Over time we will be adding activities that focus on helping your child/student write something every day. Let’s start off with something really simple: rhyming couplets.
Rhyming couplets are two consecutive lines of poetry that have the same sound at the end. They also typically have the same number of syllables (or nearly so).
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
or:
Little Miss Muphet
Sat on a tuffet,
Nursery rhymes are common places to find rhyming couplets.
Suggestions
- Find the rhyming couplets in “The Skylark” by John Clare.
- Create an acrostic (use each letter of the alphabet for the first letter of the first word of each sentence) and create rhyming couplets. For example, “A is for apple all pretty and red; B is for butterfly that dances in bed.”
- Copy a nursery rhyme that features rhyming couplets on Drawing & Writing Paper and illustrate the selection.
Additional Resources
Write Something Every Day: 366 Pencil Sharpeners for Students of Writing
Our book will get you started. This huge 554-pg. resource provides carefully crafted writing prompts and challenges for each day. We use nearly 20 different forms of writing to keep the student engaged. Also included are writing instruction, tips for modifying assignments for “younger writers,” and other resources. Learn more.
Rhyming Couplets
Great doc for National Poetry Month 2020.
14 Forms of Writing for the Older Student: Poetry
More help.
Mother Goose
Great resource for identifying rhyming couplets.
Write Rhyming Couplets
Worksheet from K12 Reader.
Keep Reading
Online Poetry Anthology
A collection of friendly poems that can be used for copywork, narration, dictation, memorization, development of language skills, and appreciation of art.
Writing Ages and Stages
Understanding where your student is in the writing process and meeting him/her there.
Activity: Write an ABeCeDarian
An abecedarian is a variation of acrostic poem where each stanza or line begins with consecutive letters of the alphabet.