Pronunciation: Limerick gimmericks!

I was looking for something fun to do with my students and casually wrote THE SMILING YOUNG LADY FROM NIGER on the board. I explained it was a limerick and gave a few more examples. The response was good, so I went home a printed out two sheets of them for the next day. I must say it was a good deal of fun but more importantly it has had surprising classroom value.
Several of my student who struggled with speaking as fluidly as we do are suddenly doing much better. Once they got used to the rhythm and rhyming pattern, they then learned the words. After that it is just a matter of practicing the pronunciation of the words and learning to speak up!
For me, a great benefit is I can select or create limericks that concentrate on specific skills like the 'R' and 'L' sounds, or words that focus on mouth movement such as 'oud' words like loud, crowd and proud. Since I know the poems already, I can watch their faces quite closely and correct mistakes easily.