Cat-Owl 36/365

Image via Wikipedia

Cat-Owl

Round owl eyes-

feather-like fur;

casting shadows on the bedroom floor

as you silently...creep...away.

I was reading Owl Moon to Big Boy last night and when we got to the page where they finally find the owl, he pointed at the illustration and said, "Stella." Stella is our cat pictured above. After he said that, it struck me how children are natural poets often speaking in similes and metaphors. Children see the world is a beautifully innocent way that allows their brains to speak poetry. So today, we took a picture of Stella and then printed it out. I got the book back out and we took the picture and placed them side-by-side. I then asked Big Boy to name all the ways that Stella and the owl were similar. We listed them on paper and then created the above poem together. It was so fun and easy! Try this with your child sometime. Begin making a list or documenting when he or she speaks in similes/ metaphors (something like, "Mommy- the lights on the car are like eyes seeing in the dark.") and then turn their ideas into simple poem- it's a great way to get kids thinking about using writing in everyday life.