Grade 7 English SCIENCE AND HEALTH EDUCATION – READING:SIMPLE POEMS Notes
English — Science & Health Education
Subtopic: READING: SIMPLE POEMS (Age 12 — Kenya)
These notes focus on English grammar you can find and practise when reading short poems about science and health (clean water, handwashing, healthy food, exercise). Poems often use short lines and commands — we will learn how to recognise parts of speech, tenses, punctuation and sentence types hidden in the lines.
Example Poem: "Clean Hands"
💧 Wash your hands with soap and water.
🧼 Rub for twenty seconds, front and back.
🫧 Germs run away when bubbles dance.
🏃 Stay healthy — play and learn each day.
Grammar points to spot in the poem
- Imperative verbs (Commands): "Wash", "Rub", "Stay" — the subject "you" is understood. Imperatives tell someone to do something (useful for health instructions).
- Simple present tense (facts or habits): "Germs run away" — tells what germs usually do in the poem's picture.
- Nouns and objects: "hands", "soap", "water", "seconds", "bubbles" — things we can name.
- Adverbs and adverb phrases: "for twenty seconds", "front and back", "each day" — add information about time, place or manner.
- Prepositions: "with", "for", "front" (used with "and") — show relationships (e.g., wash with soap).
- Conjunctions: "and", "when" — join words or clauses. "When" introduces a time clause ("when bubbles dance").
- Punctuation & Capital letters: Start lines with capital letters; use full stops or dashes to end lines. Poems may use short fragments — you can still add punctuation to make the meaning clear.
- Sentence fragments in poetry: Lines may be fragments but still make sense. You can expand them into full sentences for grammar practice (see exercises).
Practice activities (do and check)
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Identify the verb and subject in each line:
- a) "Wash your hands with soap and water." — verb: ______ ; subject: (understood) ______
- b) "Germs run away when bubbles dance." — verb: ______ ; subject: ______
-
Change the tense:
- a) Make line 1 past tense: "Wash your hands..." → "________"
- b) Make line 3 future tense: "Germs run away..." → "________"
-
Turn commands into polite advice using modal verbs:
- "Stay healthy — play and learn each day." → "You should ______"
-
Expand a fragment into a full sentence:
- "Rub for twenty seconds, front and back." → Add a subject and make it a complete sentence: "________"
- Find and underline (write) prepositions from the poem. Then make a new sentence using one of them: e.g., "with" → "I drink water with a cup." Replace the object to make it relevant.
Answers (check your work)
- 1a) Verb: Wash (imperative); Subject: you (understood)
- 1b) Verb: run; Subject: Germs
- 2a) Past: "Washed your hands with soap and water." (or "You washed your hands...")
- 2b) Future: "Germs will run away when bubbles dance." or "Germs will run away when the bubbles dance."
- 3) Advice: "You should stay healthy — play and learn each day." or "You should play and learn each day to stay healthy."
- 4) Expanded: "You should rub your hands for twenty seconds, front and back." or "Rub your hands for twenty seconds, front and back." → "You must rub your hands for twenty seconds, front and back."
- 5) Prepositions found: with, for, front (used with "and" as place words). Example sentence: "I wash with soap before meals."
Quick tips for reading simple health poems
- Look for commands — these are often health tips (wash, cover, boil, eat).
- Check the tense to know if the poem tells a fact (present) or a past story (past).
- Turn short lines into full sentences to practise grammar and comprehension.
- Use the poem's vocabulary (soap, water, germs, healthy) to write your own two-line health poem focusing on correct verbs and punctuation.
Ready? Try writing a short two-line poem about clean water. Then underline the verbs and circle the nouns.