• Ode to a Kindergarten Rug By N. Winchel• CHORUS (TO REPEAT- The group chants when narrator

points to the group. This chorus can usually be said after each or every other stanza. )

• Variations: I also wrote this not only as a poem, but as a children’s song or chant. You can set this to any children’s tune, made up song, or current song. Please notice the rhythm of the language. One can also teach music theory and show 4/4 time (connection to quarter notes, half notes, triplets), tapping while chanting the lyrics, using random sounds (ba,da) to show the bouncing, repetitive rhythm of the poem, together while teaching scooping and reading fluidity.

• Themes also taught in this poem are the concept of rhyming words, the alphabet, acrostic poems, writing in the voice of an inanimate object, and I’m sure this may apply to many other creative lessons at every grade level.

© 2009 abcteach.com

• For the upper grades, they can create their own song or rap, or poem, in the voice similar to this poem. They can express all the things that they miss about their early grade experiences and what they love about their current educational experience.

• Of course, the lower grades, can do these same lessons and apply the poem to learning their alphabet, comparing the writing style to other child authors (Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, Robert Munsch (poems), David Ezra Stein, Jordan Sonnenblick, Dav Pilkey), comparing to other text (Jordan Sonnenblick’s Dodger and Me, Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller, or Mark Teagues’ Dear Ms. Larue: Letters from Obedience School/ Link /also see interview from Reading Rockets) and exploring more creative ways of writing.

• Hey!!! Another idea- Have the children fold 4 or 5 sheets of paper in half to create a booklet, comic book, and/or book with illustrations. Be Creative!!!!! Have them write the lyrics wherever they’d like in whatever style or font (fancy, loopy, plain). Then either on the facing page or involved with the fancy text, have them illustrate each stanza of the book. Give them examples of other books with funny illustrations so that they may brainstorm with more creative ideas. Tell them to GO!! And BE CREATIVE!!!

• Another CREATIVE Project could be creating a cover and binding the book: Child Author David Ezra Stein has a great website and class project that shows children and teachers what they need to create a mini-book that is bound (Snappy Book). Please note that you will need 1) Card- stock paper, 2) masking tape, 3) a scissor, 4) string and…….5) your story!!!!!!

•……And Another Idea: What About A Role Play?

•This is self explanatory. Have a group of students create a play in front of class as the students and as the rug. The person playing the rug acts as narrator. Then film it and add some multimedia to it.

• Research Teacher Tube and Google: Find songs about a special subject that you like or would like to learn about.

• Leadership Skills/ Taking Turns… The teacher can choose the narrator by the one that shows positive and expected behavior. The child can then model and instruct the actors and the chorus (other students) through the chanting of the chorus.

• ….. Also , • 1) Circle the Rhyming Words: Try to

have the children, circle the words that rhyme.

• 2) Customize: Substitute names for people in class and have them create a new stanza or edit a stanza. Change the teacher’s name.

• 3) Rhythm Count/Syllable Count: Have children count the syllables, (clapping hands, rhythm eggs, tapping table, sticks, drums, tapping heads lightly) and rhythm of each sentence. Then have them count the rhythm of childhood song sentences (Twinkle, Twinkle). Can you take out a few words to have the poem to fit your song?

• 4) Vocabulary: What words you know? What words you don’t know? What words can be edited or deleted?

• 5) Vocabulary: Find an adjective in the poem that can be changed for the better. Give three options that a more descriptive and fit the rhythm. If it doesn’t fit, change the rhythm.

• 6) Fluidity: Model the rhythm by underlining where you pause and accent. Show students how it sounds if done incorrectly, vs. correctly. Then have them do the same in small groups explaining to a friend.

• http://www.icantbelieveitsnotbutter.com/turnthetubaround

• link

• - see the voki message - my daugter reading the poem - 60 secs- funny avatar-More Ideas - Must check out voki.com and jing.com for your future classes- use of web pages -: Fw: Ode in PowerPt 2003- rug Hope you enjoy it

• Wed, March 24, 2010 10:17:24 PM • From:Neil Winchel <neil.winchel@verizon.net>View ContactTo:sfier@touro.edu Cc:neil winchel

<neil.winchel@verizon.net>The ppt template I used several times  in different classes- I like the education apples theme. Feel Free to use it.

