This week students read Gary Soto's "Looking Around, Believing" and wrote poems about their neighborhoods.
My Block
When I am walking around
my block I see buildings
knocked down. People tripping because
of the cracked sidewalk. The smell
of construction on one side of the
block, and the smell of peaches
growing on the other. People riding
their bikes, and the sound of
cars passing by. Fireworks blowing.
Amazing pictures from the fireworks.
People walking dogs, and planes
passing over our neighborhood.
Julian Castro 403
My Neighborhood
My neighborhood
is quiet sometimes
loud with kids
around playing
in the snow.
In summer my
neighborhood is really
loud even louder with
kids screaming.
My next door neighbor
has three dogs
they are always
barking I
get so annoyed.
Ruby Corpus 407
Neighborhood
I walk down the block
hearing the noisy dog.
My other neighbors have
a guitar and a drum.
They play them late
at night. This makes me
go nuts. The dog is always
barking at them. Some
houses have really
pretty Christmas decorations.
Ivan Gil 407
I See
On my block I see people walking
around I see snow on the ground
no flowers no trees no leaves no
sun I only see snow, snow kids
playing with the snow I see my
friend sitting on his stairs with
his brother I see houses knocked down
and burned down.
Miguel Herrera 403
My Neighborhood
As I walked I saw snow soft and white
though very cold but just right
I saw pine trees very jagged as the
tip of a spear
I saw trees being bold with no leaves
swaying in the windy day
Houses were decorated for Christmas Eve
with lights shining bright as the sun
I smell cheesecake with its sweetish taste
Janet Morales 403
My Neighborhood
I walk around the
street. The streets are
dirty my friends are
playing in the snow,
houses are covered with
snow, they have them
decorated with lights, a
snowman, Santa Claus,
and some snowflakes
that turn on the lights.
Marisol Pacheco 407
My Neighborhood
A sunny day I play outside.
I play with my friends.
I play with my cousin.
In the alley we play football.
I play in the alley because
the ball doesn't go at the
house. It's dirty. An old woman
has cats. The cats are mean,
they bite my cousin. He said
ouch.
Anthony Quiroz 404
My Neighborhood
I leave my house to walk
down the block. All I see
is girls jump roping. When
they see me they giggle and
wave. I see Rene, so now
we're heading to the park.
In the park we swing
real high then jump off.
We see who jumped
farther. Then we go to
the tire swing and
swing until we get
dizzy.
Efren Ramirez 404
I say to my self good
thing I live on this
block because
it is very nice, quiet.
People do not steal, go into people's
homes, or come to our block.
Every day I see people
having a nice day by
seeing outside, the weather.
I see kids using their bikes having
fun.
One day I heard kids saying I
love this block.
Crystal Reyes 403
My neighborhood is not
that interesting. In the
summer my neighbor plants
stuff and he usually takes
the rest of his time working
on his cars. My other neighbor
he parties all night in the
summer but you can't even see
him in the winter. There's
a few cracked sidewalks which
have never been fixed, and how
those dogs howl in the summer days
but like my neighbor you can't
even hear them in the winter. It
smells like fresh flowers now
nice and grown also the smell
of people's barbecue I see
lazy people sitting around
but not walking. The smoke
from the barbecue fires
seems to burn your eyes.
Mariela Rodriguez 403
When I take a walk around my
neighborhood I smell tacos mmm
I keep on walking and I see a church
two hair salons and lots of houses I also
see lots of trees with green leaves I see
lots of flowers and bushes. Suddenly
I turn slowly and see a cat I run for it
before it brings me bad luck once I get
inside I tell myself I will wait
until it is gone meanwhile I
will have a party.
Gema Ruiz 403
Neighborhood
I'm walking down the
street I see my house & my
neighbor's house, I see the
big berry tree in my
neighbor's yard and the
berries always fall off so
there are always flies around.
The berries are good though.
There's always something going
on in my neighborhood so
I never get bored.
Elizabeth Salgado 404
Block
Going all around the block
watching the neighborhood cats
meowing for food, looking at the
hot dog man giving a hot dog
to a little girl. Walking and
looking at all the houses with
beautiful colors of peach, rose,
white and brown, hearing the birds
chirping on top of the trees
while building their nests as
I hear so many animals, dogs,
cats and maybe a bunny or two,
looking at the lights going on
and off, because of a big
rainstorm looking, walking, hearing
in my neighborhood.
Tanya Sanchez 404

