Student Writer Instructions:
Today you will be creating a poem that uses both rhyming and alliteration. The word game below will help you come up with ideas for your poem. Use the word game for ideas or use your own imagination to accomplish the following activity.
Imagine in your mind that your pet was human-like….that he had a past that included a family, a job and plenty of memories. If your pet could talk( or write), what would he tell you about his life? If you don’t have a pet or you don’t find your own pet that interesting, you can use the word game below to come up with different pets, pet names and occupations for your pet.
Listen to the two poems in this lesson, T.S. Eliot’s "Naming of Cats," and "Gus: The Theatre Cat." Notice how Eliot brings personality into the animal while describing it. Listen to or read about one of the twelve other cats in the book if you need more examples. Each cat in the book has a very distinct personality and Eliot describes each detail of the cat to give the reader a true picture of the animal.
Do you have a pet that you have watched and could describe like Eliot did? Make sure to bring out your pet’s personality and idiosyncrasies. Use words to describe your pet and then use the Internet or a dictionary to find rhymes and other words that begin with the same sounds as the words you have chosen. When you are done, you will put all your ideas into a short poem. |
