons on hold, I came up with a plan.



Now, poetry is an 8th grade standard, but with the haphazard schooling my students have gotten so far, I see no problems sprinkling it in so that I know my students will graduate having had at least some contact with poetry forms. 

Lesson Plan:
Introduce Limericks to students. I found my information on poetry-online.org.
           Quick Facts!:
           Limericks are from Limerick, Ireland!
           Limericks are humorous, and usually bawdy.
           Even Shakespeare wrote Limericks!
Teach Limerick Form
          Lines 1,2,5 are between 7-10 syllables long
          Lines 3,4 are between 5-7 syllables
          Rhyme Scheme:
             a
             a
             b
             b
             a
Give Examples
          The website above has some example. Here are some more sources:
More background information
People enjoy making Limericks about Shakespeare plays, too.
Take a quiz on Limericks about Shakespeare!
Have students write their own Limericks.
Have students edit each others' Limericks.
Have students create a poster on square paper. Orientation of words must be diagonal.
Then attach the posters in a Bird Beak Book.

Feel free to borrow the rubric!

 

My favorite design so far!

These two were written by a very good student expressing her opinion on Limericks. They make me smile =)






 Other Examples:

 

This is the orientation I asked for.