Facts, Poems, Reading, Writing

Grade: 6/Elementary

Objective: To engage with ecology through reading and poetry, building an imagistic vocabulary for and an empathetic understanding of some of the non-human species in our ecosystem.

K and I have been enjoying the mail-order library, using its resources to learn about social studies, science, history, and poetry.  Among our recent favorite books are: The National Geographic Kids Almanac 2014, National Geographic 5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything), The Human Story: Our Evolution from Our Prehistoric Ancestors, and National Geographic's Book of Animal Poetry.

National Geographic's Book of Animal Poetry features stunning photographs of animals alongside poems about their species, including poetry by Robert Frost, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Yolen, Steven Mitchell, and D.H Lawrence.

About a week and a half ago, instead of holding traditional science class, K, M, and I did a combined science/poetry activity where we read poems from the National Geographic collection, looked through field guides, Ranger Ricks, and Zoobooks, and created our own animal-inspired poems.  Here are two of them:

Untitled by K.

The quick flap of its wings and it’s off through the night sky.  Swoosh!  Over the heads of men and women oblivious to the flying spy.  Stealthy and sleek.  Off the find food.  Asleep in the day inside a sleeping bag of skin, so at the dead of night he can go for a whirl.

Swoosh!

A bat.

Hummingbird by M.

This poor hummingbird

has not a single feather

and I bet it can’t fly

but maybe

I made

a little

mistake:

I forgot it was a picture.