Reading: Poetry
Rhythm in Reading
Today's Snack: To give your brain and your stomach enough time to
communicate to each other that you are getting full, it helps to chew your food
a lot of times, instead of just wolfing it down. So today, eat a bowl of cereak
with milk and just a dab of sugar, and chew every bite 20 times.
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Supplies:
Book of children's poetry
Book with rhythmic lines, such as Tikki Tikki Tembo
(http://www.amazon.com/Tikki-Tembo-Arlene-Mosel/dp/0805006621)
Cereal boxes containing at least a
little cereal | baby rattles
Pots, pans and big spoons | oatmeal
canisters | a drum
Maracas | rhythm sticks | vitamin
jar | New Year's Eve noisemakers
A huge help in reading fluency and comprehension is the
ability to "hear" the syllables in words better. Our language is strongly based
in sounds and rhythms, so it helps to point that out to students.
You
can help children of all ages by setting up a Reading Rhythm Band. This is also
a fun thing for older children to lead with preschoolers or early primary kids.
Follow up with some fun outside rhythm activities as well.
For the Reading Rhythm Band, distribute the noisemaking
"instruments." Let the students practice first: you say a word or a name with
one or more syllables, and they should shake or beat their "instruments" and
repeat the syllables with you.
Then
read aloud children's poems. You might read the line of poetry first, and then
read it again with the students "accompanying" you on their instruments. The
students should shake their noisemakers in the rhythm of what you're reading.
For example, if you read the famous Chinese folk tale, Tikki Tikki Tembo, the children will
enjoy following the rhythm of the repeated line with their noisemakers:
"Tikki-tikki-tembo, no-sa-rembo, chari-bari-ruchi,
pip-peri-pembo"
You can give each student a "solo" or assign different
lines or verses in a poem to different pairs or trios of students.
This is fun to do outside, and you can follow up with
some playground rhythmic games as well:
- Bounce a basketball to the rhythm of a poem or
song
- Hop on one foot for every major beat of a line
of poetry, but hop on TWO feet for the LAST major beat
- Set up a listening rhythm race: you say a line
of poetry, and students can only take one step for every syllable in that
line; they repeat the line of poetry as they move
