Summer Themed Riddle Poems

     Poetry can be a bit intimidating to teach and learn, but it doesn't have to be!  "Riddle Poems" are a great way to learn and apply:

-Rhyme Scheme

-Rhythm

-Meter

-Planning for theme

     The object of this assignment is to write a riddle with an AABB End Line Rhyme scheme, with each line giving a clue to what the answer would be.  If the reader/listener can guess the answer on the first try, then the poet was successful!

     With this being a summer themed workshop, the answers had to revolve around summer.  Enjoy these riddles!

     If you leave it out it will melt to sludge.

It's good to eat with chocolate fudge.

It tastes so good on a hot summer day.

Eat it all up before you go play.

What is this?

Ice cream

by Austin (7th grade)

They appear when you sleep in the sun,

Getting one is not much fun.

After aloe and a yummy meal,

Better you will definitely feel.

What is this?

A sunburn

by Kevin (6th grade)

It's full of something great for a nice cool dip.

Do anything to get in, even a flip.

You can swim all day and all through the night.

Make sure no one will get in a fight.

What is this?

A swimming pool

by James (5th grade)

Sharks, by Julia (6th grade)

The Beach, by Jackie (6th grade)

Fable Fun

     My students had a great time getting creative with writing fables, or How an animal became the way it is today.  We brainstormed as a group, and story mapped the characters, the problem, and how the animal received its punishment or reward.  Enjoy these samples!

                                                        Why Birds Fly, by Bobby (5th grade)

     A long time ago, birds didn't fly.  They walked, which made them super easy to catch and be eaten by predators.  So one day, a bird was walking down the forest, and he found a little bird who was badly injured.

     "Help me!" he said.

     "What happened?" asked the bird.

     "The fox tried to eat me," he answered.

     "I'll take you to my hut and take care of you," he told the little bird. 

     So the bird took the little bird to his hut to fix him up.  By the time he was done, the little bird was good as new.  He walked the little bird out to return him to his home.  But when they got into the forest, the fox found them.  They ran as fast they could, but the fox was too fast.  Then the bird heard something in his head.

     "You have done a good deed and now I shall give you one wish," boomed the Sky God in his head.

     "I wish that all birds could fly away from their predators!" the bird exclaimed as he was attempting to flee.

     Then all of a sudden, the two started feeling tingly on their backs.  Hugs wings grew out of them, and the two of them flew away from the fox.

     The birds were never harmed again.   That is how birds got wings to fly, so they could always escape their predators.

                                                        How Squids Got Their Power, by Austin (7th grade)

     Centuries ago before the squids had the power of ink, they were vulnerable.  This is the story of how they obtained their power.

     A young squid wandered into a volcanic area.  Suddenly, a shark appeared, and knocked him to the ground.  The shark started moving towards its dinner.  A rock flew out of the nearby underwater volcano, and knocked the shark away.

     The squid floated unconsciously with his mouth open.  He passed a methane seep and it gave him the power to propel himself away from danger.  Next, he passed an ancient painting, and the ink drifted into his mouth, giving him the power to blind his enemies.  

     He finally woke up, not knowing he had obtained powers.  He started to swim away, but suddenly the shark was back!  The squid reacted with new instincts, blinding the shark with its ink and propelling himself through the water to safety.

     These powers were passed to each and every squid, making them no longer vulnerable, weak, and unable to protect themselves.

Pool Toy Draw!

     ADJECTIVES, ADJECTIVES, ADJECTIVES!  They paint the picture in the reader's mind of exactly what we want them to see.  This is the theme of our summer workshop game, "Pool Toy Draw."

Step 1: Draw a creative pool toy, preferably with a background and some level of complexity.  It should be unique and unlike any other pool toy ever seen!

Step 2: Write a description of the pool toy, broken into paragraphs.  Include size, shape, color, and number adjectives in every sentence!

Step 3: Trade descriptions with a partner.  They will draw yours, and you will draw theirs, without any talking or help!  If adjectives were effectively used, the pictures should end up being a very close match!

     What I love about this game is the instant feedback it gives my students about the importance of descriptive language.  I can often hear them playfully grumbling during Step 3, wishing their partners had included some crucial piece of information that would help complete the picture in their mind!  On- demand writing, writing under pressure, and reading comprehension are all skills that are developed with this simple, fun game.

