A rap song for teaching kids about poetry (you can read this excerpt, but really, it's better to hear it):
Poetry (for Life)
When beautiful lyrics start to take form
At that very moment a poem is born
It’s like an emotion you feel in your chest
Sincere words you may find hard to express
But when we look under the hood to see what’s up
You’ll find some basic principles that make it up
It’s more than words that pour from your soul you see
There’s a couple of standard elements of poetry
The rhyme, for instance, is broken down
To a couple of word play styles that change the sound
What usually happens we see all the time
The words sound alike at the end of the lines
But it goes even deeper from there
There a variation in the styles of the rhymes that we hear
There’s perfect and off rhymes, but we can break it down more
So much in store, let’s take our time
~~~~~
The song is from Rhythm Rhyme Results, who offers songs on Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies, as well as theme collections on Black History Month, Grammar Goodies, Earth Day, Our U.S. Government, Pi Day, and Reading Month.
Susan Writes is hosting the Poetry Friday round-up this week.
I think it's a great teaching device. When I was a kid, they had "School House Rock" between cartoons on the weekends. Almost everyone in my 'age group' remembers 'Conjunction Junction what's your function' and the bill singing about how it becomes a law in Washington, DC.
ReplyDeleteI watched Schoolhouse Rock as a kid, too -- I remember both those songs you mention. I also liked "Lolly lolly lolly get your adverbs here" and The Preamble. My children have also seen Schoolhouse Rock because their teachers show them or tell them to watch SR on YouTube. Still useful after all these years!
ReplyDeleteIt's important to remember that some students learn best through music and movement!
ReplyDeleteLearning through music is great--helps the brain store things in a different way, so they are easier to recall later. I still remember the helping verb song I learned in 7th grade.
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