Limerick competition

Limerick Rules Limericks are 5 lines long. Lines 1, 2 and 5 each have seven to ten syllables. Lines 3 and 4 each have five to seven syllables. The lines have an ‘A A B B A’ rhyming pattern because, - lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme with one another. - lines 3 and 4 rhyme with one another. The last word of the poem is often (but doesn’t have to be) the same as the last word of lines 1 or 2. Introducing and understanding the rules

There was a Young Lady whose nose,

Was so long that it reached to her toes;

So she hired an Old Lady,

Whose conduct was steady,

To carry that wonderful nose.

There was a young man from Dundee,

Who got stung on the head by a wasp.

When asked if it hurt,

He said, “No not at all.

It can do it again if it likes!”

Put the students into groups and have them read the limericks above and then discuss the following questions:

Does the poem obey the syllable rules of a limerick? Does the poem obey the rhyming rules of a limerick? Write the number of syllables at the end of each line.

Discuss as a class the answers.

Which one works as a limerick? Why? Which one doesn’t work? Why not?

Could some students change the wording in the limerick that doesn’t quite work so that it does? Have the students recreate the limerick and have them read it to the rest of the class.

Remember

Syllable - Parts of a word, broken up

into the different sounds.

How many syllables are in your name?

Rhyme - When words sound the same.

What words rhyme with your name?

Word Bank

down

so

stew

about

toe

too

Make the limerick work

Use the list of words from the word bank (or not) to complete the limericks. Check your answers with a partner and discuss why you used the words in the different spaces. A film actor dining in Crewe Found a very large bug in his _____ . Said the waiter, "Don't shout And wave it ______ , Or the rest will be wanting one ___ ." There once was a boy named Joe Who dropped a big brick on his ___ He asked, with a frown, "Will the swelling go _____ ?" And the doctor said, "Yes. I think___ ."

Rhyming words

Tell the students to read through the following Limerick. According to the rules of limericks

what words should the missing words rhyme with? In groups ask the students to think of as

many words as they can that rhyme with BED and CRETE.

There once was a woman from Crete

who was so exceedingly ,

when she got out of bed

she stood on her ____

to keep from dirtying her _____ .

Do the same with the following limerick and ask the students to think of as many rhyming

words for TED and NIGHT:

There was once a young man called Ted

That thunder and lightning he

When the storm came one night

He was nowhere in

He was hiding beneath the .

The students then experiment with all the rhyming words to see if it would work in the limerick. Do they all have the same limerick? Discuss as a class.

Unscramble it!

Unscramble each of these two limericks and write down their lines in the correct order. Use

the rules to help.

to scare off the critter

then a happy thought hit her

she sat up in bed and just meowed

who was frightened and screamed very loud

A mouse in her room woke Miss Doud

he awoke with a fright,

who dreamed of eating his shoe,

and found that his dream had come true!

in the middle of the night,

There one was a man from Peru,

Illustrate it!

A good way to get your students thinking about the humour element of a limerick is to get

them to illustrate them. The following Limericks are by Edward Lear. Read through them

and have your students illustrate them. How many different versions do you have? Do they

paint the picture of the limerick?

There was a Young Lady whose chin,

Resembled the point of a pin;

So she had it made sharp,

And purchased a harp,

And played several tunes with her chin.

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!”

http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/BoN/bon010.html (for examples from the Non sense book)

Writing your own Limericks in class

Once the students have had experience of reading some examples and practicing the

activities above they will be ready to start writing their own limerick.

Remind your class of the rules and pattern to writing a limerick. A good way start to writing

their own limerick is by giving the students a structure.

The following is a good starting point:

"There once was a _________ _ from ______ __ ."

Or

"There once was a ________ _____________ called ________ _."

If we take the example:

There once was a girl from Wales...

There once was a young man called Mark...

You could also provide sets of rhyming words for the students to use in their poems or ask

them to write down as many rhyming words they can, for example:

Mark - dark, park, spark, lark, bark....

Wales - tales, sales, scales, gales, males, quails, rails, nails...

If they are struggling to find rhyming words it may be best to change the original rhyming

word!

The following structure could be used as a guide for your students to follow to write their

limericks:

Line 1: Tell who the person is and where he or she is from

Line 2: Describe the person or tell something interesting about him or her

Line 3 & 4: Give more interesting detail about what was mentioned in line two

Line 5: Based on the first four lines, finish off the limerick with a surprising and/or funny

ending.

Once the students have written their limericks have them check it against the rules from

above. If they want they can also illustrate their limerick for the competition.

We are all looking forward to receive your students’ limericks.

Good luck!