How to teach a poem to kids in less than 2 minutes…

Children love nonsense poems that make them laugh out loud, and LIMERICKS are at the top of the nonsense list!

Enjoy this fine-feathered limerick by 19th century English limerick-poet extraordinaire, Edward Lear…

There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, “It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!”

Simple nonsensical fun –this is what LIMERICKS are all about.  Children are drawn to limericks because the rhyme pattern is predicable (AABBA) and the words are funny.  Limericks are very easy to memorize, too, and this gives children an added dose of fun.

Read this limerick with your children.  Have fun with it.  LAUGH!  Your children may wish to draw and cut out a beard, 2 owls, 1 hen, 4 larks and 1 wren and act out this poem!

LITERACY is all about WORDS – Written, Spoken & Felt.

And laughed at!

Bringing literature to life is the key!

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