Second Cat Book Craft: Acrostic Poem About Miss Kitty Inspired by Chester

Greetings From The Wrangler of Witty Kitties!

       Life with cats is never boring especially when you have cats that are vocal about what they really like and what they are unhappy about. I just so happen to have two very different vocal cats, Miss Kitty and Flowers. Miss Kitty has a persistent, short "meow" that she likes to walk around and say as she gets in your face or under foot when she is unhappy. Flowers on the other hand likes to come and moan long drawn out vocals and then have you follow her to her room so she can tell you what she wants, but if you don't understand she growls under her breath and sometimes hisses at you. Then a little while passes and Flowers is happy again. It is fun to try to imagine what our cats are really thinking of. In Chester, the author Melanie Watt gives us a glimpse of what the Chester the cat is thinking because she makes him co-narrator. 

      In my last post, I mentioned that one of my favorite parts in the story was when Chester wrote an acrostic poem all about himself in the most positive light. He even over-embellished like many tall tale tellers do. Inspired by Chester, I decided to write an acrostic poem about Miss Kitty from Miss Kitty's point of view. I said all good things about Miss Kitty because Miss Kitty would rather not think about anything she has done as being unsavory. If you have never heard of an acrostic poem, it is simply a poem written using each letter of a word. An acrostic poem is one of the easiest kind of poems for children to learn to write, so this activity is appropriate for young children with a little help or older children on their own. Miss Kitty's name was a challenge to write a poem using each letter to describe her because there are two 'I' , 'T', and 'S' letters in her namee. If you don't have a cat, you could write a poem using a dog's name, brother's name, sister's name or friend's name.All you have to do is make sure you put yourself in their shoes when you write the poem. If you right from someone else's point of view that you know it makes the project more humorous.


Here is what you will need to make a similar acrostic poem like Chester's:

• A piece of heavy art paper suitable for painting on (I used watercolor paper for mine.)
• Red acrylic paint 
• White acrylic paint (for if you make a mistake)
• Two separate paper plates for each paint color
• A skinny paintbrush 
• A wide paintbrush  
• A container with water in it for rinsing out paint between paint colors
• A red gel ink pen (I used a Uni-ball Signo because I like how it writes.)
• Optional: Scissors
• Optional: Ruler
• Pencil 
• A piece of paper

First step: Write down a rough draft of your acrostic poem about your cat or whoever you want the poem to be about.

Second Step: Set up your area to paint by laying down newspaper if you are using a non-art designated space such as a kitchen table, make sure you have at least two layers of newspaper. Squirt out your red paint on one paper plate and your white paint on another paper; plate.

Third Step: Write out your poem in red gel ink on the heavy art paper.

Fourth Step: Paint a border to frame in your art space and poem.

Fifth Step: Paint on the uppercase letters with red paint to make them bigger.

Sixth Step: Add accents like doodles or cartoons to add whimsy like Chester did around his poem.

Seventh Step: Let your piece dry.

Eighth Step: Give your acrostic poem to the pet or person whose point of view you wrote the poem.


I hope you enjoy making your Chester inspired poem as much as I did making mine about Miss Kitty.


Miss Kitty Fan Forever,
Alesia