We are rolling into Week 30 and looking at a theme that specifically targets poetry elements: Rhyme, Repetition, and Rhythm. Our sample poem this week comes from Kindergarten and it's almost like a chant full of fun animal names! Here's an excerpt.
Loose Tooth, Whose Tooth?
by Carole Boston Weatherford
Loose tooth, whose tooth?
Bat’s tooth, rat’s tooth.
Loose tooth, whose tooth?
Snail’s tooth, whale’s tooth.
...
Loose tooth, whose tooth?
Piranha’s tooth, iguana’s tooth.
Loose tooth, whose tooth?
Boar’s tooth, your tooth.
[You'll find the whole poem on p. 56 in The Poetry Friday Anthology.]
Take 5 Strategies
1. Before reading the poem aloud, survey students on how many of them have a loose tooth.
2. Read the poem aloud again and this time students can say the repeated line Loose tooth, whose tooth? each time it occurs.
3. For discussion: Which of these animals is new to you? If possible, look up images of unfamiliar animals on the Internet.
4. Poems usually rhyme at the end of lines, but sometimes they rhyme in the middle too—called internal rhyme. Challenge the students to find the pairs of words that rhyme (bat/rat, snail/whale, aardvark/shark, etc.).
5. Revisit a previous “list” poem about animals, “Animal Talk” by Charles Ghigna (Week 27).
Join the whole Poetry Friday crew at A Year of Reading hosted by our very own fabulous PFA poet, Mary Lee Hahn. See you there!
Another great activity--especially if this poem were to be used by "Kindergarten Buddies" (4th or 5th graders)--would be to research whether all animals lose a first set of teeth (and when). Also: how many teeth do they have? I think this is an example where nonfiction research might really enhance students' enjoyment of the poem.
ReplyDeleteCarol Boston Weatherford is an excellent poet and I enjoyed this poem.
ReplyDelete