CI students help elementary school kids write poems inspired by historical photos of animals

CSU Chanel Islands News

Camarillo, Calif., March 21, 2016 — CSU Channel Islands (CI) School of Education graduate student Katelyn Sallee, 22, was delighted with the imaginative poems her students wrote in the second annual “Bards and Beasts” art and poetry exhibit.“They just blew me away with the descriptions they were able to come up with,” she said.Hosted by Ventura County Poet Laureate Phil Taggart, “Bards and Beasts” is an annual celebration of poetry held each year at a Ventura County elementary school.This year’s “Bards and Beasts” is being held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 24 at the University Preparation School in Camarillo.With guidance from 20 CI student teachers like Sallee, fourth- and fifth-graders used Santa Paula historian John Nichols collection of historic photos of animals as inspiration to compose poetry.One fourth-grader wrote:“My Dog – a Wonder PoemDear Pet Dog,Why do you sleep all day and why are you so fluffy?Why do you want all my food and stare out the window?What do you dream about?Why are you so hyper and smell like grassWhen I give you kisses?Do you watch T.V. while I am gone?”And a fifth-grader wrote:“Fire CatFollow me and I will show you my fire cave.My beaming smile shines when I’m runningWild in the wind.It is exhausting to always be flaming hot.My dearest companion is the bright sunIn the morningAnd the sunset at night.At nighttime, under the stars, you can onlySee the fire and flame of my beautiful fur.”CI Education Lecturer Mary Kay Rummel spearheaded the first “Bards and Beasts” in 2015, when she was Ventura County Poet Laureate.“It’s a way to bring together the University and the school and community and the arts around poetry,” Rummel said. “One of the goals of the poet laureateship is to bring poetry into the community.”Rummel and Taggart ...

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