Character Clerihews... Character Cleri-what?

Another crazy week almost in the books. This week we began our poetry unit. I love poetry because it makes my kids think and they lack that ability some times... LOL

Anyways, I stumbled across an AMAZING poem this week. It was from a Mailbox magazine... I will get this information for you tomorrow. Well, the poem is called a Character Clerihew. Have you EVER heard of this?!?!?!

Well... just the title was enough of a hook for my kids, but the cross curricular connections is what sealed the deal for me. The poem is biographical, and being a social studies teacher as well, made the "characters" from our state standards (me 1 v. ccgps 0).

So here is the format:

Line 1 the name of the person

Line 2 rhymes with line one

Line 3 and Line 4 rhyme

Here is the example Mailbox came up with:

Abraham Lincoln

did a lot of thinkin'

he thought slavery was wrong

and thought freedom should be everyone's song

AH-MAZING RIGHT!

Well, when my students brought in their work, I was speechless...

I will get pictures tomorrow, but here are some I remember off the top of my head:

Rosa Parks

could make some sparks

if you asked her to move on the bus

she would start up a fuss.

Hirohito

needed a veto

he was the emperor of Japan

and he got a tan <---- This one is from one of my FOCUS students who has a GREAT sense of humor!

Let me know if you try this in your class!