• I just cut a paste from my original text or word document.- and change the slides to fit the topic.   •  • The text and ideas just came free flowing.• .•  • I didn't do it for this presentation, but you can add great animation of the phrases/ bullets flying in .•  • And you can record your voice and playback - to provide a book on tape.•  • One thing that I would like to add is a voki avatar- www.voki.com www.oddcast.com - that one can create an add to a

website- it is an avatar or animated charachter- that one can enter in text and or call and record a voice for 60 seconds- and have voki charachter read the text in a funn y voice or your voice. take a look a at the voki site.

•  • Also , take a look at Jing.coM (www.jing.com)• hese 2 websites are sites suggested by Touro;s Dr Stein- here youre able ( with a computer and a mic - to make video

tutorials of keystokes / lesons on the  your computer- you can then send links to email or a website)•  •  • If I can get my voki to work , I ll let you know-- tHIS IS THE VOKI EXAMPLE-  ITS a pretty funny and educational tool•  • sent you a Voki message !

Click the link to hear a special voice message from your friend using a cool Voki character:

http://www.voki.com/php/viewmessage/?chsm=358e3b115f0b3f6a8e654ef3e34bfe55&mId=440993

Mar 24, 2010 Don't forget to return the favor. Sign up so you can send them one back!

2007 www.voki.com. All Rights Reserved.•  

•  

• Oh yeah!!!! ( Talking in an informal voice)  - - I would also add  a mini lesson in •  • Iambic - pentameter• Tetrameter Main article: Iambic tetrameter

– Lo, thus I triumph like a king, – Content with that my mind doth bring. (Edward Dyer, "My Mind to Me A Kingdom Is")

– 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves – Did gyre and gimble in the wabe. (Lewis Carroll, "Jabberwocky")

• [edit] Pentameter• Main article: Iambic pentameter

– To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. (Alfred Tennyson, "Ulysses")

– Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18) • (Although, it could be argued that this line in fact reads: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Meter is often broken in this way, sometimes for intended effect and sometimes simply due to the

sound of the words in the line. Where the stresses lie can be debated, as it depends greatly on where the reader decides to place the stresses. Although in this meter the foot ceases to be iambs but trochees.)

– A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! (William Shakespeare, Richard III) • [edit] Heptameter

– I s'pose the flats is pretty green up there in Ironbark. (A. B. Paterson, The Man from Ironbark) • Key:• Non-bold = unstressed syllable

– Trochee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochee) – Should you ask me, whence these stories? – Whence these legends and traditions,

• Trochaic meter is also seen among the works of William Shakespeare:

– Double, double, toil and trouble; – Fire burn and cauldron bubble.[1]

• Perhaps owing to its simplicity, though, trochaic meter is fairly common in children's rhymes:

– Peter, Peter pumpkin-eater – Had a wife and couldn't keep her.

• Often a few trochees will be interspersed among iambs in the same lines to develop a more complex or syncopated rhythm. Compare (William Blake)

– Tyger, Tyger, burning bright – In the forests of the night

• *****SOUNDS LKE TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR ( MOST RHTHMIC SONGS  LOOK LIKE THIS COMBINATION OF TROCHEES WITH SOME IAMBS IN BETWEEN• If I really understood it!!! But it sounds a lot about what I was speaking about regarding rhythm and stressing the first beat vs the 2nd beat or syllable- is that the idea!!!

•  • Have a good night•

From: "sfier@touro.edu" <sfier@touro.edu>To: Neil Winchel <neil.winchel@verizon.net>Sent: Wed, March 24, 2010 3:13:33 PMSubject: Re: Fw: Ode in PowerPt 2003- rug Hope you enjoy it

Thank you!  This is great.  When do you find the time to do all this?  You're amazing! 

Dr. Sharon FierProfessor of Graduate Education

Inquire and Inspire until you Expire!

