(1) Poetry Lesson 3
And Then (p.9) I Met a Dragon Face to Face, Good Books,
Good Times!
Allow Student responses.
(3) Poetry Lesson 3
Write down student responses such as: bat, hat, sat, fat, pat, mat, or rat.
Noticing that words look alike in a poem can help readers identify the rhyming words, however, not all words that rhyme look alike. Some words like “rhyme” and “time” sound alike but are written differently.
Add words to the chart paper.
Not all poems that we will read use rhyme. Poems that don’t have lines ending in rhyme or other musical patterns, such as repetition, are called “free verse.”
Let’s take a look at a free verse poem and then compare it to the music and feeling of a rhyming poem.
(5) Poetry Lesson 3
Now let’s look at a poem that was written around rhyme.
Display “I Met a Dragon Face to Face” by Jack Prelutsky
Look at the words that end each of the lines in the poem. Do any of them look alike or have similar endings?
Allow time for students to look at the words. Write the rhyming words on the chart paper.
There are many words that have the same ending letters. I am going to read the poem and see how these rhyming words create music that affects the reading.
(2) Poetry Lesson 3
Did You See What I Saw
Rhyme is when a poet creates a pattern by repeating words that have the same ending sounds. By repeating these sounds, the poet is able to create a rhythm, or musical quality, which can help readers predict which words will come next. Often words that rhyme also look similar. They have the same ending letters, and sometimes only the first letter or letters change.
Write the word “cat” on chart paper. Underneath write “-at”
This is the word “cat.” If I take away the “c” what other words can we make with the ending sound that would rhyme with cat?
(4) Poetry Lesson 3
Display “And Then” by Prince Redcloud
This is a free verse poem. Let’s look at the words at the end of every line. Do any of them look alike or have similar endings?
Allow time for students to study the words.
These words are all pretty different. I’m going to read the poem.
Slowly read the poem, pausing at each line break.
Prince Redcloud didn’t use rhyme to draw readers into this poem. He used line breaks to make the poem read slowly, as if we can see and feel the snow slowly melting away.
(6) Poetry Lesson 3
Read the poem “I Met a Dragon Face to Face”
Display the incomplete version of the poem presented in the
Appendix “I Met a Dragon Face to Face”: Guessing Rhyme
By recognizing the poet’s use of rhyme, readers can often predict or guess what words will come next in a poem once. Now I think we can fill in the blanks without looking at the poem. We can predict the words using rhyme and context.
Complete the poem with the class, guiding them through the correct choices and discussing how they came to their conclusions.