Article
Art by Christine Grove
Poetry Kit,

Halloween Pet Parade

Listen to the poem. Finish the rhymes! 

By Janice Behrens
From the October/November 2025 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will listen to a poem and use inference-making skills to complete rhymes.

Common Core Standards
  • RF.1.2 Phonological/phonemic awareness RF.1.3 Decoding RL.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text RL.1.10 Read poetry SL.1.1 Participate in collaborative discussions with peers and adults SL.1.2 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud
TEKS Standards
  • English Language Arts
    (2) Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking—beginning reading and writing. The student develops word structure knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts, phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell. The student is expected to: (A) demonstrate phonological awareness by: (i) producing a series of rhyming words. (9) Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts—genres. The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts. The student is expected to: (B) discuss rhyme, rhythm, repetition, and alliteration in a variety of poems.

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The dog went as a royal queen.

The cat went as a jelly _____________.

The rabbit drove a red race car.

The lizard was a cool rock _____________.

The rabbit drove a red race car.

The lizard was a cool rock _____________.

A guinea pig had rainbow hair.

The parrot was a teddy _____________.

The snake went as a hot dog dinner.

The parade is done. You pick the _____________!

Which pet would you pick as the winner? 

Answers: bean, star, bear, winner

More About the Article

English Language Arts Focus 

Phonemic awareness

Rhyming

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Implementation

  • Whole group

Pairings and Text Connections

Suggested Reading Focus

Phonemic awareness/comprehension (15 minutes)

  • As a phonemic awareness warm-up before reading, have students listen to a word and then say a word that rhymes with that word. Call on several students to offer suggestions for words that rhyme.
    • pot 
    • sun 
    • mad
  • Begin reading the poem. When you get to a blank space, pause and have children think about what word might fit there. Remind them that the missing word should rhyme with the word at the end of the line before it. Use chart paper to record their suggestions for rhyming words. Then try some of their suggestions in the text to see what makes sense. (If needed, guide children to the correct answer using the illustration to the right of the text.) When you’ve chosen the proper word to fill in the blank, have students write it in their copy of the magazine. Then have children restate both words in the pair.
  • When you fill in all the blanks, have students repeat the rhyming words in each pair:
    • queen/bean
    • race car/star
    • hair/bear
    • dinner/winner

Text-to-Speech