Take your students on a worldwide animal safari (right inside your own classroom) -- and teach them poetry at the same time, with OneWorld Classrooms' FREE Travel & Learn Online content (see username/password at left). As they travel, your students will read and listen to guess-who animals poems; act as sleuths to identify the animals; and click forward to see photos and read interesting animal and cultural facts. Take the activity one step further, using the tips in our Safari Curriculum Connections pages, and have your students write (and perhaps publish) their own guess-who animal poems. 

 

Use the links below to visit the world region you are studying:

 

Africa (shape & story poems)

Amazon Rain Forest (shape & color poems)

Galapagos Islands (Math poems)

Asia (Chinese gushi-style poems)

Arctic (Haiku)

 

Or go here for a page with links to all sections.

 

 

An orangutan, a komodo dragon and a Bengal tiger.

 

 

Safari Tips

 

For fun, tell students your goal is to stump them. Start with easier poems and then give them more challenging ones until they earn the ultimate stumper! As the poems get more challenging, encourage them to infer meanings from the context and to gather clues from the words they know instead of getting stuck on words they are not familiar with. After the first round, they will be enjoying the activity so much, they will want to try on their own -- and you will have succeeded in fostering independent learning and promoting the idea that poetry is fun!

 

 

A chipmunk and a Malayan tapir.

 

 

Guess who!

We have poems for all grade levels (over 100 in all) -- and they are chuck full of similes, metaphors, imagery, alliteration and the like! Try the poems below on your students. If you find the first few too easy, we challenge you tackle the last one. In it, each line contains a clich� that provides a clue or sets the scene. Good luck! (Use the links after each poem to see the answers.)

 

Twiga

 

             sky-
        the   scraper
  am            of the
I                      plain
                            The
                            lengths
                                of my
                                  neck
                                  and my
                                      legs
                                        are the
                                            same
                                            I've got
                                              a twenty
                                            inch tongue
                                          and two hairy horns
                                        And I was taller than y
                                        on the day I was born  o
                                        If you saw me drinking    u
                                      you                      would
                                      pro-                      -bab-
                                      -ly                        laugh
                                      I'm                          the
                                    friend-                    -ly
                                    "ca-                          -mel-
                                      leo-                         -pard":
                                      al-                              so
                                      known                        as
                                        .....                            .....
                                        .....                            .....
                                        .....                            .....
                                    (Guess                        who!)

 

 

� 2008 OneWorld Classrooms

SEE THE ANSWER

Note: The title of the poem is the Swahili word for the animal.

------------------------

 

Aivik

Blubbery boulder Submarine ballerina Whiskered white weapons

 

� 2008 OneWorld Classrooms

SEE THE ANSWER

Note: The title of the poem is the Inuktitut word for the animal.

------------------------

Nature's Violin

Nature's violin
Chinese children's friend
Talented hopper
Small but fills the night

� 2008 OneWorld Classrooms

SEE THE ANSWER

 

 

Atlantic puffins and a snowshoe hare.

 

 

Exponential Stature

 

I'm all furrows and fissures, rigid and dry

Like a lonely old volcano, wrinkled and shy

And like the layers of lava named after me

I've gained my stature slowly and exponentially
Only a tenth of a kilogram shortly after incubation

I was ten times that by my first birthday celebration

And ten times that by the time I reached first grade

And ten times that again by the end of my third
decade

And after a dozen more decades, I'll finally reach my end

By then I'll have doubled plus a half again

Can you figure out my weight, my age and who I am?

 

I'm all furrows and fissures, rigid and dry

Like a lonely old volcano, wrinkled and shy.

 

� 2008 OneWorld Classrooms

SEE THE ANSWER

------------------------

Warn Clich�s

 

If you beat around the bush
You'd better walk on eggs
I can quickly cook your goose
And I don't mean maybe, baby
You're skating on thin ice!

 

  I'm A-number one A vicious circle With a checkered career Since I'm dressed to kill

 

I'm as cool as a cucumber I've got a lean and hungry look And I pack a wallop I might not have a leg to stand on But I'm armed to the teeth And I come on like gangbusters I'm the spitting image of the end of your rope

 

We're in close quarters So put your best foot forward I'm close on your heels So I can sweep you off your feet And take you to the cleaners Yes, my friend, you're in a pickle And, to me, you're easy pickings

 

I send shivers down your spine Scare you out of your wits But it's too late now For crying in the wilderness You're a foregone conclusion In a no-win situation You can bet your boots Like a bolt from the blue In a twinkling of an eye I'll be a thorn in your side

 

To make a long story short Your days are numbered So pack it in Take your last gasp You're in hot water But your about to kick the bucket And when I add my finishing touch Like it or lump it You will bite the dust! That's right, my friend, you're on the brink of disaster And I'm the bottomless pit, the deadly ____________.

 

� 2008 OneWorld Classrooms

SEE THE ANSWER

 

 

An owl monkey, an ocelot and an albatross.

 

Curriculum Connections

Visit our Safari Curriculum Connections  for lots of lesson ideas and suggestions for how to connect your poetic safaris to all areas of the curriculum. (Note: This page is in the Africa section, but can be applied to all others.) Don't forget, you can always combine your OneWorld Classrooms' online travels with Google Earth to make your classroom adventures even more dynamic and educational (see our previous bulletin)!

All poems: � 2008 OneWorld Classrooms