Using these worksheets, children can gain a greater understanding of rhyming couplets - one of a number of poetic techniques with which they should be familiar by the end of KS2 - and use this knowledge to create their own.
Activities encourage children to identify and correct rhyming couplets or verses where rhyming couplets do not scan well due to line length, choice of rhyme or a change in topic. Different prompts then encourage the children to get creative and write their own rhyming couplets and verses.
The worksheet contains five different challenges, which can be used during one lesson or spread over a number of teaching sessions. Questions encourage creative responses and interesting images are used to stimulate ideas.
This primary resource is divided into five sections:
- Understand
Can you add second lines to complete the five rhyming couplets opposite?
- Explain
The examples given are not good rhyming couplets. Explain what is wrong with each one.
- Challenge
Select a pair of words from each of the word banks provided and write a rhyming couplet using them.
- Test
Look at each of the short pieces of writing. Rewrite each one so that it is a stanza containing four lines and two rhyming couplets.
- Apply
Choose two of the images provided. For each, imagine yourself in this setting, and create a rhyming stanza to describe it.
National Curriculum English programme of study links
- Listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently
- Recognising simple recurring literary language in stories and poetry
- Develop positive attitudes towards and stamina for writing by writing poetry
- Recognise some different forms of poetry