Students learn smoke jumping suiting-up techniques from Rye Phipps, Grangeville smokejumper.
By MICHELLE SCHMIDT
themichelleschmidt@gmail.com
Last spring, grade-school students created “Poetry on Fire,” a collection of poems that reflect on the wildfire event. Their poems and artwork have been on exhibit in community libraries through the summer and have been collected and bound into books, available for checkout at these same libraries.
Poetry on Fire by Regan of Riggins Elementary.
The Forest Service partnered with fourth-grade classrooms from Nezperce, Grangeville, Kooskia, Kamiah, Pierce, Riggins and Orofino; fifth-grade students at some of the schools were also included. The students visited fire-affected locations in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest to learn about fire and how forest lands recover from a fire, said Courtney Couch, the Forest Service fire education and prevention specialist who organized the trips.
Before and after the field trip, Forest Service employees visited the classrooms and gave students the opportunity to talk about their experiences and how the fires had affected their lives and families. Classroom teachers then explored the ideas through a poetry exercise.
The poetry that came out of the project focuses on lessons students learned during the field trip or what they saw and felt during last year’s fires. They were encouraged to be creative, with no rules regarding spelling, punctuation and form. Last names weren’t included in the final books.
Poetry on Fire by Kaylee of Nezperce Elementary.
The project was funded in part by a grant from Every Kid in a Park, which provided transportation funding for the field trip. Other organizations helped with the field trip as well, including the Idaho Department of Lands, the Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association and the Nez Perce Tribe.
Fire Fire Everywhere Run For Your Life
By Madison, Clearwater Valley Elementary
Fire destroying towns
Crackling noises everywhere
Big giant monster
The Fire House
By Addie, Clearwater Valley Elementary
Fire will creep up your house and back down and then lick its lips in satisfaction.
WILD FIRE
By Bodey, Orofino Blementary
Fire you make me quake and shake
Your heat makes my heart beat fast
And can’t control it.
You fire sound like gunfire
You make firefighters fight.
Fire Crack of 2015
By Erica G., Nezperce Elementary
The fire came closer and closer
Not time to play
Time to pack
“Evacuation!” mom shouts
It had started with a lightning crack
And the prairie was inflamed with fire
It was sad leaving my pets
And I could not find my most
Precious pet
She had gone somewhere
And I didn’t have time to find her
Mom said “She’ll be fine
We have to go.”
I was so so sad that I cried
All the way to Lewiston
We had to go there
Because it was not so close to the fire.
But the fire did not get our house
And my cat was fine.
Fire! Smoke!
By Kelly, Orofino Elementary
I don’t really like it
It is horrible
It smells horrible
It is fire!!
The smoke was thick
My dad was working
I was scared!!!
I went outside
It smelled like smoke
Mixed with pine tree
It stunk bad.
Everyday my dad was out
Telling people to leave their home
I felt sad and scared.
It was one of the worst weeks
Of my life
But when it was over
It was one of the best days
Of my life.
Summer Stik
By Nic, Nezperce Elementary
It was like that
Boom crack
Next thing I knew
Smoke rose
from the fields
Ahhhh
By Jack, Nezperce Elementary
The kids did not play
The day turned gray
My mom said
“Come inside
And get ready to take a ride.”
It was supposed to be my vacation
But it turned into a fire evacuation
Poetry on Fire
By Macy, Clearwater Valley Elementary
The flames were red and orange
The fires crackled and sizzled
It smelt like burning wood.
My skin was really hot.
My mouth was as dry as the desert.
When the Fires Came
By Hailey, Timberline Elementary
In the forest a tree
Here’s a fire crackling and
Screaming with rage,
The tree tries to run
But he can’t by now
He hates his roots …
Soon the fire emerges
In front of him
With the wood peckers
Yelling burn burn
The fire, started to burn him
Soon the fire past
He was alive
The tree was so glad
He burst with tears of joy.
Area libraries display works by kids who experienced devastating fires
