Ideas for Writing

Desert travelogue. Encourage students to imagine themselves as travelers in the desert. Suggest they write and illustrate a travelogue about a day spent among the saguaro cacti. Their travelogue should be written in the first person and based on information in Desert Giant and on any other information they have about the desert. Encourage students to include imagined observations about the animals and people they might encounter during a day among the saguaro. If possible, allow time for students to read aloud their finished travelogues. Afterward, collect them into a book for display in the classroom or school library.

Desert poem. Some students may enjoy selecting one of the subjects in Desert Giant as the basis for a poem. Subjects might include one of the desert animals, the Tohono O'odham Indians, the desert, the cactus at night, the cactus in bloom, the cactus fruit, the cactus in death, or the cactus's life cycle. Encourage students to be creative by suggesting that they might like to illustrate their poems or write them in the shape of a saguaro cactus. When students finish writing, provide time for a poetry reading. Then collect the poems in an anthology or use them to make a bulletin board display.