5. What does everybody prefer to all the words the older sibling can say?
6. Quote a word to prove that the infant tries to imitate movement.
Vocabulary
Infant – small child, baby
mimic – imitate
prized – valued
If things grew down
Robert D. Hoeft
If things grew down
Instead of up,
A dog would grow
Into a pup.
A cat would grow
Into a kitten.
Your sweater would grow
Into a mitten.
A cow would grow
Into a calf
And a whole would grow
Into half.
Big would grow
Into something small
And small would grow
Into nothing at all.
Vocabulary
sweater – a jersey or pullover
mitten – a glove that covers four fingers together and the thumb separately
1. Match the animal in column A with its young in column B. Write down the animal and its young.
2. What other “things” does the poet mention and what do they “grow” into?
3. What warning does the poet give at the end of the poem?
4. Use a dictionary and choose the meaning from column B to fit the expression that contains the word “dog” in column A.
5. Write down a homophone for “whole” (line 11). What is the difference in meaning between these two words?
The vulture
Hilaire Belloc
The Vulture eats between his meals
And that’s the reason why
He very, very rarely feels
As well as you and I.
His eye is dull, his head is bald,
His neck is growing thinner.
Oh! what a lesson for us all
To only eat at dinner!
Have a discussion with your friend.
• Do vultures play any role in nature? What role is it?
• Why do you think it is important that we protect vultures?
• Why do you think vultures are bald?
• Will a vulture attack a calf? Why?
Questions
1. A quatrain is a stanza that has four lines. How many quatrains are in this poem?
2. Write down the rhyme scheme of the poem.
3. Which two words describe what the vulture looks like?
4. Why does a vulture feel unwell all the time?
5. What lesson is to be learnt from the vulture?
6. A group of vultures is called a colony. What are the collective names for the following:
a) A group of chickens is a . . .
b) A group of cattle is a . . .
c) A lot of cookies is a . . .
7. Choose the correct answer and complete the sentence:The vulture is a . . . because he eats all day.
a) pest
b) glutton
c) mess
8. Read the following words out loud. Which pair of letters in each word is used to create the same sound? Write down the words and underline the sounds.meals (line 1); feels (line 3)
9. Read the word “vulture”. What do you notice about the two underlined letters?
10. When we compare someone to a vulture, it means that the person is very greedy. Look at the idioms in column A and match them with the explanations in column B.
A worm’s betrayal
Fanie Viljoen
A worm made up his mind
To change his whole life
So he got a new girlfriend,
And he got a new wife.
Not once did he think
Of the worms he betrayed
Till the day he was chopped
In two by a spade.
Now the girlfriend and spouse
Still fight without fail
Over who gets his head
And who gets his tail.
Vocabulary
betrayed – hurt by someone's disloyalty, unfaithfulness, falsity
spouse – husband or wife
without fail – for certain, whatever happens
1. Look at the title of the poem. What does it mean?
2. A quatrain is a stanza that consists of four lines. How many quatrains are there in the poem?
3. Look at the first line of stanza 1. The poet states:
“A worm has made up his mind”
What is it called when human qualities are given to non-human things?
4. Give a homophone for “whole” in line 2. Make two sentences to show the meaning of the two words.
5. In lines 3 and 4, the worm has a girlfriend and a wife. What does this tell you about the worm?
6. Which worms did he betray according to stanza 2? Why?
7. Give a synonym (from the poem) for spouse.
8. What are the wife and the girlfriend fighting about?
9. What kind of worm is this do you think? Why?