Speak up for the Earth

What You Need:

• Pencil
• Paper
• Dictionary or thesaurus (optional)
• Internet access (optional)

What You Do:

1. With your child, brainstorm what it means to live an earth-friendly life. Encourage her to use the Internet to research ways in which humans impact the environment negatively, as well as ways that our treatment of the Earth can be improved.
2. Based on the findings, help her choose a theme or two to be the focus of her poem.
3. Review what “point of view” means. It may help to read a few poems together, to practice identifying the point of view of each.
4. Next, have her write a poem focusing on her chosen themes, from the perspective of the Earth. In this poem, she'll be utilizing the literary device anthropomorphism, giving human characteristics to inanimate objects. Ask her if she can identify another story that uses this literary device.
5. Finally, help her edit the poem and consider typing up a final copy to share with the whole family!