Hi fellow teachers and parents! Here’s a fun poem for you to use in your Grades K-2 (or ELL, ESL beginner, elementary) classrooms, or with children over the summer vacation. I put some teaching and activity ideas below to inspire you. There’s also a PDF and a PPT version of the poem below.
Discover more riddle poems here (spoiler alert: it’s a poem about eggs) and here (a poem about a chipmunk) and here (a poem about rain boots).
Let me know if you use the poem – I’d love to hear how it goes.
Watch a video of the “Summer Riddle” poem here:
What Am I?
I’m not a bee
or a knee
or a juicy green pea
I live in forests
and fields
or next to the sea
Climb up high
and you will see,
it’s very clear
I am a …
tree
Download a PDF, black & white, printable version of the poem:
Download a PPT slide version of the poem:
Teaching Ideas
- Language Arts, Poetry, Rhyme, Visual Arts: What other words rhyme with “tree”? Create a mind map of words that rhyme with tree; draw a series of images representing words that rhyme with tree; draw a picture representing the whole poem; practice reading or performing the poem in pairs or as a class.
- Science tie-in: Inquiry Questions: Where else in Canada or the world can you find trees? Are there places where trees don’t grow? Are trees that grow next to the sea different to those that grow in forests or fields? Why?
- ESL, ELL: Practise minimal pairs pronunciation using the vowel sounds in the poem: /iː/ contrasted with /ɪ/ (There are lots of lists of minimal pairs practices available online, including here: https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/minimal-pairs-i-ee.php).
Happy Teaching! Kim x
Kim T. Harrison 