In this Field Trip Book of the Week, we’d like to highlight one of our favorite field trip lessons: the Well-Wishing & Poetry-Writing field trip! Students from grades 2 through 5 join us on this field trip to write poems in an attempt to make our publisher’s pet feel better. In this field trip, Ms. Petty’s third-grade class from WISH Charter School wrote poems to Gary the Gorgeous Goat, Mrs. Barnacle’s pet whose sprained armpits prevented him from partaking in one of his favorite holidays: National High Five Day.

Students first work together to discover some new poetry concepts: onomatopoeia and alliteration, and practice them by writing a list poem as a whole group composed of things that would make Gary the goat feel better. After, in small groups, students write odes to items found in our Time Travel Marts. Finally, students write narrative poems in the form of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Read on for a list poem and odes, written by some very smart, very poetic third-graders.

Ms. Petty’s class was just one of four classes from WISH Charter that came to us for our Well-Wishing and Poetry Writing field trip as part of National Poetry Month!

A huge thanks to the volunteers who made this field trip possible: Yadira Enciso, Wesley Christian, Tess Nelson, Jo Ellen Aragon, Lucy Hernandez, San Tong, Caren Nader, and Mrs. Barnacle (a.k.a. Mar Vista Volunteer Manager Lauren Humphrey).

Students participate in field trips like these up to four times a week at both of our centers in Los Angeles, and carry the experience of being a published author with them for ages to come. If you are interested in volunteering for one of these fun and exciting field trips, you can find more information on our volunteer page. If you are a LAUSD teacher and would like to bring your students in for a field trip, you can find more information here.