>  My ode to a rug - enjoy>________________>ode (1542k bytes)

• <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://vhss-d.oddcast.com/voki_embed_functions.php"></script><script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">AC_Voki_Embed(200,267,"50f2ad50edbecb6107e9e63208ead3bc",2322221, 1, "", 0);</script><BR><a href="http://www.voki.com/"><b>Get a Voki now!</b></a><BR><BR><script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://vhss-d.oddcast.com/voki_embed_functions.php"></script><script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">AC_Voki_Embed(200,267,"50f2ad50edbecb6107e9e63208ead3bc",2322221, 1, "", 0);</script

• 7) Finish It: Add your own twist!!!• 8) Edit It: What happens to the rug next? In 4th

Grade? In 5th Grade? Did the rug feel the same in 2nd Grade?

• 9) Act It Out: Write a script. Perform in class.10) Play Music: Add Music to your Performance.

• 11) Poem / Song Analysis- Connection? As I review the lyrics, I am noticing a similarity of many styles from many poem styles and songs. I am making a self to text connection. (E.g. Style: Dr. Seuss, Song: I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, Poem: The Night Before Christmas, Song Style: Cats in The Cradle). What connection might you as the reader have to the poem/chant/song?

• 12) Songs: What other songs deal with School and Education? (Sam Cooke, Simon and Garfunkel) Don’t Know Much About.. What A Wonderful World This Would Be? Research the Web for lyrics and share them with the class. Research the history and meaning of the song. Talk about the artist. Make your own customized lyrics. (School Days, Schools Out, Me and Julio )

• Link to Google , Songfacts , Top 10 Pop Songs about School Children Songs for Teaching , Poems for Teaching, Top 10 School Day Oldies and the greatest lyrics site, Songfacts Also Please see a

• Link to What a Wonderful World Video1 Sam Cooke Video2 Herman’s Hermits Audio and History of Simon and Garfunkel History of Sam Cooke - "Wonderful World" (sometimes referred to as "(What a) Wonderful World", but unrelated to the Louis Armstrong song "What a Wonderful World") is a soul song that was written in the late 1950s by soul music pioneer Sam Cooke, along with songwriters Lou Adler and Herb Alpert.

• Materials needed: Music accompaniment, A creative way for kids to express rhythm (Easy: hand clapping, Creative: egg shakers)

• Internet Access (if needed)

• Printed out lyrics• Creative Costumes (if

role playing)• Other Examples of

Creative Books• A Great Imagination !!!!

Ode to a Kindergarten Rug

• Ode to a Kindergarten Rug• By N. Winchel• ALSO - Can be sung as a BLUES song. So get out your

guitar!!!• Chorus: (Teach this to your audience and have them

repeat.)• Rug time, Rug time - Oh ! It was such a fun time.• Rug time, Rug time - Oh ! It wasn’t such a long time.

(2x)• or• Rug time, Rug time - (t’was) / was such a

fun time.• Rug time, Rug time - (t’wasn’t) / wasn’t

such a long time. (2x)- sing to the tune of “ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Stanza 1• Stanza 1• I am the lonely rug, all solitary

and bored.• At one time I was merry, and now

I am ignored.• Oh!!! How I look back on, Oh!!! I

beg your pardon.• As I think of those days- as “a rug

in Kindergarten”• The third grade all sit - in chairs at

their tables.• As Ms. Crabtree reads from Test

Prep,- and Aesop’s Fables.• They are told to sit quietly

(SHHHH!!!!!) - and don’t move (CREAK!!!) in your seat.

• Through – Multiplication and Fundation drills – that they nervously (AHHH!!! UMMM!!) repeat.

• (What are other words that show sounds?)

• Chorus:

Chorus

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’was) / was such a fun time.

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’wasn’t) / wasn’t such a long time. (2x)- sing to the tune of “ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Next Stanza

• Next Stanza• I was the one who helped them –

learn their ABC’s.• The Alphabet around my edges- and a

map’s geography.• All 50 States including Hawaii and

Alaska,• Texas, Maine, Rhode Island, New

Mexico, and Nebraska.• (What States Rhyme?)

Next Stanza

• Next Stanza• Helen was on H, Joshua was on J,• Laura’s spot was L, Kay’s spot was K.• Roy was on R, Ellen was on E,• Will’s spot was W, Zachary’s spot

was Z.

• (What other letters rhyme?) • ( ***Also you can substitute the

names and letters of your classmates as long as it rhymes and fits)

• Chorus:

Chorus

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’was) / was such a fun time.

