A Young Poet

Each week, Em is supposed to take a certain number of her fourth-grade spelling words and do three out of a list of about 12 possible activities with them. For the last couple of weeks, she's chosen to write a poem. They're interesting poems, being that they have to contain certain words, and that she's still finding her way in the world of written language. Overall, I find her use of language rather sophisticated, though her grammar (and, ironically, her spelling) are not.

But what got me this week was not so much the poem (copied below, in all its line-break-lacking grammarless glory), but what I saw when I looked up at the child who stood before me, asking if she could read said poem to me. All I can say is that nobody will ever accuse my child of not looking the part.


Em's Poem

A trees trunk is really tall or really short. They sometimes have fruit hanging from them. And in the morning due will fall on the leaves. When it is going to rain the dull sky will have an attitude and pour on the poor tree. And in the morning after I slumber I will get a orange from the tree and make juice. As I look at the tree I know it's life as a tree will continue.

[Spelling words: trunk, due, dull, attitude, slumber, juice.]