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Poetry,

Emoji Man

Listen to the poem, and finish each rhyme.

By Kenn Nesbitt
From the October/November 2025 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will identify and implement rhymes in a poem.

Featured Skill: Rhythm and Meaning,
Topic: English Language Arts,
Common Core Standards
  • Skill Focus
    Identify rhymes in a poem
  • Common Core Standards
    RL.2.4 Describe how words and phrases supply rhythm and meaning in a poem RL.2.10 Read grade-2-appropriate stories and poems RF.2.3.B Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams
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) explain visual patterns and structures in a variety of poems

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Emoji Man has grace and style.

You’ll know he’s happy by
his [ ________________ ].

But if he’s ever feeling down,

his face, instead, will have
a [ ________________ ].

At night he puts his PJs on.

He climbs in bed and gives
a [ ________________ ].

He says, “Good night,” and, counting sheep,

Emoji Man goes right 
to [ ________________ ].

Answers: smile, frown, yawn, sleep

Activities (1)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
Activities (1) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Implementation

  • Small group; whole group; independent reading

1. Read the Poem

Reading Focus: Reading fluency (20 minutes)

  • Before reading, review the concept of rhyming words with students. Explain that poets sometimes use rhymes at the ends of lines to help their poems sound a certain way.
  • For the first read, pause at each blank space. Based on the emoji and the word at the end of the line above, have students share what word they think belongs there. Have students write the correct rhyming words in their magazines.
  • For the second read, you can read the poem aloud together as a class.
  • You can also click the Read-Aloud button at the top of the digital issue to hear it read aloud by a professional voice actor. 

 

2. After-Reading Skills Practice

  • Emoji Writing with Nosey: (15 minutes)
    Students will practice writing by describing what different emojis mean.

Text-to-Speech