Monday, December 2nd, 2002

Why to use rhymes?

• They are an alternative to the use of graded readers.

• They have been successfully used in Primary schools.

• They have a long tradition in English speaking countries.

Remember the AUDI advertising at the beginning of the year 1996, in which a

child’s voice sang:

It’s raining, It’s pouring,

The old man’s snoring;

He went to bed,

And bumped his head,

And couldn’t get up in the morning.

Or the film THE PIANO, where the protagonist girl sings the rhyme "The Grand Old Duke of York", while she goes up and down along the hills:

Oh, The Grand Old Duke of YorkHe had ten thousand menhe marched them up to the top of the hilland he marched them down again.And when they were up, they were up.And when they were down, they were down.And when they were half way up,they were neither up nor down.

Or remember also the famous filmLADYBIRD, LADYBIRD, whose title does not seem to refer to the contents unless you know the rhyme from which it is taken. All English children use that rhyme for the ladybirds to count their fingers:

Ladybird, ladybird,fly away home,your house is on fire,your children all gone.

We can find a lot of these short poems. For instance, Agatha Christie based many of her novels in them, such as "Ten Little Niggers", "The Crooked House", "A Pocketful of Rye", "Three Blind Mice", etc.

There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile;

He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;

He brought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

Humpty Dumpty, the egg that fell from the wall, is well known by all of the English speakers. It appears in the title of the film about Watergate affair, called in Spain TODOS LOS HOMBRES DEL PRESIDENTE, alluding to the impossibility of mending an egg that has fallen from the wall.

Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses and all the king's men

couldn't put Humpty together again.

Why to use rhymes?

• They are short enough to be easily learnt by heart, making easy to learn vocabulary and grammatical structures.

• They are ideal texts to learn good pronunciation and intonation, because of their strong rhythm and marked rhyme.

Why to use rhymes?

• They are original texts, not adapted ones, and they keep the grace of the authentic.

• They are useful to introduce pupils into the culture of other countries through meaningful texts.

• They are useful to compare different cultures, to know the points of contact, and to appreciate the culture of the own mother tongue.

LEVELS

We can use Rhymes in all levels from beginners to last stages, if they are well chosen, since there are a wide variety of topics rhymes deal with.

Nursery rhymes are intended obviously for children, but we can found Limericks, Riddles, and Valentines not necessarily for children

Limericks are usually welcome by students in higher levels since they are most of times humorous and funny. These students can even be encouraged to write their own Limericks and Valentines.

TIME

Rhymes can be used at any moment in the teaching process, since they can give rise to a great number of different activities on:

•Pronuciation•Vocabulary•Grammar structures

MATERIALS

•Texts•Blackboard•Tapes•Videos

METHODOLOGY - I

There are a lot of ways of using rhymes in the English classroom.

We should set the limit in teacher’s imagination and the features of the group of pupils he turns towards.

For instance, we can write on the blackboard very short rhymes and then take away words changing them little by little into drawings or dashes until pupils learn them by heart.

If rhymes are longer we can do a range of reading exercises.

Pupils can try to write rhymes after a certain time, following a pattern, or changing some elements.

METHODOLOGY - II

Pupils study some aspects of a foreign country folklore and compare them with folklore of their own country, and correspondencies and diffencies between both.

Pupils acquire spare attitudes to differencies.

The grasp of teachers is crucial to determine the success or the failure of the activity.

Before starting the course, teachers should have prepare the careful selection of rhymes and exercices to deal with.

Pupils should know the whole se t of rhymes in advance.

At a certain level, it is advisable to ask pupils for doing a writen work.

NURSERY RHYMES - I

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor,richman, poorman, beggarman, thief.

Thirty days has September,April, June and November;All the rest have thirty-oneExcepting February alone,Which has but twenty-eight days clearAnd twenty-nine in each leap-year.

(13TH Century)

NURSERY RHYMES - II

Solomon Grundy,Born on Monday,Christened on Tuesday,Married on Wednesday,Sick on Thursday,Worse on Friday,Died on Saturday,Buried on Sunday.And that was the endOf Solomon Grundy.

NURSERY RHYMES - III• THE TRAGICAL DEATH OF A, APPLE-

PIE, WHO WAS CUT IN PIECES AND EATEN BY TWENTY-FIVE GENTLEMEN WITH WHOM ALL LITTLE PEOPLE OUGHT TO BE VERY WELL ACQUAINTED.

A was an apple-pie,B bit itC cut itD dealt itE ate itF fought for itG got itH had itI inked itJ joined itK kept itL longed for it

M mourned for itN nodded at itO opened itP peeped in itQ quartered itR ran for itS stole itT took itU upset itV viewed itW wanted itX Y Z and ampersandAll wished for a piece in the

hand.(Dated in 1671)

NURSERY RHYMES - IV

• Alphabet

A for apple

B for bear

C for cat

D for dog

...

• Comic alphabet

A for horses (hay for horses)

H for retirement (age

for retirement)

T for two (tea for two)

P for relief (pee for

relief)

etc.

NURSERY RHYMES - V

One, two, three, four, five,Once I caught a fish aliveSix, seven, eight, nine, ten,Then I let it go again.Why did you let it go?Because it bit my finger so.Which finger did it bite?This little finger on the right.

NURSERY RHYMES - VI

One, two, buckle my shoeThree, four, knock at the doorFive, six, pick up sticksSeven, eight, lay them straight,Nine, ten, a good fat henEleven, twelve, dig and delveThirteen, fourteen, maids are courtingFifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchenSeventeen, eighteen, maids are waitingNineteen, twenty, my plate's empty.

