Teapots Full of Words

"I'm a Little Teapot" as told and illustrated by IzaTrapani is a simple book, reciting a basic Nursery Rhyme. These are some of my favorite books to use with young children. The pictures in this book are bright and fun and have the tendency to draw children in. This minilesson would be used with Primary students.

Minilesson: Rhyming and Writing

1. Start by asking the class to raise their hand if they are familiar with the nursery rhyme, "I'm a Little Teapot".

2. Read the book aloud to the class, while they sit and listen and take in the pictures the first time. Remember to be animated and give plenty of picture viewing time...kids love that!

3. Read the book to the class a second time, allowing them to spread out and "act out" the words of the rhyme. This is just a fun activity to get them excited about the book and the lesson.

4. Next, ask the class to help you pick out the rhyming words in the story. Go page by page and write the words on the board as the class comes up with them. Then, ask them if they know of any other words that rhyme.

5. Now the fun begins...come up with a topic that is CLASS friendly (ex. recess, vacations, etc.). Write the topic on the board so that it is easily revisited. Ask each student to write down a set of rhyming words that comes to mind when they think of that topic. Remind them that they can use any of their senses to describe the topic. What do they See, Hear, Feel, Taste and Smell when they think of this?

6. Once they all have their words chosen, each student will write 2 lines of a poem, using their chosen words, describing the topic and their feelings about or experiences with that topic. It is important for them to know that the rhyming words should be at the end of each of 2 lines (and this is the hard part for students). **Give them an example if necessary, but use a different topic so that they don't get stuck on your idea.

7. When all students have completed this writing, allow them to share their pieces with the class. It is like sharing a masterpiece!

Extension: To make the lesson come to life for the students, you can do many things. You can create a poster that combines all of their SHORT poems into one long poem about the topic. Seeing their work "published" like that will make the writing worth while to them.

OR, you can have the class help you put the pieces into an order that makes sense, thereby helping them to learn the organizational aspect of writing.

Though this lesson can be completed with any number of Nursery Rhymes, I really like using this book because of the wonderful illustrations and the great way you can get your class up and moving to get them involved.

(Ohio's Academic Content Standards: Writing Process Standard ~ Generate ideas for written compositions, Writing Conventions Standard ~ Spell grade-appropriate words correctly)