The Purple Thing From Timbuktu

For their fourth writing assignment, we contemplated Wallace Stevens's poem Someone Puts a Pineapple Together, and talked about transformation of one thing into another thing, allowing our eyes to see the world in a whole new way. The students were presented with a purple cabbage, and asked to transform it into new things multiple times, using their best descriptive powers. They created some amazing poems!

3rd grade

The Purple Thing that Smells like Onion
by Santiago D.

A giant balloon from space
flying, a soccer ball playing
in a soccer field, a sphere cut in
half, the inside a lobster.

A Purple Thing Transforms
by Noemi R.

A giant rock chasing an alien.
A seed growing. A leaf falling down
a tree. A paper crushed out. A tree
with a lot of leaves. A lettuce broken
in half.

What it Reminds Me Of
by David G.

A coconut in a tree.
I see a rock in the sea.
I see a turtle shell in the water.

I see a leaf in the fall
falling from the tree.

It looks like an onion
about to be eaten.

Inside, it looks like
a plant in a fossil.

The Purple Thing from Timbuktu
by Mathew P.

A giant balloon floating into space.
A humongous ball falling out of the sky.
A large purple ball flying into the goal.
A dinosaur egg just hatched yesterday.
A purple ball cut in half.
A triple piece of fruit cut last year.
A sphere cut in half last month.
The inside looks like a lobster.
A ball cut and put in the refrigerator.

2nd Grade

The Purple Cabbage
by Nicole B.

The brain is dancing on a
girl’s head, named Erelie.
A purple hat on my head.
A dark but pretty day
with a little tree. It feels like
a curly head too.

It is What You See
by Nicolas Leon

I see a brain rolling in a race.
A ball that you put in a
rocket for a battery.
It is a builder’s helmet
and a cannon ball.
It is a tornado in the
city, a bug in the sand.

The Magical Cabbage
by Rosalyn P.

A tree to a castle with a wand and
a hat to a big home.
A leaf to a new room, a book to a dog.

4th grade

A Red Cabbage
by Josu S.

A small violet mask with
lines all over.
A small bomb ready to blow.

An old man’s face that is really wrinkled.
A black ball stuck on a tree.

A bald man’s wig that fell on the street.
A Jewish man’s hat on top of his head.

A black rock with a white crab on top.

A black sky behind a white tree.
A clam in the ocean.

The Mysterious Ball
by Nicole B.

It looks like a world of evil darkness with villains destroying.
Like a black ball in the game thrown high in the air.
Like a head in the nurse’s room turning all purple.
It is a wrinkled ruby that once belonged to a goddess.
It is also like a hat meant to be worn.
It is like a circle mountain climbed by special people.
Like a shell of a dead bug that was in the caves.
Like dead leaves in the Travern Woods.
Like a hermit crab hiding in its shell on the beach.
Like a tree growing out of a bowl.
Just like a cake with candles inside.

The Magic Cabbage Transforming
by Jennifer B.

A man’s head coming out of the barber shop.
An alien’s head landing on the moon.
A flower sprouting it’s leaves like a butterfly coming out of its cocoon.
A pumping thing that squirts out blood.
A person’s head popped out like an egg cracking.
A hot dog’s bun without the sausage.
A ball with boiling purple water and bubbles.
A tree with many leaves bunched up in a big oval.
A weird animal stretching its hands and legs.