Little Birdie_Lesson Plan

Total time: 160 minutes or 4 periods of 40 minutes each.

Learning Milestones

1. Students will be able to read a poem appreciating its theme, rhyme scheme, and stanzaic
organization
2. Students are able to understand how mother-child relationships are to be found in every
aspect of nature
3. Students participate in activities to read the poem together in the class .
4. Students are able to understand comparative adjectives like stronger and longer
5. Students are able to understand the theme of a poem
6. Students are able to answer simple questions related to the theme, style, and meaning of
the poem.
7. Students understand how to connect the poem with the larger theme of mother-child
relationship and with growing up as also a process separation of a child from its mother.

Preparation and Prior Learning

Time: 10 minutes

1. Tell your class that they are going to read a poem about a child and a little bird
2. Ask if they can perceive any similarity between a child and a little bird.
3. Ask preparatory questions like: If a child rests in his or her cot, where would a little bird
rest?
4. Also ask, ‘If you are a bird-Mummy what would you say to your little child?’ ‘Do new-born
babies speak?’ ‘How do parents speak to new-born babies?’.
5. The student must be emotionally ready to understand a mother-child relationship.
6. Introduce the poet as one of the most important poets in English. Tell students that he
wrote poems about adventure and nature. His poems have beautiful music in them.

Learning Activity

Time: 60 minutes

1. Read the poem in the following manner:

WHAT does little birdie say
In her nest at peep of day? [Teacher]
Let me fly says little birdie,
Mother, let me fly away.[Student 1]
Birdie, rest a little longer,
Till the little wings are stronger [Student 2]
So she rests a little longer,
Then she flies away.[Teacher]
So she rests a little longer,
Then she flies away.[Teacher]
Baby says, like little birdie,
Let me rise and fly away.[Student 3]
 Baby sleep, a little longer,
Till the little limbs are stronger,[Student 4]
If she sleeps a little longer,
Baby too shall fly away.[Teacher]

Once you have read the poem with a group of four other readers, ask students to close
their books.
2. Then jumble the two stanzas and ask students to unjumble them and unravel the poem.
3. Play the audio to help students check how they responded to the challenge.
4. Then, ask students to write their own versions of the poem where they decide what they
would say if they were mothers to the little birdie and the little baby.
5. Explain that when we grow up, our mothers no longer need to take care of us. However,
mothers enjoy taking care of their little ones and sometimes when you grow up and grow
apart from your mother, it could be painful for her.
6. Ensure students understand meanings of words like stronger and longer. If necessary, use
illustrations to explain the terms [compare two pencils, compare a well-built man with a
frail and old man asking students to say who is stronger or which is longer]
7. Play the animation of the poem.

Let’s Enjoy

Time: 20 minutes

1. Discuss all answers with the class. If necessary, play the animation of the poem once
again.
2. Students record their answers once the class has a consensus on the responses.

Activity

Time: 40 minutes

1. Ask students what rhyming words are. Elicit examples of rhyming pairs from each student
or ask students to form a rhyme chain where one student starts with a CVC word and
every student after him/her continues with a rhyming word. If the chain is disrupted, then
students are to start a new chain.
2. Students then complete the first activity individually completing the responses in the
coursebook itself.
3. The second activity should be used as a competition amongst the class where the student
who completes the task first gets a round of applause.
4. Ensure every student has recorded their response.