My girl's poems

In week one of school we worked on a poem inspired by the children's book Blueberries for Sal. I would be lying if I told you my girls wrote it. Let's say they were a little rusty after the summer off, so I had to help, prompt, drag something out of them. The result is not worth posting here ;)

But this last week they were in groove! We worked on the idea of using visual art to prompt poetry. This is something I do often when I write something to go with one of my photos. In art appreciation this week we were discussing the painting 'The Oddie Children' by Sir William Beechey from the book 'Come Look with Me':


So the girls (Matthew.... I can't recall where he was, working on his reading or something... somehow he missed poetry 'class') each wrote a poem inspired by this painting. They were so tickled that the painting showed 4 kids who are about the same ages as my kids, so they named them the Cole children and spoke about them as if they were themselves.

They both dictated their poems to me and I wrote them down and then helped them try to find slightly better words (Laura had used the word 'nice' 4 times), but I find that they are fairly resistant to change once they have recorded their 'words'. Laura was particularly delighted to see how much of the page her ideas filled up! It is going to be a good year.

Here are their sweet poems:

I)

Four children playing
at the end of the forest
under the weak blue sky.
The girls are comfortable
in their sashes
the boy’s arrow ready to fly.

By Lily Cole age 7


II)

Laura in her nice pink sash
Lily in her bright blue sash
Annie in her new blue sash
Matthew in handsome royal green clothes
Silver buttons on his coat
They are so happy playing
that they smile with joy.

Annie happily crawling on the ground
The dirt is plain brown
And gets her hands all dirty
Lily is holding her straw hat in her hands
Laura peeps from behind Matthew
They are so happy playing
that they smile with joy.

By Laura Cole, age 5