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Rhymes 'n Rhythms
Two email notes we received recently from Deborah Shields

1. Subject: Great book!

Dear Pro Lingua folks,
I have a ton of catching up to do from being at the NJTESOL conference this week, but I've been noodling around instead, enjoying Rhymes and Rhythms. What a fun book! I've never been a big Jazz Chants fan, but this stuff I like. I got inspired to rewrite the Questions, Questions poem for a work site class I'm teaching. All of the students are married and have kids, all live in houses and many of them like to garden. They've been having trouble with do and does questions so after we play around with the rhyming, I think I'll have them find the verbs and then tease out that "be" verbs don't use do and does.

QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS

How do you do? And how are you?
I speak English. And do you?
Where are you from? What's your name?
Do you want to play the question game?

What do you like? Do you like books?
Do you like to sing? Do you like to cook?
Do you like fruit juice, coffee or tea?
Do you like to bicycle, swim, or ski?

Do you have children and a spouse?
Do you have pets? Do you live in a house?
Are there sunny rooms and stairs to climb?
Is your house quiet in the daytime?

Do you have a garden? What do you grow?
Is there a lawn with grass to mow?
Are there trees and flowers, too?
Do you have neighbors and a pretty view?

What do you think of the question game?
"Do" and "be" questions are not the same!

Adapted from: "Questions, Questions," in: Tenuta, L. Rhymes and Rhythms. ProLingua Associates,
2001, p. 3.

Thanks for the idea! Now back to those piles, lesson plans, etc.
Debbie Shields

2. Subject: You've ruined me...

Hi Andy,
OK, you guys have totally ruined me :>). I've been noodling around with poems ever since I opened the Rhymes book. Tough on getting work done, but a lot of fun. The poem I sent you earlier was a huge success. First I went over vocabulary and I said it for them. Then I had them say it to the beat several times. I was surprised by how much they liked it. Then I had them pick the questions that they wanted to answer and had them write responses. They want more!

So here's the latest installment, with a list of rhyming words from a rhyming dictionary I have. I'm planning to have them try writing a few verses next week. Thanks again for a great book!

Debbie Shields

DO YOU DANCE?

Do you dance?
Does he dance?
Do cats dance in short pants?

Does she see?
Do bees see?
Do you see the bumblebee?

Does it walk?
Do we walk?
Do dogs walk around the block?

Do they swim?
Does he swim?
Do seals swim and sing a hymn?

Does she dream?
Do cows dream?
Do they dream about ice cream?

Do they write?
Does she write?
Do students write without a light?

Do mice stop?
Do they hop?
Do they stop and take a hop?

Does it fly?
Do they fly?
Do birds fly up in the sky?

Does it stand?
Do trees stand?
Do they stand upon the land?

Does she know?
Do we know?
Do goats know how to mow?

Does he run?
Do tigers run?
Do they run to have some fun?

Does she ask?
Do workers ask?
Do they ask about the task?

SOME WORDS THAT RHYME

grab, crab, taxicab, stab, jab, lab

race, place, lace, face, chase, replace, staircase

stack, snack, rack, lack, back, pack, kayak, attack,
whack

add, bad, dad, mad, pad, sad

drag, nag, snag, bag, flag, tag

rain, strain, plane, brain, drain, pain, plain, train

share, pear, dare, mare, chair, hair, bear, scare, tear,
wear, teddy bear

bake, make, shake, cake, lake, snake, break, steak,
backache, daybreak

mail, sail, pail, nail, rail, tail, whale, tale, jail, fail, sale

fall, ball, mall, doll, crawl, hall, tall, wall, call, baseball

bark, shark, mark, park