From the Animal’s Point of View

for elementary students

      Let’s be a dog caught in the middle of a gopher town today. Woof!!   This hilarious picture of our dog, Nemo, was painted by our daughter years ago. We live in the foothills, and our gentle back slope is covered with a sea of gophers.  It’s a ripe and ready buffet for a dog — if he can catch any!  What’s going on in Nemo’s mind here? Is he spooked, surprised, overwhelmed, or is he scheming what his next move will be?
    This class is all about point of view, although I don’t tell the class that until after all the brainstorming. We start with a sentence, fill it in with the 5W’s, and sprinkle it with imagery (the five senses) to create our scene.   
        
    The dog barked. 

    I ask the students what image they have of a dog barking.  We all will have different images of a dog barking, maybe at a loud noise, maybe at the poor mailman, or maybe at a gopher hole. What we do know is this sentence could use some help. There’s just not that much info.
    It’s a great time to introduce the 5 W’s, which are really 6!  I write these on the board, and I also have a handout I pass out with these on it.
Who
What
When
Where
Why
How
        We fill all these in on the board for the barking dog. Then we write our new sentence.

Who    Nemo the dog
What   at gophers in holes
When   daily in summer
Where  in the backyard
Why    to scare them away or to catch them
How    repeatedly, seriously, confidently

        Every day this summer, Nemo, barked repeatedly at the thousand gophers in the backyard. Even though he was confident and serious, he wasn’t able to scare them away or catch any.

          I ask the students to write their own sentence about an animal doing something. It can be a tiger walking, a cat napping, a sloth hanging — any animal they like. Then I ask them to answer the 5 W’s.
         Next we tackle the senses. I write the five senses on the board, and we answer questions about the scene. Sometimes you can’t come up with an answer to every sense.

Sound    sharp bark; munching gophers
Sight      spotted dog, black mask and ear flaps, upright tail; small, dusty brown gophers, buck teeth
Smell     dusty air; dirt from dirt mounds
Taste     juicy gophers
Touch   dry summer grass; hard ground; summer heat 

        Finally we put the two brainstorming tools together, writing a paragraph about the animal including our 5 W’s and imagery. I model it on the board as third person, as an observer watching the scene. The students tell me what to write. I help them or change up sentences a little, but as little as possible. (These here about Nemo are mine, but there are student examples below.)

       Every day in summer, Nemo, the confident black-and-white-spotted dog, loped through the backyard. He stopped where the dirt mounds were the most numerous. He was surrounded by them, and he stood there quite still. A little dusty brown head appeared in one hole, then the next, until each hole contained a juicy gopher's face munching on the dry summer grass with gleaming yellow buck teeth in the bright, hot sunlight.  Nemo's black floppy ears perked out to the sides as his eyes opened wide.  He let out a sharp warning bark.  

       Now we change it up! We write the same paragraph but from the animal’s point of view. We pretend to be the animal and describe the same events from the animal's perspective. This is first person point of view, using “I” and “me.” Again, we use as many senses and 5 W’s as possible. We might continue to ask and answer questions. How does the animal move? What exactly does he see?

       The sun is hot, time to scare off those furry brown critters. Their holes aren’t too far. I can smell them even before I trot right up to their dirt mounds. It’s pretty crowded here, so I’ll just wait a bit and stand perfectly still to surprise them when they pop up out of their holes. I’m sure I can catch a juicy one today.  Ah, there’s one to the side of my left spotted paw. He’s munching grass with those tiny buck teeth! Oh, there’s another one peeking out, also crunching. On my, there’s three more, five more, no ten more, rearing their little heads. Which one should I choose? Arf!


    Here’s examples from one of my classes.

Third Person Point of View:

       The blue kangaroo hops along the savanna. She brushes against an exit sign where she smells a leftover hot dog.  She pokes it with her tail and flips it into her mouth. Unfortunately, it is full of mustard, and she faints, falling with a thud.

First Person Point of View:

     I hop along the dusty savanna. I brush against a red and white smooth, hard stick. Something delicious is around. It's pink and tan with yellow goo, so I poke it with my tail. It seems edible, so I expertly flip it into my mouth. At first, it tastes divine. Then it tastes horrible, sour, spicy, and warm. I overheat and pass out.