Introduction:
This poem would be a great poem to introduce a unit on animal adaptations. It would be neat to have pictures of different types of mystery animal teeth posted around the room. You could let the children guess all week about what animal they think the teeth belong to.
About the Teeth of Sharks
By: John Ciardi
The thing about a shark is-teeth,
One row above, one row beneath.
Now take a close look. Do you find
It has another row behind?
Still closer-here, I’ll hold your hat:
Has it a third row behind that?
Now look in and ….Look Out! Oh my,
I’ll never know now! Well, goodbye.
Extension-
Have the children research to find out if sharks have a third row and have them add a new ending to the poem.
From Poetry Speaks to Children by John Ciardi, Sourcebooks, 2005.