NURSERY RHYMES - VIIOh, soldier, soldier, will you marry me,With your musket, fife, and drum?Oh, no pretty maid, I cannot marry youFor I have no coat to put on.

Then away she wentTo her grandfather's chestAnd brought him one of the very very

best,And the soldier put it on.

Oh, soldier, soldier, will you marry me,With your musket, fife, and drum?Oh, no pretty maid, I cannot marry youFor I have no socks to put on.

Then away she wentTo her grandfather's chestAnd brought him a pair of the very very

best,And the soldier put them on.

Oh, soldier, soldier, will you marry me,With your musket, fife, and drum?

Oh, no pretty maid, I cannot marry youFor I have no shoes to put on.

Then away she wentTo her grandfather's chestAnd brought him a pair of the very very

best,And the soldier put them on.

Oh, soldier, soldier, will you marry me,With your musket, fife, and drum?Oh, no pretty maid, I cannot marry youFor I have no hat to put on.

Then away she wentTo her grandfather's chestAnd brought him one of the very very

best,And the soldier put them on.

Oh, soldier, soldier, will you marry me,With your musket, fife, and drum?Oh, no pretty maid, I cannot marry youFor I have a wife at home.

NURSERY RHYMES - VIII

This is the house that Jack built.This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtThis is the rat that ate the malt...This is the cat that killed the rat...This is the dog that worried the cat...This is the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog...This is the maiden all forlorn, that milked the cow...This is the man all tattered and torn that kissed the lady...

This the cock, that crowed in the morn,That woke the priest all shaven and shorn,That married the man all tattered and torn,That kissed the maiden all forlorn,That milked the cow with the twisted hornThat tossed the dogThat chased the catThat killed the ratThat ate the maltThat lay in the house that Jack built.

LIMERICKS - IThere was a young man from

DealingWhen he read on the doorWhen he read on the door:"Don't spit on the floor"He got up and spat on the ceiling.

There was a young man from Devizes

Whose ears were of different sizes.

One was so smallIt was no good at all.But the other won several prizes.

There once was a lady named Cager,

Who as the result of a wager,Consented to fartThe entire oboe partOf Mozart's quartet in F-major.

There was an Old Person whose habits

Induced him to feed upon rabbits;When he'd eaten eighteenHe turned perfectly greenUpon which he relinquished those

habits.

A tutor who taught on the fluteTried to teach two tooters to toot,Said the two to the tutor,"Is it harder to toot, or to tutor two tooters to toot?”

An artistic male cat called Greebo,To an evening class he decided to go.The teacher said, "That's not rightYour page is all white!"Greebo said, "It is a polar bear in the snow."

LIMERICKS - IINo zebras did board Noah's arkOnly horses, two white, and two darkBut for forty black nightsThere were no bedroom lightsWhich caused zebras galore to

disbark!

There are several Great Lies that we know.One is "I'll love you tomorrow."Here's another false wordThat we've recently heard,"With less money your research will grow!”

There once was an old man from Esser,

Who's knowledge grew lesser and lesser.

It at last grew so small,He knew nothing at all,And now he's a college

professor.Why not create a past life or

two?There is nothing your mind

cannot do;Dream up some dreams,Go to any extremes,Climb a mountain peak near

Kathmandu.

What is a limerick, mother?It’s a form of verse, said brotherIn which lines one and twoRhyme with five when it’s

throughAnd three and four rhyme with

each other.For a student whose name is Kathleen,

With a mind that's not overly keen,

Graduation is sure,As she's hardly demureAnd has often been seen with

the Dean.

LIMERICKS - IIIHer heart, I would love, that's a fact,And her offer has much to attract!I'd spend the whole day'Tween her legs and just play.And once there, I may never come back.

A flea and a fly in a flueWere imprisoned, so what could

they do?Said the fly, “let us flee!”“Let us fly!” said the flea.So they flew through a flaw in the

flue.(Ogden Nash)

There was an Italian named Marc,Who pissed one night in the park.But the cops caught the peasant;His dong was fluorescent,And glowed like a torch in the

dark

The French are a race among races;They screw in the funniest places;Any orifice handyIs considered quite dandy,And that goes for the one in their faces.

There was a young man named Ned,Who had eyes in the back of his head.When asked where he was going,“I’ve no way of knowing,But I know where I’ve been to”, he said.

Save us all from restraint of expression,Dark clouds raining down mind

suppression;The Huns have been loosed,Evil gods rule the roost,It's a time with the world in regression.

RIDDLES•What runs about all day and lies under the bed at night?

•What is black and white and /red/ all over?

•What grows bigger the more you take from it?

•What has one voice, and walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening?"

•The man who made it did not want it. The man who bought it did not use it. The man who used it did not know it.

•What kind of can never needs a can-opener?

•Here on Earth it’s always true, that a day follows a day.

But there is a place where yesterday always follows today!

•I am always hungry. I must always be fed, The finger I lick Will soon turn red.

VALENTINES

Roses are red,Violets blue,sugar is sweetand so are you.

I wish I were a china cupfrom which you drink your teaAnd every time you took a drinkyou would be kissing me.

Two in a carTwo little kissesTwo weeks laterMr and Mrs.

My love is like a cabbagedivided into twoThe leaves I give to othersbut the heart I give to you.

Plenty of loveTons of kissesHope some dayTo be your Mrs.

Postman, postman, do your dutyTake this to my loving beauty.Postman, postman, do not tarrytake this to the one I'll marry