1. Circle up the group.

Discuss if and why students like rhyme in poems. Ask students, “What role does rhyme play in a poem?” and “How does rhyming add/contribute to a poem?”

2. Review the term “rhyme scheme” with the group before continuing.

*The rhyme scheme of a poem is the pattern of end-line rhyme. The pattern is labeled using small letters alphabetically each time a new end line rhyme is introduced.

3. Read aloud the following Activity Challenge Box to the group.

Challenge: Students will use Toobeez to grow a “rhyming tree” and label the rhyme scheme of a poem.

4. Display an overhead transparency or poster of Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

5. Lead the class in labeling the rhyme scheme of the poem (aaba bbcb ccdc dddd).

6. The four Toobeez tree trunks each represent one stanza in this poem.

7. Assign a tube color to each rhyme sound found in the rhyme scheme.
For example, red tubes can symbolize “a” end-line rhyme and blue tubes can symbolize “b” end-line rhyme. Attach the appropriate colored Toobeez “branch” to the tree trunk to label each line in the poem.

8. A Toobeez branch will now be added for each line of poetry to represent the rhyme scheme. Have a few volunteers attach the appropriate colored tubes to each Toobeez ball on the tree trunk to symbolize the rhyme pattern of the sample poem.

9. Break students into three or four smaller groups, and provide each group with Toobeez balls, tubes and a tree trunk. Hand out samples of the quatrain poems to each group and have them “grow” their own rhyming trees for their poem using the Toobeez colored tubes. A quatrain is a four-line rhyming poem.

10. When a group is finished with one poem, have them switch poems with another group. Repeat this step as time permits.

11. Circle up the group again. Share the different patterns each group found within the poems.

12. After the activity, move to the “Activity Discussion and Processing”

Each Toobeez ball in the tree trunk represents one line of poetry. Have students attach one colored Toobeez for each end line rhyme sound.

To close the lesson, end with a group discussion about what was learned during the activity. Circle up the group, and work through the following questions. If possible, record the group’s responses on flip chart paper so all comments are displayed.

1. Follow-up/W riting rhyming poems.

Using knowledge from this lesson, have one student volunteer to create a Toobeez tree trunk with a particular rhyme scheme and a certain number of lines. Sometime throughout the day, have students write a poem following the designated number of lines and rhyme scheme on the rhyming tree