Gratitude + poetry (+ an awesome German rap music video)

Gifts from my students for me + for baby :)

During my last unit with my students we talked about grammar, but also about poetry. I enjoy poetry -- writing it, reading it, etc., so I had fun sharing some poem forms with my students. One day I had them write limericks (here's my post about what a limerick is) in small groups.

Limericks are often somewhat cheeky or silly :) Here's one from Edward Lear:
There was an old man in a tree,
Whose whiskers were lovely to see;
   But the birds of the air,
   Pluck'd them perfectly bare,
To make themselves nests on that tree.

I wrote some limericks in German to demonstrate their possible cheekiness (in German "Frechheit" :) ) for my students.

(Of course, mine don't rhyme in English + even in German they aren't necessarily 'high art', but I had fun with them! :-P ) Here is one -- you can find the other, along with a full list of the student's poems here. That post is all "auf Deutsch" -- although the English translations are still provided :) )

Es war einmal der Rupert. Er hat zu viel gesabbert beim Trinken von Tee beim Schwimmen im See Und heut' ist er abgeblubbert.

There once was a man named Rupert, Who constantly dribbled + drooled When drinking his tea When swimming at sea And today he actually drowned.

Luckily no drowning occurred during our class trip here

Here are a few of the ones my students came up with (some of the rhymes in German are more "slant rhyme" (i.e. not exactly rhyming, but pretty close)):

Es gab eine Schüssel Mais Und der war immer sehr heiß. Es verschwand ein Körnchen -- Es war das Hörnchen! Und das Hörnchen war sehr, sehr weis'.

There once was a bowl of corn And it was always hot. A kernel disappeared -- It was the squirrel! And the squirrel was very wise.

Die Maus Es gab einmal eine Maus, die ging aus ihrem Haus. Da kam eine Katze, sie hob ihre Tatze und das Leben der Maus war aus.

The Mouse Once there was a mouse, Who went out of her house. Along came a cat Who raised her paw And the life of the mouse was out.

Der Föhn Es war einmal ein Föhn, der fand sein Leben schön. Den ganzen Tag lag er im Sarg, als letztes lag er im Öl.

The hairdryer Once there was a hairdryer. He thought his life was grand. The whole day long He lay in a coffin And lastly he lay in oil.

Now, if any of you remember a German rap, "Das Baby", written by my friend, to which we made a whiz-bang music video, then you'll remember that "schön" + "Föhn" made up one of the rhyming pairs. Since a group of my boys used that pair as well, I decided to treat them on the 2nd to last day of school by sharing our rap music video with them. 

They were impressed that I could do the worm (of course not in my current condition -- one student suggested that I would probably just bounce now :) ) + the "Das Baby" rap got stuck in their heads :D

Hooray for silliness!

I'm grateful for my students + they are grateful for me!