I read them a limerick that was written on the board. Then we read it out loud all together.

I said, now it's time for you to investigate. If you know that this is a limerick, what rules can you make about how to write a limerick, or what a limerick is?

They actually got all of them, which were:

The rhyme scheme is AABBA;

the syllable pattern is 8-8-5-5-8, AND they got the beat thing (three accented beats in lines one, two and five);

it has five lines;

and it's funny.

Then a student raised his hand and said, "They have a conflict." I was all, wow! Yes, you're right, and I didn't have that on my list, but I'm adding it. That's some great critical thinking." I was very impressed.

I showed them a meta-limerick; that is, a limerick about what a limerick is.

"What is a limerick, Mother?"

"It's a type of verse," said Brother,

In which lines One and Two

Rhyme with Five when it's through,

And Three and Four rhyme with each other!"

Then I explained that it's easy to write limericks, you just need lots of rhyming words. So I demonstrated rhyme maps; they're just rhyming word webs. Class A had Mark, Queens, and Mall. They came up with words that rhymed with each of those.

They came up with a bunch of rhymes for the example rhyme maps, and then we made up a limerick, line by line. Here was one:

There once was a boy named Jake

Who got bit by a venomous snake.

He did not feel well

So then he fell

With a big splash into a lake.

The homework was to do rhyme maps for a person's name, a place name, and an action/event (like fell, shop, etc). Then they'll use those tomorrow in groups, and come up with as many limericks as they can.