About This Lesson
Inject some laugh-out-loud humor into your reading and language arts lessons! This free, downloadable resource features the fully illustrated poem "An Alien from Outer Space" by award-winning children's author Paul Kaplan, from his book The Thingy That's Stringy.
Written perfect for ages 7–12 (grades 2–7), this whimsical nonsense poem takes a literal and hilarious look at perspective—turns out, we are the strange-looking aliens because we only have one face!
This resource is excellent for:
- Point of View & Perspective: An easy, engaging text to introduce how a narrator's viewpoint shapes a story or description.
- Figurative Language vs. Literal Meaning: Explored through playful wordplay and absurd scenarios.
- Reluctant Readers: Short, fast-paced rhyming verse paired with wacky illustrations that keep kids engaged.
Included in this download:
- The full-text poem and original printable illustration layout.
- Bonus Writing Prompt Idea: Have students write a short paragraph from the alien’s perspective describing an everyday human object (like a toothbrush or a toaster) without naming it!
If your students love this poem, you can find more free sample poem PDFs (like "Eddie Grows His Eggplants") on the author's site at paulkaplanbooks.com, and the full collection of 130+ poems on Amazon.
