Teaching Elementary Students

A Lesson Guide for Introducing the Poetic Form 10 to Young Children, Grade 3 and Up

Young children who are just exploring language often have an openness to new forms–even poetry–especially when it can be turned into an enjoyable experience. It’s our goal to remove poetry from the dusty recesses of literature and bring it to life for students of all ages.

A question to the children from their teacher:
What do YOU think of when you think of the number 10?

(The children give their answers)

If these were not yet mentioned, you may mention them:
• 10 is the number of fingers on your hands
• 10 is the number of toes on your feet
• 10 can be the number of birds sitting on a telephone wire
• 10 can be the number of peas on your plate
• 10 can be the number of cookies in the jar

10 can be made up of two groups of 5, right? Because 5 + 5 = 10
Or, if you have 10 dollars, it can be one $10 bill, two $5 bills, or even 10 $1 bills.

There are lots of ways to make 10 of something.

Let’s write down 10 syllables. Do you all know what syllables are?

(hear the answers)

Yes, a syllable is a sound that ….(make up a word) . . . (For easy to teach rules on syllables, click here.)
Here are some words that just have one syllable
Do
Dare
Dream

Of course, these all begin with the letter D.

Here are some others:
Go
Slow
Birds
Fly

And, here is a sentence that has one-syllable words:
Let your wings set you free.

There are many other one-syllable words:
Be
Kind

Can you think of some others?

(The children suggest their own words)

How about words that have two syllables?
Peanut (pea-nut)
Butter (but-ter)
Jelly (jell-y)
Sandwich (sand-wich)

Can you think of other two-syllable words?

(responses)

How about words that have three syllables:
Peppermint (pep-per-mint)
Umbrella (um-brel-la)
Beautiful (beau-ti-ful)
Butterfly (but-ter-fly)

So, in the two words, beautiful butterfly, how many syllables are there? You can use your fingers to count.
(Six is the answer.)

Can you think of other words with three syllables?
You can count the syllables on your fingers, if you want

Okay, now, let’s do a syllable count of this phrase:
Beautiful rainbows dance above the clouds.

Yes, there are 10 syllables here!

Forward Ho! On to making poetry!

What is a poem?

And the poem form that we’ll be playing with today is called a 10.
It is called a 10 because it has 10 and only 10 syllables in it. This kind of poem has a particular structure. (You may think of these as rules for the poem):

It has three lines:
________
________
________

And in each line, there is a certain number of syllables (syllables, not words!):
In the first line, there are only two syllables

In the second line, there are only three syllables

In the third (last) line, there are only five syllables

(2 + 3 + 5 = 10)

This kind of poem takes some discipline. But just as with many things, we get as much as we give. By being disciplined, we learn to be ecological, to learn how much is enough.

So, here is an example of a 10:

fingers
and toes each
have nine kin helping
~Rachel Bagby

Let’s say the poem out loud, and as we say it, we can count the syllables on our fingers.

See how it follows the rule for a 10:
2 syllables
3 syllables
5 syllables

…which equals 10 syllables in all.

Here’s another 10:
Cat’s eye
To cat’s eye
We mouse through the fog
~Rachel Bagby

This time, let’s say it in a whisper, cupping our hands over our mouths as we say the poem softly . . .

You can feel how warm out-loud words can be!

Actually, saying a 10 out loud brings it to life. It is meant to be shared. You can share it with yourself, with a friend, even with a tree!

Thanks to Abhaya Thiele for her help in preparing this plan.