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Good, Clean Limericks for Kids

© Arden Davidson

So what exactly is a limerick anyway? Well the official rules are: Lines 1 and 2 must have three beats or accents and the last word of each line must rhyme. Lines 3 and 4 have only two beats or accents,and they also must rhyme with each other. Line 5 rhymes with and has the same accents of both line 1 and 2 (three).

One of the best is places to find fun limericks for kids is Teaching Ideas at http://www.warner.clara.net/englishf/lim... This site not only has a great selection of fun kid's limericks, but also includes ideas for activities involving limericks. For example,

1) Ask the children to investigate the structure of a limerick. How many lines does a limerick have? How many syllables are there in each line? What is the rhythm of the limerick like? What is the pattern of rhyming in the limerick?

2) When the children are familiar with the structure of limericks, they could create some of their own.

3) When the children have created their limericks, they could jumble up the lines, and ask their friends to rearrange the limerick back to the correct order (developing their sequencing skills).

Here's an example of one of the limericks on this site:

There was an old person of Fratton Who would go to church with his hat on. 'If I wake up,' he said, 'With a hat on my head, I will know that it hasn't been sat on.'

And here's an example of the kind of limericks you'll find at The Land of Xor, located at http://members.aol.com/derru/toybox/stor...

There once was a great shark named Andy Who really ate far too much candy. His teeth all fell out, Which made Andy pout, But the other fish thought it was dandy.

For a sampling of limericks written BY children, visit Lickety-Split-Limericks at http://millpark.ddouglas.k12.or.us/limer... These charming limericks were created by two fourth and fifth grade classes during national poetry month.

So you see, not all limericks start out with "There was an old man from Nantucket"!

The copyright of the article Good, Clean Limericks for Kids in Children's Poetry is owned by Arden Davidson. Permission to republish Good, Clean Limericks for Kids in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.