For teachers and parents
Limericks for kids
Six clean, funny limericks written for children, a fill-in template, rhyme banks, and a 40-minute classroom activity.
Six clean, funny limericks written for this page, a fill-in template, and a five-step classroom activity that gets a whole class writing limericks in about forty minutes. Every poem here is safe for school.
On this page
Six limericks for kids
My homework
CleanThe giraffe
CleanThe race
CleanThe astronaut
CleanThe sneeze
CleanArt class
CleanHow to explain a limerick to a child
Keep it to three things. A limerick is five lines long. The long lines rhyme with each other and the short lines rhyme with each other. And the last line is the joke. Show one of the cards above and point at the letters down the side: A, A, B, B, A.
Then read it aloud and clap on the strong beats: three claps on the long lines, two on the short ones. Children feel the rhythm long before they can explain it, and clapping makes the difference between a limerick and five lines that happen to rhyme.
A fill-in-the-blank template
For younger or less confident writers, a frame takes away the hardest part. Fill in the blanks, then read it aloud to check it bounces.
Limerick template
There once was a ________ named ________,
Who ________ all day by the ________.
When ________ came by,
It said ________ “________!”
And ________ ________ ________.
Line one names someone. Line two says what they do. Lines three and four are what happens next. Line five ends on a word that rhymes with the name, and it should be the funniest word in the poem.
Rhyme banks
Give children a name that rhymes easily and a list to choose from. These are some of the easiest sounds in English:
| Name or word | Rhymes |
|---|---|
| Kate / cat | late, gate, plate, eight, great / hat, mat, flat, bat, splat |
| Bill / hill | still, spill, fill, will, chill, thrill |
| Lee / tree | bee, sea, knee, three, tea, free |
| Ben / hen | ten, pen, den, when, again |
| Sue / zoo | shoe, blue, glue, flew, moo, too |
| Ray / play | day, hay, say, way, stay, away |
A classroom activity
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Read and clap (5 minutes)
Read three of the limericks above aloud. The second time through, the class claps on the strong beats.
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Find the pattern (5 minutes)
Put one limerick on the board. Ask which lines rhyme and label them A and B. Ask which line is the joke.
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Write one together (10 minutes)
Choose an animal and a name from the rhyme bank. Write the last line first as a class, then build the other four. Writing the ending first is the trick that makes limericks funny.
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Write in pairs (15 minutes)
Pairs use the template and rhyme banks. One writes, one claps the rhythm and says where it stumbles.
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Perform (5 minutes)
Volunteers read theirs aloud. The class claps the beats, and the best punchline wins.
For older students, how to write a limerick covers rhythm and rhyme in more depth, and what is a limerick has the history, including Edward Lear. The limerick generator, set to Clean, can produce more examples for a lesson.
Questions
What is a limerick for kids?
A funny five-line poem. Lines one, two and five rhyme, lines three and four rhyme, and the last line is a joke. Kids' limericks are usually about animals, school or silly accidents.
What age can children write limericks?
Most children can enjoy limericks from about age six and write their own with help from about eight, especially with a template and a rhyme bank like the ones on this page.
How do you teach limericks to kids?
Read a few aloud and clap the beats together, show the AABBA pattern, then write one as a class before students try their own. The classroom activity on this page lays it out in five steps.
Are these limericks OK for school?
Yes. Every limerick on this page is clean and was written for this site. Teachers can print them without attribution.