As April continues, so does the poetic fun! Today, I bring you the Marianne poetic form created by Viola Berg and more magic in everyday miracles, plus some fun!

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🌟 Marianne Magic: Syllable Spells & Rhyme!

🎯 Lesson Objective

Students will craft their own “Marianne” poem using a specific syllable pattern and alternating rhyme scheme to explore rhythm, rhyme, and structured creativity.

🔗 Connections

• Learning Connection: This reinforces syllable counting, rhyme recognition, and creative writing skills.
• Poetry Connection: Introduces rhyme and structure and creativity in a fun way.
• Book Connections: Any poetry book with short poems or fun ones or rhyming ones, or…, for example:
  • All the Small Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth and illustrated by Natalie Babbitt
  • Here’s a Little Poem compiled by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters with art by Polly Dunbar
  • I’m No Good at Rhyming and Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups by Chris Harris and illustrated by Lane Smith
  • I’ve Lost My Hippopotamus by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic

🧰 Materials Needed

• Chart paper or whiteboard
• Markers
• Syllable/rhyme planning sheet (optional)
• Sample Marianne poems
• Paper & pencils
• Optional: Colored pencils or crayons for illustrations

Make the Marianne!

📝 Introduction (10 – 15 minutes)

A Marianne is a poem with one or more five-line stanzas, each of which has a 4-6-8-4-2 syllable pattern and an alternating rhyme scheme (a x a x a). So only lines 1, 3, and 5 need to rhyme. The lines are centered on the page (source).

Note: of course, the centering is purely decor, so could be skipped for the lesson

🧪 Try It Together: Modeling Time

1. Write a class poem as a group! Use a common theme (e.g. recess, pizza, a pet). Clap out syllables and test rhymes aloud.
   • Example brainstorm:
     • Topic: Recess
     • Words that rhyme: play, day, away, okay
2. Write line by line, using fingers to count syllables, and pick rhymes together.

Examples

Recess
The bell, it rang!
We dashed out to the park,
Laughing loud, we played and swang.
Bell rang again!
Oh hang…
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Test
My pen in hand
as questions start to blur
My brain? Jammed! My thoughts? they disband!
Clock ticks faster
I stand!?!
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

🪄 Independent Writing Time

1. Students choose a topic they like
2. They make a list of rhyming words related to the topic to use in their poem.
3. Start writing!

🔁 Adaptations and Extensions 🚀

Adaptations

• 2nd Grade: Do it as a group, keep it to just one stanza, and/or remove the rhyme requirement.
• 6th Grade+:
  • Have students write a longer poem with multiple stanzas, and each stanza uses a different end-rhyme.
    • narrate a story maybe
    • have multiple poems tied to a common theme
    • Use the form to respond to literature or current events
  • Try adding a metaphor or simile to at least one line in each stanza.

Extensions

• Pair up and write “Marianne duets” alternating lines, or creating a call-and-response type pair of Mariannes
• Illustrate the poem and display it in the classroom

Miracle Moments

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt asks us to take inspiration from Brother J.C.’s warm-up/intro to the MC5’s Rambling Rose and Jane Kenyon’s poem Shirt, and write a six-line poem which is informed by repetition, simple language, and expresses enthusiasm. Aim for a sermon/prayer-like quality that ends with a bang!

My Attempts at Capturing Magical Miracles

Reunion
Spring cleaning time, I moved the couch
It sighed, it creaked, it even said ouch
Hey fam, quick, look what I found, 
Hey fam, gather ’round, gather ’round!
Dust in my throat, joy in my sole.
And I screamed: Fam, the sock pair is whole!
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Return
There it is, in front of me
A feast, a fantasy, almost a travesty
I rub my eyes, I blink them twice—
For such delight feels like “surprise!”
I close my eyes, I say thank you
For that golden slice that tastes like home.
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

More Mmmmms: AnagraMagic!

Ready for a fun challenge? Today’s topic is unpopular opinions for Top Ten Tuesday but going off-topic this week with some anagraMagic for you. Also, it is National Take a Wild Guess Day so made sense to have you all take a wild guess at these scrambled-up book titles!

I’ve scrambled the titles of some books (should be familiar names). See if you can decipher them! Put your answer in the comments! I will publish the answers later this week on my blog.

1. Batch me
2. Email end
3. Elf panda smirk
4. animate horn me thinks
5. all cavemen ode
6. mop pain spry
7. laid mat
8. boy free moue
9. disarmed mummers thing
10. mister shampoo
11. elfish molten sloth
12. carbohydrates forge time
13. drenching hits mild
14. main threat
15. charm

(Clue: all begin with today’s letter)

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, share your marianne poem with me when you write it! I’d love to read it! Love to hear your thoughts on the post, and your top pick from the books mentioned.

I am linking up to A-Z, Blogchatter, UBC, NaPoWriMo.

And you can find all my A-Z posts (this year and previous years’ as well) here:

A to Z Challenge Posts