RYNJ students in grades first through fifth were treated with a visit from a very special poet and illustrator, Douglas Florian. Florian has authored and illustrated close to 60 very creative poetry books. With the students, he discussed various poetry elements and entertained them with his hilarious poems and drawing games. In addition to his presentations, he gave a writer’s workshop to the fourth graders. In preparation for the workshop, all of the students researched features and characteristics of specific animals. During the workshop, Florian demonstrated how to take those attributes and brainstorm rhyming keywords. Then he showed them how to turn these rhymes into poetry. All the students were very engaged in their their poetry writing and were proud of their creations.