If Not for the Cat: Haiku Riddles

Students in Miss Edwards and Mrs. McKinnon's classes experimented with haiku riddles after reading Jack Prelutsky's If Not for the Cat. The book has 17 haiku that form a riddle about a certain animal. Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry with 17 total syllables about the natural world. The poem is broken into three lines with 5 syllables on the first line, 7 syllables on the second line and 5 syllables on the third line. Can you guess the students' haiku riddle?


It lays eggs on land.
It's body has a hard shell.
It loves to swim slow.

Answer: A turtle

Snow comes from the sky.
It's cold and makes people sick.
It's white everywhere.

Answer: winter

It's black and yellow.
They can fly around outside.
They can be sneaky.

Answer: a bee