First Pet By: EmmaBartley 2016

Dive deep into poetry! This worksheet helps middle schoolers master poetry analysis, from theme to textual evidence.

Practice your pre-reading strategies below: After you read, tell me why you think the author wrote this poem. As they watch the hermit crab, the speaker is… bored curious amused adoring At the end of the poem, the hermit crab… crawls out and disappears returns to the ocean is discovered on the sidewalk is taken inside by the speaker PART A: Which of the following identifies a theme of the piece? The world is dangerous for small creatures. Losing a first pet is a serious failure Children are too young to understand the responsibility that comes with a pet. Children find the natural world intricate and intriguing. PART B: Which detail from the text best supports the answer to Part A? “When I was eight I brought home a hermit crab / from Chincoteague Island.” (Lines 1-2) “Two beady black eyes / poking out from a painted cobalt shell.” (Lines 3-4) “I took him to the backyard, watched him climb over exotic / blades of grass.” (Lines 5-6) “What was it that made me look away?” (Line 6) How does the description of bugs “whispering guesses” contribute to the text (Line 12)? It emphasizes the connections between different creatures in the natural world It proves that the immature speaker lives in a fantasy world. It shows how clever insects and animals are. It illustrates how important the hermit crab and its shell were to the speaker.