From the teaching files of
Barbara Jean Hicks
I love the way this fourth grade girl drew her self portrait based on the verbal self portrait (below) she had already written in response to a class exercise on simile. The picture is a bit startling till you read the poem and see how beautifully Raquel captured in her drawing what she had already expressed in her words.
Doesn’t she just put a whole new spin on a “bad-hair day?” In this girl’s life, there’s no such thing! She’s a lion, a monkey, a mouse, a Chihuahua, and every bit as talented as a big-name star. (Whom, I must confess, I had to Google to understand Raquel’s poem. My age is showing!) But like Raquel, no matter my age, my heart still beats "like a tap dancer"—especially when I’m helping kids express the voices and visions in their hearts.
My hair is as wild
as a lion’s and as puffy
as cotton candy.
My eyes are as bulgy as a Chihuahua’s.
My skin is monkey brown.
My voice is as good
as Demi Lovato’s.
My laugh is as squeaky as a mouse
and my smile is as big as a banana.
When I sing,
my heart sounds like
a tap dancer.
Raquel, Age 9
I hope you’ve enjoyed and been inspired by the last three weeks of un-self-conscious pictures and poems from the mouths and hands of babes! If you're interested in art and writing workshops for your school or classroom, please get in touch with me. Contact information is on my website, www.barbarajeanhicks.com.
The poem really does explain it all. Fabulous self-awareness!
Posted by: Joyce Moyer Hostetter | June 30, 2012 at 04:16 AM