Author: Jessica Stevens

Grade: 2nd
Text: My School’s a Zoo by: Stu Smith
Time: 45 minutes
Core Standard: Literature Standard 4: Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats,
alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem or song.
Objective: Students will recognize and use rhyming patterns in a poem.
Materials:
 Text (My School’s a Zoo)
 Lined paper and pencils
Procedure:
1. Teacher will introduce and read aloud the text to the class
2. The class will discuss the themes of the story and what they noticed
3. The teacher will teach about rhyme
4. The teacher will use a page from the text to show a rhyming pattern (a,b,a,b)
5. The students will play the “clap and pass game”
 Students are gathered in a circle
 One student starts with a word, and claps in the direction of another student
 The student has to say a word that rhymes with the one that was just said, then
they pass clap towards another person, saying a new word that needs to be
rhymed with.
6. The teacher will guide the students in creating a class poem with the same structure
Assessment:
 Students will create their own poem of at least 3 stanzas with rhyming words in any letter
pattern that they choose
 They can choose to draw a picture that represents it or write more if they have time
 The students will then present their poems to the class and explain their rhyming
patterns
Reflection: [After teaching]