Baseball season is here, and to celebrate the start of America’s favorite pastime, our class wrote poems.

I encouraged my students to think about their favorite sport or activity as the topic for their poem; they did not necessarily have to write about baseball. Before writing, I asked students to brainstorm a list of words and phrases describing what they saw, heard, and touched while they played their sport. They also brainstormed words that described their sense of movement while engaged in the activity.

The students wrote about swimming, gymnastics, and basketball, and the poems were a great way for me to learn more about my students’ interests outside of school.

Baseball

I am sweating, I’m hot, 5th inning

I’m on my first homerun

This time another pitch

I swing, strike one

Another one, strike two

He throws it, I swing

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh

Bam boom

Bam, over the gate

I’m going to 1st, going to 2nd,

I’m going to 3rd, going to Home

And they get the ball from over the gate

Almost home

They throw it to the pitcher

They’re fast for third graders

And the pitcher throws it to home

The umpire says,

Safe, safe, safe!

The game is over

We won The Game.

By Deon, 3d Grade

You can see Deon’s enthusiasm reflected in this poem, and the choice of details takes you right to the ballgame.

posted by Amy Lin, Writers in the Schools

(photo by WisDoc via Flickr)