Lesson Plan: A Child's Garden of Verses

Grade Level: Kindergarten
Subject: ELA (Read-Aloud, Listening & Rhyme)
Duration: ~45 minutes

Objective

Students will listen to poems from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, identify rhyming words, and describe pictures the poems create in their minds.

Materials

• A Child's Garden of Verses (this resource)
• No other materials required (optional: paper and crayons for the extension activity)

Warm-up (~5 min)

1. Gather students in a circle on the rug.
2. Tell students: "Today we are going to listen to poems written a long time ago for children, about everyday things like rain, going to bed, and playing games."
3. Ask: "Raise your hand if you like listening to rhymes — words that sound the same at the end, like cup and up."
4. Say two example rhyming words aloud slowly (e.g., "tree" and "sea") and ask students to clap when they hear the matching sound.

Main Activity (~25 min)

1. Read "Rain" aloud (short 4-line poem). Read it once normally, then a second time slowly.
2. Ask: "What things did the rain fall on in the poem?" (field, tree, umbrellas, ships at sea)
3. Ask: "Which words rhymed?" (around/tree is not a rhyme — read again and ask students to listen for "sea" and "tree")

1. Read "Bed in Summer" aloud.
2. Ask: "In winter, does the child get up in the dark or the light?"
3. Ask: "Does the child think it's fair to go to bed while it's still light outside? Why or why not?"

1. Read "The Land of Counterpane" aloud.
2. Explain simply: the child is sick in bed and pretends his toys and blankets are a whole imaginary land.
3. Ask: "What did the child pretend to be?" (a giant sitting on a pillow-hill)
4. Ask: "What toys did he play with in bed?" (soldiers, ships, trees, houses)

1. Read "Where Go the Boats?" aloud.
2. Ask: "What color was the river? What color was the sand?" (dark brown river, golden sand)
3. Ask: "Where do the children imagine their boats going?"

Throughout, pause after each poem and ask 1–2 of the listed questions. Encourage students to answer in full sentences when possible.

Wrap-up / Exit Ticket (~10 min)

1. Ask each student (going around the circle) to name one word or picture they remember from any poem read today (e.g., "rain," "boats," "pillow-hill," "candle-light").
2. As an exit ticket, ask each student to say aloud one pair of rhyming words from the poems they heard (examples they can reuse: "tree/sea," "hands/lands," "cup/up").
3. Thank students for listening carefully and being good poem detectives.

If Time Remains

Reread "A Good Play" aloud. Ask students to imagine building something out of chairs and pillows like the children in the poem did with their "ship." Have a few volunteers describe what they would build and what they would pretend to sail to.