Elephant Dream by Chelsea Wickenden (with a little help from her mum)

Through metal bars their faces stare,

Strange faces with alarming hair.

They lick their tongues on lolly sticks,

Peculiar creatures, full of tricks.

So what’s an elephant to do?

When sent away to join a zoo.

A quiet corner, I settle down,

My trunk curls round me safe and sound.

I’m running fast and feel the sun,

I trumpet loudly, this is fun.

A parrot squawks high in a tree,

Bet he can’t catch me.

A leafy branch, my midday snack,

What is that animal about to attack!

Just a warthog, I’ll scare him away.

Wonder who else I will see today!

When I want a nice wet roll,

I wander to the waterhole.

My mum pops up and makes me jump,

Her trunk shoots like a super pump.

When night falls we cuddle together,

Her trunk around me, whatever the weather,

Dads here too, and little sis,

Life can’t get much better than this.

Then I awake, back in my cage,

My sad heart filled with quiet rage.

The jungle I remember, it would seem,

Is just a lost and sad old dream.

'Dear Kate,

Thank you for coming to our school and giving up your free time it really interested me and inspired me. It was nice adopting an elephant'

'Dear Kate,
Thank you for coming to our school and telling Swan Class all about elephants. We were very interested in your information. We have adopted one of the elephants called Mafunyane. Are your monkeys still being cheeky?'

'Dear Kate,
I really enjoyed your extremely interesting talk about elephants and the names of all the elephants and your camp at Botswana. I really would like to go to Botswana and I've learned to respect elephants a lot more than I did'