Animal Research in First Grade Inspires Poetry

First grade students have been immersed in researching the animals featured in fairy tales. They have read multicultural versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. The black bear, gray wolf and the pig are the three animals from these tales that students have delved into researching. Students have been inspired to write a poem about each of these animals. The poem about the black bear was based on the poem Sleep With A Bear by nine year- old Yana Nicole. https://allpoetry.com/poem/11760970-Sleep-With-A-Bear-by-Yana-Nicole 

Students read her poem several times and imagined themselves as the bear in the poem. They then wrote their own poem using one of her lines to spark their own poem. The poems about the wolf and the pig are based on the students envisioning themselves as that particular animal based on the research they have conducted. For each of these poems the student brainstormed sensory images and words and then wrote and illustrated their poem. The students then had the opportunity to read their poem to their classmates.