4th Grade Poetry and Art Workshops with The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation

Students in 4th grade participated in poetry and art workshops with the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks foundation. Louise Sturgess, Executive Director of PHLF, and Karen Cahall encouraged Heritage students to look more closely at their communities and to think about how places matter in their lives.  Students sketched a detail of a historic landmark of their choice and wrote from the point of view of the detail, utilizing personification, alliteration, simile, metaphor, and first person narration in their work. The poems and artwork created by students in these workshops help to articulate the beauty of various historic landmarks in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties. Student work will be displayed in the 4th grade hallway for all to appreciate and enjoy.

Many thanks to the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation for their continued partnership with the Heritage family and to the Heritage PTO for funding this valuable experience each year.

The Oldest

I'm old and solid, hard as a rock.

I've survived a very dangerous thing, a flood!

I'm old like the earth and I see things every day.

Towers, cars, people, a lot of stuff!

Do not strike me or I'll strike you back!

I'm sitting like a gorilla to this day, I'm still alive.

I am part of the wall of the Fort Pitt Block House!

The Bridge of Sighs

I connect the courthouse to the old jail.

When prisoners are done with court,

they walk to jail inside me.

When they look out my window 

and see people talking and laughing on the streets, 

they sigh because they wish they were free.

I am the Bridge of Sighs.