Kelly Brewer’s first graders ditched traditional prose for poetry to present their most recent research projects.

Students read their Important Poems aloud before classmates, and a few parents who could make it to the show Thursday at Kalifornsky Beach Elementary. A handmade puppet assisted each student, which were based on the animal their piece was about, including an array of bugs, birds, predators and prey.

Savannah Pruitt studied wolves for her assignment, and said it took a few weeks of work, but making a sock model of her subject made it all worth it. And luckily she got some help from her teachers and class aids.

Pruitt found out that wolves live in packs, have a better sense of smell than she does, and that they prefer to play together and eat meat.

“But, the important thing about a wolf is that it is a mammal because it has fur,” Pruitt read to a captivated audience Thursday.

Kathleen Rice said she came to watch her daughter Caroline Karpik talk about the Sea Otters she had been reading about on the internet. The assignment was the first Karpik was required to complete using the computer, Rice said.

“I thought it was great because she had to go online at home and she went through the computer project all by herself, and come up with the sentences all by herself,” Rice said.

She thought it was a good time for Karpik to try navigating the worldwide web.

“Adults have to use it every day and the sooner kids learn the easier it can be for them,” Rice said.

Brewer said the kids used guidelines from PebbleGo, a database that provides different ways students can do research online. She asked her kids to couple their digital work with information they learned in class about about classifying animals.

First grader Adrienne Okpealuk said the project wasn’t hard and was a fun way to learn. Her favorite thing she found out about Pandas was that they eat bamboo.

Reach Kelly Sullivan at kelly.sullivan@peninsulaclarion.com.

Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion Students in Kelly Brewer’s class made hand puppets depicting the animals they wrote their Important Poems about and read outloud to parents and their classmates Thursday, April 28, 2016, at Kalifornsky Beach Elementary, in Soldotna, Alaska.

Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion First grader Xander Withrow reads his Ladybug Important Poem Thursday, April 28, 2016, at Kalifornsky Beach Elementary, in Soldotna, Alaska.