The Elephant Fair

The rhyme about the elephant fair can be integrated into many themes. In my classroom, we use this theme to work with money skills in math, zoo animal week, /ed/ and /ing/ endings, /c/ soft sound, and the long vowel /i/ sound.

The same suggestions that have been made in previous sections apply here. All rhymes need to be written on chart paper, decorated with pictures to enhance vocabulary and meaning, laminated, and kept together on large rings. The printing should be large enough for students to view when in circle time or group.

The Elephant

I asked my mother for fifteen cents,

To see the elephant jump the fence.

He jumped so high

That he touched the sky

And didn't come back

'Till the Fourth of July.

Make a special word wall chart for students to refer to during the integration of money concepts.

Make shape books for students to use as a journal or for the rhyme. There is an elephant shape book pattern at:

The shape books can be made as small groups, during center activity time, or as a whole group.

Sing a Song

of Sixpence

BAKERY

SHOP

Sing a song of sixpence,

a pocket full of rhy;

Four and twenty blackbirds,

baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,

The birds began to sing.

Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?

Well, I walked around the corner,

And I walked around the block,

And I walked right into a bakery shop.

Well, I picked up a donut and I wiped off the grease,

And I handed the lady a five-cent piece.

Well, she looked at the money and she looked at me,

And she said, "This money is no good to me.

There's a hole in the middle and it goes right through."

And I said, "There's a hole in your donut, too."

Thanks for the donut!

You bet!

Make sentences leaving out the /ed/ and /ing/verbs. Students read sentences and place the correct verb tense in the chart.