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’wasn’t) / wasn’t such a long time. (2x)- sing to the tune of “ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Next Stanza• Next Stanza• They would all come together to listen to a book,• Read aloud by Ms. Crabtree- n’ keeps them in line – with a stern-

friendly look.• They would all come together- many dittys (songs) they would

sing,• “ If You’re Happy and You Know It” -& “A Few of My Favorite

Things”.• Tunes about The Seasons, The Months, and The Days of the Week.• As they sat at the rug, and at the SMARTBOARD they would peek.

• Their voices sound so reminiscent, as I hold back my tears,• Gosh!!! Voices sounding more mature, Now, its been close to 3

years.• Ms. Crabtrees’ still their teacher, the 3rd grade she now teaches,• I try to make out their familiar voices- my ears- their sound

reaches.

• (Why does the author use the phrase ‘n?)• Chorus:

Chorus

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’was) / was such a fun time.

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’wasn’t) / wasn’t such a long time. (2x)- sing to the tune of “ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

• “It’s been nearly 3 months in 3rd grade – in the corner of this room,

• Where the custodian sometimes stops by and says hello with a vacuum or a broom.

• But the kids like Helen seldom visit, they must stay at their table and chairs,

• Staring at the blackboard- some with blank stares.

• Chorus:

Chorus

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’was) / was such a fun time.

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’wasn’t) / wasn’t such a long time. (2x)- sing to the tune of “ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

• “Oh Hooray Yes !!! I hear the voice of Helen with an H and Joshua- They’re walking nearer.

• Wait a minute!!! Sounds like Ellen with an E – their voices sounding clearer.”

• Bringing books like Charlotte’s Web and Sarah, Plain and Tall,

• Oh!!! How I hope they’re coming- I hope so!! One and all”

• (What are other expressive words like “Wow” that we can substitute?)

• Chorus:

Chorus

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’was) / was such a fun time.

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’wasn’t) / wasn’t such a long time. (2x)- sing to the tune of “ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

• “Yippee!!! It’s Joshua with a J as he says “Okay!!- and finds his favorite spot to go,

• -And a new student to me and the class- whose name I do not know.

• Helen with an H assures me, She says “I’m back old friend, for a silent read”………

• My Suggestion: Ms. Crabtree must have heard my crying pleas, I am so glad I planted the seed

• (Now, its time for you to add or finish the story? What rhymes with read? (seed, feed, bead,deed, greed, heed,lead,need,seed,Indeed,agreed,freed…)

• Add a sentence- Add a stanza- Add a few stanzas- What happens next? Add another episode. (My Suggestion: Ms. Crabtree must have heard my crying pleas, I am so glad I planted the seed

We can also look at the lyrics to get ideas of things that rhyme and count by rhythm and syllables.(What A) Wonderful World

Herman's HermitsWritten by Sam Cooke, Herb Alpert and Lou Adler

- as recorded by Herman's Hermits (released May 29, 1965)- entered the Billboard Top 40 the week of June 5, 1965 andstayed for 8 weeks, peaking at #4 the week of July 10, 1965

- cover version of Sam Cooke's #12 hit from 1960

• Don't know much about history• Don't know much biology• Don't know much about science

books• Don't know much about the

french I took• But I do know that I love you• And I know that if you loved me

too• What a wonderful world this

would be• Don't know much about

geography• Don't know much trigonometry• Don't know much about algebra• Don't know what a slide rule is for• But I know that one and one is

two• And if this one could be with you• What a wonderful world this

would be

• Now I don't claim to be an A student

• But I'm tryin' to be• Oh maybe by being an A student,

baby• I can win your love for me• Don't know much about history• Don't know much biology• Don't know much about science

books• Don't know much about the

french I took• But I do know that I love you• And I know that if you loved me

too• What a wonderful world this

would be• ------ lead guitar ------• But I do know that I love you• And I know that if you loved me

too• What a wonderful world this

would be

Chorus

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’was) / was such a fun time.

• Rug time, Rug time - (t’wasn’t) / wasn’t such a long time. (2x)- sing to the tune of “ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

WORDS THAT RHYME

• Bored• Pardon• ABCs• Alaska• J• E• Book• Sing• Trigonomety

• Ignored• Kindergarten• Geography• ? Rhyming

State ?• K• Z• Look• Things• Geography

• BE CREATIVE