This Lesson's Title:

Nash-ing the Animals

wordplay for writer's notebooks with Ogden Nash's inspiration

This lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Dena Harrison. Check out all of Dena's online writing lessons by clicking here.

This on-line writing prompt is based on the poetry of Ogden Nash. Before writing to this assignment, students should hear and discuss the poetry of this great poet.

Click here to learn more about this poet.

If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for a collection of works by this poet that you can check out from the county library.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

Everyone loves the poetry of Ogden Nash!  His silly style and word play entertain people of all ages.  For this mini-lesson, students will discuss some of Mr. Nash’s poetry on animals and write their own short poem(s), imitating his style, in their writer’s notebooks.  Teachers: click here to read the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is word choice; students will have fun playing with words and silly rhymes based on the animals of their choosing.  The support trait in this assignment is idea development; students who are struggling for a spark to get them writing will simply need to click on the interactive button below to find an animal that interests them.  Once they have their chosen animal, they can begin looking at either www.rhymezone.com or a rhyming dictionary for interesting rhyming words that they can utilize in their poems.