Illustration of layers of sediment showing dinosaur fossils
Art by Wenjia Tang

Fossils

Nature has stories to tell, as Lilian Moore’s lovely poem shows

By Lilian Moore
From the March/April 2024 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will identify the extended metaphor in the poem and consider how fossils are like stories.

Other Key Skills: mood, text features, interpreting text, key ideas, grammar, rhyme and rhythm
UP CLOSE: Metaphor

A metaphor is a comparison that doesn’t use like or as. What does this poem compare fossils to, and why?

Fossils

Older than

books,

than scrolls,


older

than the first 

tales told


or the 

first words

spoken


are the stories


in forests that 

turned to

stone


in ice walls

that trapped the 

mammoth


in the long

bones of

dinosaurs—


the fossil

stories that begin

Once upon a time

FROM SOMETHING NEW BEGINS BY LILIAN MOORE. COPYRIGHT © 1982 BY LILIAN MOORE.

This poem was originally published in the March/April 2024 issue.  


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Step-by-Step Lesson Plan

1. Preparing to Read

  • Invite students to read the title of the poem and look at the illustration. Ask students to explain what a fossil is, or share the definition with them (a bone, shell, or other trace of an ancient animal or plant that has been preserved). Ask: What can we conclude about fossils from the images on the page?
  • Build background knowledge with the video “What Are Fossils?” (located in the Resources tab).
  • Point out the word scrolls in line 3. Review its definition in this poem (rolled up pieces of paper with writing on them).
  • Point out and read the bubble on the left side of the poem. Remind students to keep this information in mind as they read the poem.
  • Ask a volunteer to read aloud the Up Close box for the class.

2. Reading the Poem

  • Read the poem aloud, or play our Read-Aloud to hear a Storyworks editor read the poem.
  • Ask students to underline words, phrases, or lines from the poem that they enjoy or have questions about. Invite your students to share what they underlined and why in small groups or in a whole-group share-out.
  • Discuss the poem together by answering the questions that follow.

3. Discussing the Poem

  • In the first three stanzas of the poem, what four ways of communicating are mentioned? What do they have in common? (key details) Books, scrolls, tales, and speech are all mentioned. These are all ways that people share stories and information with one another.
  • What does the poet tell us is older than the first words ever spoken? (key idea) The stories told by the fossils are older.
  • Read Stanzas 5 and 6. What happened to the forests and the mammoth? (key details) The forests turned to stone; the mammoth was trapped in ice.
  • The poet compares fossils to stories. Which words or phrases in the poem are related to stories? (author’s craft) Words include books, scrolls, tales, words, stories, and Once upon a time.
  • In what way is a fossil like a story? (main idea) A fossil tells us about a time, an event, or a living thing from another time, just as stories can do.
  • Read the final line. Why might the author have ended her poem in this way? (Hint: Think about where these words usually appear in a story, and notice the punctuation.) (text structure) The words of the final line, Once upon a time, typically are the first words that appear in some stories, such as fairy tales. And the poem has no period or any other type of ending punctuation. The author might have ended her poem this way to tell us that the stories of fossils are not at their end but at the beginning. We have more fossils to find and more to learn about the past from them.
  • How does the illustration support our understanding of the poem? (text features) The illustration shows some of the things mentioned in the poem, such as various types of fossils in stone and dinosaur bones. It also shows that the fossils are located in various layers underground. The shoes at the top might belong to someone who will discover these fossils and learn their stories.

4. Skill Building

Distribute or assign the Poetry Kit, which will take students on a deep dive into the poem and offer opportunities for students to connect the poem with other stories in the issue.

Can't-Miss Teaching Extras
Make a Connection

Read Lilian Moore’s poem “Fossils” alongside the mini read article “The Biggest Shark That Ever Lived.” (Find both in our March/April 2024 issue!) Ask how the two texts are connected. Remind students to pay attention to the images too.

Explore the Storyworks Archives

Our September 2021 play “Finding a Giant” tells the enthralling true story of Diego Pol, the paleontologist who led the team that found the fossils of the biggest dinosaur ever.

Read More Poems by Lilian Moore

Moore was a prolific writer of children’s books and poetry. Learn more about her life and read three of her charming and funny poems at this page on the Poetry Foundation website.

Watch a Video

Learn all about fossils from Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Although this video is 23-minutes long, you can show the first 2-3 minutes to provide a clear and lively overview of what fossils are. (Note: Video starts after a short ad.)

Text-to-Speech