Round Robin Limericks

          Writing limericks (especially clean ones) is difficult enough for some.  But, writing them round-robin style is even more of a stretch.

         All you need are some beverage napkins, or pieces of note paper if you don't happen to be in a restaurant.

       Each person in your group gets a napkin/piece of note paper.  Each person writes the first line of a limerick, and then passes it to their right/left (as long as everyone passes in the same direction---if you are "leading" it, you might look to your right and left, and decide who you want to follow, and give directions accordingly).

       When each napkin/piece of paper has been written on by five different writers, everyone shares their limerick.

        To add to the festivity of the occasion, a limerick can even be written for the waiter/waitress as an added "tip."  Sometimes, the later the evening gets, the wilder the limericks are...

        This can be done in the classroom during a writing marathon or over some snacks.  It's a great activity to work on rhythm as well as rhyme and rhyme pattern.  (The writers at the Third Coast Writing Project---especially Dr. Ellen Brinkley and Pen Campbell---are the originators of this tradition. )  Certainly, some students would appreciate/need a rhyming dictionary.

        Here is one limerick:

   There was a writer from St. Lou,
  Her name, incidentally, was Sioux.
   She read books by the pile,
  Crocs on her feet---no style!
  (Vegetating, she never did rue!)


     What is a (clean) limerick of yours?  I would love to see it.