Love me some Leprechaun Limericks
OK. For all my English-loving word nerds, this one is for you. But, first, a little background. Anyone who knows me knows I love books. I love to read and we, my English teacher wife and I, promote reading every chance we get. So, when I became a teacher and found out I could start ordering books from Scholastic, I jumped in with both feet. (You have no idea how much Scholastic does.)
My kids are at the ages when everything and anything that is on the “edge” of what is appropriate makes them crack up into a million pieces. – Amy Mascott
Anyway, I can’t remember if it was off the Scholastic Parent or Scholastic Teacher Facebook page, but one of them led me to this Post by Amy Mascott about having your kids write limericks. Amy writes about how anything and everything that is on the “edge” of appropriateness makes them crack up into a million pieces. She also gives a shout out to books with potty talk. I love word play of any kind and, if you can add in a little potty humor, you are sure to find me grinning from my ears. And, my wife has concluded that anything that includes the words poop, fart, or any derivative of these words will be funny to all males of any age. So, you can imagine that I jumped, much to her chagrin, at the chance to bring some fun limericks into the classroom.
Amy does a good job of explaining the AABBA and 88558 rhyming and rhythm patterns of limericks. Amy shares a Limerick Fill-in Sheet for us to use, err I mean for us to give to our students to use in creating their own favorite limericks. Needless to say, there wasn’t a man from Nantucket or any of the other limericks I learned in college.
Here is one I came up with while driving with my children.
There once was a brilliant barn cat,
who bragged that he’d grown so darn fat,
He’d built him a trap,
that closed with a clap,
and lazily feasted on rat.
I’d love to read what you and your kids come up with. Please share them with me. I’d love to share some of the best with my readers.