Reading, Family, and Pickles

My daughter, Isabella, has recently started reading chapter books.  She is very into Junie B. Jones books, which are absolutely adorable.  She sometimes reads on her own or we read a chapter at bedtime.  The other night, in our chapter of Junie B. First Grader, Cheater Pants, Junie B’s teacher is having them write a particular type of poem called a cinquain.  For those that don’t know (which I didn’t until I learned about it in Junie B.), a cinquain is a poem that follows a set pattern.  There are a few types of patterns, but Junie B. was using the following one:

Line 1: The Title

Line 2:  Two words that describe the Title

Line 3:  Three action words that describe the Title or –ing words

Line 4: A four word phrase that express a thought or feeling about the Title

Line 5:  A word that means the same thing as the Title

In the story, Junie B’s teacher Mr. Scary (Yes, that’s his name, but he’s not scary) gives the class an example of a cinquain using Pickle.  It goes like this:

Pickle

Bumpy, lumpy,

Crunching, Munching, lunching,

Cucumbers makin' you pucker,

Gherkin.

Bella thought it was silly, but she really got into it.  I asked her what the title of her cinquain would be if she were to write one.  She thought for a second and said, “Family.”  This got me thinking that this might be a fun exercise for her to practice her spelling and grammar, so the next day we sat down and Bella wrote her first cinquain.  Lines 1 thru 3 were all her.  She got a little help on 4 and 5 from her dad and brother.  Here is what she came up with:

I told her to decorate it and we taped it up on the storage unit in our family room.  I plan on framing it and making it a permanent piece…and we plan on writing many more cinquains in the future :)