A "Big Deal" in 4th Grade

So I try to run a classroom that has some fun involved and each class is always different and I find myself making a big deal about something. This year is no exception, but it was a first. Our focus has been ...John Muir. Who is John Muir you might ask. He is a guy who I have a biography BCR about and the day the kids had him for seat work they commented about how ugly he was because of his Santa like beard. I joked that he was voted most attractive man alive in 1914.

Now every morning we have John Muir's messages with a picture of his bearded face.

Well we just finished up writing plays and I wrote the following "informative" poem about John Muir. Enjoy this timeless "classic"

The world was a struggling worm on a bird’s plate
In need of a man to help Mother Nature’s fate
In eighteen hundred and thirty- eight the world was boring
But in Dunbar, Scotland one day did John Muir sing

A lad with hair fire red, and a face rather furry
The ladies all swooned at the sight of, John Muir-y
Mother Nature yipped and did a little foot dance
When John Muir came to America, not by chance

No one really knows if he rode a boat or swam
A man of manners always, saying Thank you Ma’am
Rocks were his pillow, and his beard his cozy sheets
With a man so awesome, we need to list his feats

He almost lost his right eye as an inventor
But his eyes were like steel cuz he is great John Muir
He heard nature calling, so her voice he followed
A thousand miles walk to Gulf of Mexicoed


He wanted to keep nature beautiful and pure
This was the superb dream of amazing John Muir
Not only did John get the ladies’ hearts stirring
Mother Nature’s eyes shed a tear and were blurring

Muir had a vision to save flora and fauna
As he saved things the red beard grew of Muir John-a
He walked with presidents like Teddy Roosevelt
To save forests and nature and stop the glacial melt

So when walking through places like the Canyon Grand
Don’t forget to recall a truly awesome man
A blazing beard, walker extraordinaire, that’s sure
Was the awesomest man ever, his name….. John Muir