Objective
Students will use the patterns of A Visit From St. Nicholas but rewrite the poem to work with another holiday.
There are a couple of possible extensions related to this poem:
- There is a dispute about who actually wrote the poem. Can students find info about and explain the argument?
- When poets form groups of syllables, those groups are called "feet." And, depending on the stress pattern, each foot has a specific name. The three-syllable, ba ba BUM grouping is called an "anapaest." ba BUM ba has another name, and "BUM ba ba" has yet another. Here's more information.
Steps
- Students note patterns in A Visit From St. Nicholas.
- Students look for moments when the poet deviates from his rhythm.
- Students choose a holiday and brainstorm vocabulary for that holiday.
- Students break those words and phrases down into their stressed and unstressed syllables.
- Finally, they rewrite at least one stanza from the original poem to fit their holiday.
Resources
- Worksheet Part 1: The Poem (PDF) Student can annotate this document with patterns.
- Worksheet Part 1: The Poem (Google Slides)
- Worksheet Part 2: The Syllable Table (PDF)
- Worksheet Part 2: The Syllable Table (Google Slides)
- Worksheet Parts 3 and 4: Holiday Vocab (PDF)
- Worksheet Parts 3 and 4: Holiday Vocab (Google Slides)
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