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Schoolyard Rhymes:

Kids’Own Rhymes for Rope Skipping, Hand Clapping, Ball Baouncing, and Just Plain Fun

Selected by Judy Sierra

Illustrated by Melissa Sweet

About the book:

The rhymes chanted on schoolyards, playgrounds and neighborhood sidewalks stick in the mind like bubble gum to a shoe. Here are fifty of the funniest that invite kids to become playground poets of their own.

About the author:

Judy Sierra grew up jumping rope and chanting schoolyard rhymes in Falls Church, Virginia. This early introduction to rhymes that are passed down from one generation of children to the next eventually led to her Ph.D. in folklore from the University of California at Los Angeles. She is renowned for her funny and brief retellings of folktakes such as Silly and Sillier and is equally adept at rhyme, as exemplified in her recent bestseller Wild About Books.

About the illustrator:

Melissa Sweet grew up in a suburban New Jersey neighborhood with “lots of kids and kick-the-can type games to keep us out of trouble on summer nights.” She attended Kansas City Art Institute and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and has illustrated more than fifty books for children. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, and other newspapers and magazines. Visit her on the web at www.melissasweet.net

Questions to consider:

Which rhyme is your favorite in the book? Why did you pick this one? What’s your second favorite? Third?
What does it mean that some poems are called “nonsense?” Which one, do you think, has the most nonsense?
Do all poems have to rhyme? Should they?
How do you figure out the rhythm of the poem?
Which poem is easiest to jump rope to? Why?
Which poems use dialogue? Do these make it more fun to learn?
Why do so many of the poems use numbers in them?
Which poems had you heard before many times? Why do you think some poems are passed down from one generation to the next?
Do you think any of the poems are kind of mean? Why? How do you think these kinds of rhymes got started?
Which illustration is your favorite? Why? Is it the color or the design or the emotion that you are responding to?

Projects:

Language Arts:

Rhyme scheme is the order in which lines of poetry rhyme with each other. Each line is assigned a letter of the alphabet and when two lines rhyme they are given the same letter. For example, in the first poem on p. 15 (Burp!) the rhyme scheme is AABB

On pg. 7 (with the judge) the rhyme scheme is: ABCB for both stanzas.

Figure out the rhyme scheme to at least three poems!

-or-

Learn your favorite rhyme by heart. Then, start changing the words to match things that are important to you and you find funny!

Use the following rhyming pairs from the book to develop phonemic awareness (a building block to literacy) and play these classic games with a twist!

Rhyming Pairs from the book:

Duty/beauty

Black/back/Mack

Cents/Fence

High/sky/July

Tim/swim

Purse/nurse

Sweet/meat

Full/bull

Black/back

Green/bean

Red/bed

Nose/toes

Beans/submarines

Time/nine/line

Cake/mistake

Yella/fella

Busted/disgusted

Air/care/pair/underwear

Splat/rat

Bed/said

Sick/stick

Stick/sick

Clean/magazine

Fight/tight

Sweet/feet

Blow/toe

Dumb/gum

Mean/machine

Men/ten

More/door

Bell/cell

Around/ground

Shoe/you

Upstairs/prayers

Light/night

Rat/bat

Out/trout

Fire/wire

Nice/mice

Before/door

Town/down

Sit/spit

Floor/door

Grand/hand

Waist/face

Life/wife

Nickel/pickle

Sour/flower

Yellow/fellow

Mean/bean

Hard/card

Pear/fair

France/underpants

Rhyming Bingo: Create typical bingo cards with sets of words or a combination of words and pictures. Then, call out words (or again, show pictures for non-readers) who then place a token over a spot if they have a rhyming pair.

Rhyme Concentration: Use either rhyming pairs of words or pictures to play rhyme concentration! For younger children start with only six cards and build up over time.

Art:

After you’ve written a final copy of your own schoolyard rhyme, illustrate it inspired by Melissa Sweet’s work in the book. Notice how each page has more than just one figure and how she uses pattern to create interest. (You might want to use scraps of fabric!)

Music/Rhythm

Add this rhyme to your repertoire about the book or make your own new one:

Schoolyard Rhymes Rhymes, Rhymes

they are such fun, fun, fun

We learn by heart, heart, heart

they make us run, run, run.

Or make us skip, skip, skip

Or we might hop, hop, hop,

Or make us clap, clap clap,

But we can’t stop! Stop! Stop!

Using small hand instruments, tap out the rhythm of each poem as it is read aloud by the teacher. Or, have children raise their hands when they hear a rhyming pair- call on children to identify the rhymes.

Health/Science:

Schoolyard rhymes and recess belong together. Research which activities on the playground are best to build your body in these ways: endurance, heart health, or strength. Make an illustrated list of games that fit best under each category.

Mathematics:

Mary Mack Math:

Can you figure out these word problems based on the rhyme? Then, create three word problems of your own based on another poem in the book!

If Miss Mary’s dress has four silver buttons for every six inches and her dress is four feet three inches long then how many buttons are on her dress?

Since Miss Mary cannot read she decides to go to the library and check out a dozen books. Unfortunately she forgot about the due date and now they are overdue by a whole week! Each day she gets charged .10cents per book. How much does she owe the library? What if she forgets for two weeks?

If Miss Mary has to pay .50cents for each elephant that jumps the fence (the price at the circus just keeps going up!) then how much money should she bring if the circus now has 12 elephants? What if they only charge .25cents because it is Tuesday? How much if she waits?

This guide was created by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, a reading specialist and author of Reaching for Sun from Bloomsbury books. Visit her website to find hundreds of other guides to children’s literature!