We are proud to announce our very first Collective Noun lesson on Print Shop. Click through to download and get the lexicon growing!

Now, let’s craft a poem!

First we need fodder:

You might think a group of rhinos is called a herd. Not so! A group of rhinos is a crash. Rhinos are really fast animals, can run up to 30 miles per hour. But rhinos have really poor eyesight and can only see about 30 feet ahead of their nose! A problem, right? Immediately we understand the humor in this collective nouns!

Now craft some sentences:

When I stroll along the shore of the Pacific Ocean, I see all kinds of footprints, of birds and dogs and humans. Not once have I come across a three-toed rhino footprint. But when I imagine the near-sighted CRASH of rhinos far from their swampy home, chasing the gulls just for fun as waves crash upon the California coast, I revel at the wonder of words!

Next, break the sentences into lines and stanzas:

When I stroll along the shore of / the Pacific Ocean, I see all kinds of footprints, /of birds and dogs and humans. // Not once have I come across / a three-toed rhino footprint. // But when I imagine the near-sighted / CRASH of rhinos far from their swampy home, / chasing the gulls just for fun / as waves crash upon the California coast, / I revel at the wonder of words!

Lay out the Collective Noun poem:

When I stroll along the shore of

the Pacific Ocean, I see all kinds of footprints,

of birds and dogs and humans.

 

Not once have I come across

a three-toed rhino footprint.

 

But when I imagine the near-sighted

CRASH of rhinos far from their swampy home,

chasing the gulls just for fun

as waves crash upon the California coast,

 I revel in the wisdom of words!

 

~Kimberly