The fifth grade takes part in a creative writing residency focusing on poetry. William (BJ) Ward is an American poet and educator who, through six sessions, teaches students how to pay attention to words and create images for readers through carefully written poems. He takes students on a journey of language and language usage. Throughout the residency, students read, and are read poems, while examining the crafts used within each poem to then write their own poetry.  Students write five to six poems during the residency and then select one to revise, edit, and publish in a class anthology.

BJ Ward has received the Governors' Award for Arts in Education from the State of New Jersey and has been Distinguished Teaching Artist by the NJ State Council on the Arts. He is the author of Jackleg Opera: Collected Poems from 1990-2013.esignated Distinguished Teaching Artist by the New Jersey State www.bj-ward.com/