     In this first sample, Theo (5th grade) and Aiden (7th grade) got paired up.  Now, you must know, Theo has been victorious at both "Snowman Draw" and "Monster Draw" in his school workshops.  He is a VERY careful and descriptive writer, so Aiden was very happy to be partnered up with him!  Aiden is a great, thorough reader.  So they made a great pair!

                                                        Theo's Pool Toy

     My paper is vertical.  The pool toy is horizontal.  My pool toy is symmetrical. 

     My pool toy has a large noodle that is skinny and red.  At each end of the noodle are medium green rectangles horizontally placed.  There is a blue small square inside each of them.  There are yellow and orange flames coming out of the bottom ends of the green rectangles.

     On the noodle, there are three blue circles symmetrically placed that fit perfectly on the tube.  They each have one orange triangle inside of them.  The circles are not large enough to pass the sides of the tube.

     The background includes a gray plain border.  There is water all around the pool toy, and six waves randomly scattered.  Three are on the top, and three are on the bottom.  The waves are blue.

Looks like a fun thing to play with on a hot summer day!  Way to go Aiden for reading and drawing so carefully, and congratulations to Theo for yet another victory as a writer!

Julia's Pool Toy

     My pool toy is a giant pineapple wearing sunglasses-shaped pool float.  When drawing this, make sure to picture a pineapple in your mind, as well as read my instructions.

     For the general shape, draw a large oval in the middle of the page.  Coming from the top of the large oval, add three smaller and skinnier ovals, and make sure that they look kind of like the top of a pineapple.  Then, right next to the left-most oval on top, draw a little circle, with five little ovals coming from all around it.  This should look like a flower in the pineapple's hair.

     Next, we will be doing decorations.  About one third of the way down from the top of the large oval, draw half moon shaped sunglasses.  Make sure they fit the pineapple well.  About two-thirds of the way down from the top of the large oval, draw a medium-small half moon shaped mouth.

     Now, we will add color.  Color the sunglasses all black.  Color the mouth pink.  Color the large oval yellow.  Color the top three ovals light green.  Lastly, color the middle of the flower orange, and the petals of it pink.

     For the background, just draw a rainbow behind the middle of it.  The colors of the rainbow should be in this order: Red, orange, yellow, light green, light blue, and dark purple.  Leave the rest of the page blank, and you're done!

Julia (6th grade) nailed it!  So very descriptive, and so clear and easy to read.  Marissa (6th grade) was a careful reader and drew an absolute twin!

Sophia's Pool Toy

     My pool toy is shaped like a tree.  First, add two large, rounded triangles in the middle of the page, on top of each other.  Make the "point" of the bottom one overlap into the bottom of the second triangle.  About a third of the top of the triangle should overlap.  At the bottom of the lower triangle, add a medium sized, rounded rectangle, slightly taller than a square.  The width of the rectangle should be about one third of the width of the bottom of the triangle.  Erase the top of the second triangle that overlaps with the top triangle (Don't erase any of the top triangle.). Now it should look like an oversimplified pine tree.  

     Inside the top triangle, close to the top, write a large capital "I."  Underneath that, write the word "like" in cursive.  (Still large-is, and make it lower case.). Instead of the dot for the "I", put a small heart instead. In the bottom triangle, write "trees" in all upper case, similar size and style to the "I" at the very top.  Make sure the word "trees" is in the lower part of the bottom triangle, similar placement to the "like" in the top triangle above "trees." Above "trees," add another curved line to match the base of the top triangle.  This will make a sort of thick stripe directly under the first triangle and a bit above "trees."  Also, put a medium-sized heart in the middle of the trunk.

     Put thirteen pointy individual wave decals randomly spaced around the paper.  In the top left corner, draw the same sized heart as the one on the trunk, but the top of the heart is facing the corner it's closest to, making it a diagonal.

     Outline the two hearts in dark pink, trace the words with black, trace the waves with dark blue, trace the two triangles in dark green, and the stump with dark brown.  Color the hearts pink, the stump brown, the strip in between the two triangles dark green, and color the rest of the leafy part of the tree a lighter green.  Shade a bit in each wave with light blue.

Wow!  Sophia (7th grade) is so extremely detailed even with a somewhat simple drawing.  She was so detailed, and Lia (7th grade) was such a careful reader, that they were voted victorious by their group!