Two Funny, Little Red Apples
Two funny, little red apples
Fell from a tree one day.
Both small apples rolled and rolled
Till they got far away.
Perfect Poems for Teaching Sight Words © Ellermeyer & Rowell, Scholastic Teaching Resources
They rolled into a big, green yard,
Right past three white dogs.
They rolled right past a cold, blue
lake, And over four brown logs.
They didn’t stop. They kept on going,
Fast as a speeding train.
Until they felt some small, wet drops
Fall from the dark sky as rain.
They rolled into a pretty, new house,
Where a kind lady made them dry.
Then she put the two clean, red
apples Into her apple pie!
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Using the Poem
Using the Poem
Write the poem “Two Funny, Little Red Apples,” on chart paper, highlighting the adjectives
with a different color marker. First, read the poem to children, pointing to the words as you
go. Then divide the class into pairs. Have children reread the poem line by line, letting
each pair read a different line. (For step-by-step instructions on sharing the poem, see
page 8.) Then point out the highlighted words to children. Explain that these words are
adjectives—words that describe people, places, or things.
Activity 1
Describe It
Perfect Poems for Teaching Sight Words © Ellermeyer & Rowell, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Sight Word Focus
Objectives Adjectives
to understand that adjectives are describing words
to identify sight word adjectives in the poem
to brainstorm adjectives to describe a picture
M AT E R I A L S
Setup colored markers
Display the chart paper poem you created for “Two Funny, Little pictures cut from
Red Apples” (see Using the Poem, above). Underline each noun magazines
in the poem using a different-colored marker than the adjectives.
Cut out pictures from magazines featuring people, animals,
places, and things. Choose pictures with multiple elements that
will easily elicit nouns and adjectives, such as a circus
advertisement featuring a huge elephant and a funny clown.
Directions
1 Remind children that the highlighted words are describing words, or adjectives. Then draw their
attention to the underlined words. Explain that they are nouns and that a noun names a person,
animal, place, thing, or idea.
2 Next, show children one of the magazine pictures. Ask what they see and list their responses in
a column on the right side of the chalkboard under the heading Nouns. Then invite children to
describe each noun with one or more adjectives. For instance, a dog might be brown and furry
and a flower might be purple and pretty. Use a different color marker to list children’s adjectives
on the left side of the chalkboard under the heading Adjectives, across from the corresponding
nouns.
3 Next, divide the class into pairs and provide each pair with a different magazine picture and a
sheet of writing paper. Have children fold their papers lengthwise, then unfold to create two
columns. They can then follow the example from the board, with their own nouns and adjectives.
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Activity 2
Sight Word Focus
Match and Draw
Adjectives Objectives
to illustrate adjective-noun phrases using sight words
to match adjective-noun phrases to drawings
M AT E R I A L S Setup
On 28 index cards, write the following nouns: baby, ball, bed,
Perfect Poems for Teaching Sight Words © Ellermeyer & Rowell, Scholastic Teaching Resources
56 index cards
boat, boy, cake, car, chair, corn, doll, farm, feet, flower, girl,
two paper bags
grass, head, hill, nest, picture, seed, shoe, song, street, table,
drawing paper toy, tree, watch and window. Place the cards in a paper bag
crayons and/or labeled “Nouns.”
markers On 28 index cards, write the following adjectives: big, black, blue,
pushpins brown, clean, cold, eight, fast, first, five, four, funny, green, hot,
little, long, many, new, one, pretty, red, round, small, three, two,
warm, white, and yellow. Place the cards in a separate paper bag
labeled “Adjectives.”
Directions
1 Have each child randomly draw one card from each bag and put
them together to create an adjective-noun phrase (brown table,
yellow flower, and so on). If children pick a numerical adjective,
show them how to make their noun plural (five toys, four nests).
2 Provide children with paper, markers, and crayons and invite
them to draw a picture that illustrates their phrase. Encourage
children to be creative: a cold tree might be covered in icicles, and
a fast chair might have wheels! (If children choose a particularly
difficult combination, allow them to pick new cards.)
3 When children are finished, post their illustrations on a bulletin
board. Post or lay out the nouns and adjectives nearby, in
mixed-up order.
4 Then let the matching begin! Encourage the group to work
together to find the two cards that go with each picture and post
them beneath the corresponding illustration.
5 Once all the words and pictures have been matched, leave
the completed display up in the classroom for sight word
reading practice.
60
Using the Poem
Follow this simple step-by-step procedure for the poem.
1 Read the poem in advance. Preview the poem and activities yourself before you use
them with children. This gives you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the words
that will be introduced or reviewed and to select the activity that best suits children’s
instructional needs.
2 Write the poem on chart paper and highlight the Dolch words.
Write the poem on chart paper prior to presenting it. Write the target (boldface) words in
a different-colored marker to draw children’s attention to them. Please note that the bold-
Perfect Poems for Teaching Sight Words © Ellermeyer & Rowell, Scholastic Teaching Resources
face words are sight words related to the focus of the lessons, such as hot and cold for
“Antonyms.” (There will be non-boldface sight words in the poem as well.)
3 Point to the words as you read the poem aloud. Use a pointer or your finger to track
the print as you read aloud to the group. This gives children an opportunity to see the words
as they are read. You can make pointers easily with a dowel rod and a small decoration added
to the tip. For example, an apple eraser makes a good September pointer decoration.
4 Engage in repeated readings of the poem. Since children require multiple exposures
to new sight words, read the poem repeatedly in a variety of ways: chorally, in two groups
with each group reading every other line, and so on. Children might also act out the poem.
5 Examine selected Dolch words in isolation and in context. After reading the poem
as a whole piece of text several times, children can explore individual words and complete
the related activities. Then have children revisit the poem. This progression from whole text,
to words, and back to whole text provides children with a necessary and authentic context
for learning (Rasinski and Padak, 2000).
6 Have children write words on index cards and add them to individual Dolch
word banks. Have children create and maintain individual word banks that contain
the Dolch words as you introduce them. Word banks are containers (recipe card holders
word well), in which children store words in two groups: Words I Know and Words to
Learn. Children file unfamiliar words in the Words to Learn section of the container
and gradually move words over to the Words I Know section. Children can also alpha-
betize the cards or sort them into groups (word with one or two syllables; nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and prepositions; by vowel sound and so on).
7 Afterward, keep the poem visible so that children will continue seeing the words.
This ensures multiple exposures to the words. A weekly poetry walk around the class-
room is a wonderful way to review the Dolch words within the poem. You might also create
a word wall of all the sight words.
