an animals poems workshop with all fourth graders at tilden elementary center.

recently studying animals in science and poetry as a genre in english served all of the fourth graders at tilden elementary center in the hamburg area school district well. 

this is because during my visit to their school on tuesday, we practiced tying together the subjects of animals and poetry, one class at a time. the day involved more than 100 students sharing their own stories of memories about scenes involving animals, followed by minutes spent allowing their craft to take shape on the page, one freshly written poem after another.

alliteration, excerpts, metaphors, similes, stanzas, couplets, line breaks, and neologism were some of the topics we went over in the form of examples across sample poems which students read in between story-sharing.

fur kids usually known as pets but also bears, elephants, hummingbirds, squirrels, cows, wild turkeys, deer, and red-bearded dragons were a part of exciting talks throughout the day. a hamster running off of a bed at high speed made for a story kicking up some good laughs, too, since we learned that it wasn't badly hurt, in the end.

mrs. sherry fuhrmann is the teacher who helped to organize this animal poems workshop day on behalf of all fourth grade teachers and students. she is also the name behind nostalgia-hugging bottled mint tea known as pure wild tea based in berks county. and many thanks to the hamburg-tilden PTO for helping this especially fun, poetry-filled day to be possible.

several students worked up the well-deserved confidence to read their poems in front of their classmates, too, and in some cases, i read the poem-words for these young authors so others would still hear the new language throwings they wrote.

some of the many poems written by these fourth graders are below.

*

The Dog

By Shannon C.

My little dog jumped on the couch, but someone

was sitting there, and he fell off. So he tried again,

but he kept hitting the floor. To me, it looked

like an alligator trying to climb a ladder.

Or an elephant trying to climb a truck.

*

Dead Bird

By Dylan B.

I saw a dead bird on my porch.

I picked it up and showed

it to my mom, and she said, Get

it out of my house, Dylan!

*

Mayo Cat

By Chris B.

One early morning, a cat

came out of Bus 4's engine.

To my surprise, it had

a mayo jar on its head.

I almost fell backwards.

*

My Cat

By Cadence J.

My cat Moby

can jump 3 feet.

She eats hot dogs

and ramen noodles.

She loves to talk

to birds from an open window.

*

The Cow

By Kayden S.

The cow wanted to run free,

but the wires blocked the cow in.

The cow was so tired of trying to

get out. One day, the cow bursted

out of the pen and broke the wires,

and the cow was so happy that the

cow ran far away.

*

Wrench-Throwing Monkey

By Michael W.

The monkey got out all the

time and threw and threw

wrenches at my pappy.

Every day, it would 

happen, and I was not

even thought of at the

time.

(The last line here means Michael was not born yet and learned this story years later. =)

*

My Bull

By Selena H.

My bull was rubbing his

head back and forth on

the dirt pile. It was

hilarious, back-forth,

up-down, all around,

to keep the flies

off his back. At the beginning,

his head was black. At 

the end, it was brown. 

He looked like he was

in an explosion of 

dirt.

*

Hamster

By Braden T.

My hamster jumped off my bed and hit the

floor, trying to climb back up the bed. It kept falling

and falling, trying to get back up again, kind of like

a kangaroo hopping up and down.

*

Bear Fight

By Alex B.

A bear was feeding

in the trough. Another

came and chased it.

The one was limping.

*

Poor Squirrel (sadface)

By Briana E.

A long time ago,

on a Sunday morning,

my grandma went to the auction.

A squirrel climbed into her engine [of her car].

But when she tried to start her engine,

it didn't work. 

She called a garage to see what happened,

and they pulled out the squirrel's body.

*

The Big Fat Cat!

By Bradley S.

Once, my fat cat

was trying to jump

from my couch to the

kitchen table. But

he failed. He thought

he was soaring in the

air, but he flopped

on the ground. I

thought he was hurt,

but he kept trying

over and over again.

*

The Deer

By Danielle H.

I was driving home from

practice, and I saw a

deer. It ran right in front of

the car, into the marsh.

When we drove by, it ran

into the woods,

and that's when we saw it--

a baby deer in the trees.

*

African Elephant

By LeeAnn M.

A day of warmth

on an African Elephant

spraying itself with

mud, running down

the savannah land.

*

Dancing Cow

By Ava P.

One day, me

and my mom

were driving

by a farm.

We saw a

black cow

jumping up-down,

and he looked

like he was

dancing. And

the guy in front

of us started

taking a video

of the cow.