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Grade Levels: 3-6
Objectives
- Students will brainstorm social skill or other issues that they want to address
- Students will infuse the events of a typical nursery story with their issue
- Students will retell their nursery story using new words and lyrical rap
- Students can perform their nursery rhyme rap
Time and Materials
- One or two class periods
- A copy of Yo, Hungry Wolf! or any other nursery rhyme rap
- Other common nursery rhymes
Perspective
Teachers can help even the youngest of children fall in love with rap music by using David Vozar’s Yo, Hungry Wolf! A Nursery Rap (Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, $24.95.) This book is a retelling of three wonderful childhood tales: Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Pigs and The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
Expressed in a wonderfully fun and fast rap style, Yo, Hungry Wolf! tells the story of a hapless wolf who tries desperately to find something to eat. In the course of the story, the wolf meets a Red Riding Hood "with attitude," three pigs with guts and a boy whose misguided attempts to draw customers into his bakery backfire.
Students will love this fun rap version of a favorite old tale. And then they’ll have a model to write and perform their own rap versions of other favorite stories in their classroom.
Step One
Why not begin with the reading of a traditional version of The Three Little Pigs? After reading that version, then introduce students to Yo, Hungry Wolf! As you read the rap version, be as playful as possible and perform the rap for the students. Dance and play because this is your MTV time to have fun!
Step Two
Tell students that they are going to write their own rap versions of traditional tales or stories that they are already familiar with from previous classroom readings. Any stories whatsoever will do, but the shorter ones work best. Do a think-aloud with students first by taking a common story and sequencing it out. Have fun and play with rhyme.
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go
Then, thinking aloud, go about how you might turn this simple nursery rhyme into a rap version. For example:
Zee was a pumped up kid,
With locks spiky and gold
And everywhere that shorty went
He had to be fresh, ya' know!
Mad kids hated on Zee
Clowned him around the school,
He got dissed and totally played
Bullying's just not cool!
In small groups, have students take a nursery rhyme or tale and sequence out the events of the story like you just modeled with the original version of Mary had a Little Lamb.
Then have students begin to retell the story in lyrical rap. Circulate and help them brainstorm words that rhyme.
Step Three
Time to perform!
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Learn more about Jeff Sapp at www.jeffsapp.com .
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