Words Have Power

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

“Let us pick up our books and pens…

One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world.”

            United Nations, July 12, 2013

The words of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen shot for defending the right of all children to be educated, have echoed around the world.  She continues to travel and speak out, highlighting the dim future for girls forced to leave school early and children forced to flee their homes.

The new edition of Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words (2019, Lee & Low)  tells Malala’s story from the blog she began writing for the BBC at age 11 to her Nobel Prize in 2014 and the organizations she continues to inspire as a 21-year-old college student.

When she returned from her Girl Power Trip around the world in 2017, she said she “wants every girl and boy to stand up and speak out for the millions of children worldwide who are not yet able to attend school.”  The book includes extensive back matter on Pakistan, the Taliban, the Malala Fund and other organizations young people can join to support the cause of global education for all.

Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words is a perfect launchpad for children from elementary school even through high school to think and write about civic engagement, as well as their own lives contrasted with Malala and the children for whom she advocates. Here are a few suggestions:

·       Malala was forced to flee her own home with just a small backpack when the Pakistani Army began fighting the Taliban.  Aside from whatever food and clothes you could carry, what three things would you take if you had to leave your home suddenly and why? (Give this assignment very carefully if there are children in your class who may actually have experienced such displacement.)

·       Children have an immediate understanding of things that are not fair. Have them write about something in their school or community that is unfair – and what they could do about it.

·       For an art project, have students consider this illustration showing Malala’s family when they returned to their town after it had been heavily damaged by fighting. Illustrator Susan L. Roth says she is not precise in her art, which she makes with paper, fabric and other “found” objects. But the emotions in this illustration are very clear. What is the family feeling? Ask students to use paper and found objects to make a portrait showing an emotion. 

·       Older students may scoff at the idea of reading a picture book, but they too can write about how illustrations help tell the story (visual literacy). Students can also react to the ideas in this Washington Post article about the moral authority of children – including Malala. Why do her ideas resonate? Why do students think protests, marches and other civic action by children have a greater impact than actions by adults (or not)?

·       A long-term project: Identify an issue or cause that is supported by the majority of students in class and talk about ways to make the change they would like to see. Write letters to the appropriate authority, design flyers and write online messages to spread the word.

Malala rarely draws attention to herself when she speaks. When she accepted the Nobel Prize, she said, “This award is…for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.”

Indeed, says the young warrior with words, “our words can change the world.”

IF YOU HAD SUPER HEARING ...

by Jacqueline Jules

Freddie Ramos, the boy with super-powered purple sneakers, is back with a new adventure in Zapato Power #7: Freddie Ramos Hears It All.

In Freddie Ramos Hears It All, Freddie must adjust to the thrill and the challenge of having super hearing in addition to super speed and super bounce. He goes to a space museum with his class and realizes that he can overhear conversations everywhere. Should he help the museum guards find a lost child? Should he help a woman who dropped her bracelet? Freddie has a big heart and a thirst for being a hero. With super hearing he can find many more opportunities to use his super hero powers. He can also find opportunities to eavesdrop. Should he be listening through his friend's door? What is the line between being a snoop and a super hero?

After reading Freddie Ramos Hears It All, students can write about how they would use super hearing and how it might help or complicate their lives. 

Here are some questions to consider.

Would you listen through a closed door?

Would you share important information you overheard? Or keep it secret? 

Would you be tempted to listen in on others all the time? 

Who would you most like to eavesdrop on? Your parents? Brother or sister? Teacher?

What would you do if you heard someone crying? Would you run to get involved or respect his/her privacy?

Story Prompt Ideas:

·       You’ve overheard a conversation on the playground. Two friends are talking about another student. The information you heard is supposed to be a secret. What will you do?

·       You’ve heard your parents’ talking about your brother. The information surprised you. What is it? Will you tell your brother what you know?

·       You’ve overhead your teacher talking about a pop quiz for your class. Do you tell your friends to study? Do you study? What do you do?

Encourage your students to think of all possibilities. Information obtained through eavesdropping can be happy or sad. And the dilemma of knowing something you were not supposed to know can be very real. Happy Writing!

www.jacquelinejules.com   

“The Caterpillars Marvelous Transformation…”

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

“Small, silent,

swelling to

roundness,

I do not yet know

what secrets I hold

what marvels await me.”

Joyce Sidman’s poem is written from the point of view of a butterfly egg, the first chapter in The Girl Who Drew Butterflies – How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science.

Maria was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1647.  Her father ran a publishing shop until he died when Maria was only three years old.  Her mother married an artist who painted flowers and insects, which Maria often collected for him. No one knew at that time how insects grew. Some people thought butterflies flew in from somewhere else; others thought they emerged from dew, dung, dead animals or mud. Maria was fascinated.

She learned to paint and draw from her stepfather. But she also collected insects in glass jars to watch them grow and change – silk worms and then moths and butterflies.  Her interest in art and especially science set her apart from other girls in the 17^th century. She was different – she had to be careful and clever about how she worked. 

In 1679, at the age of 32, she published a book with a long and fabulous title, typical of the time – The Caterpillars’ Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food. She engraved every print in the book herself and hand-painted many of them, like this title page. You can see her name in the branches at the bottom. 

First published 1679, digitized by the Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen-Nürnberg

Maria did not have a happy marriage, leaving her husband to live in the Netherlands with her mother and daughters. She even moved to Surinam, a South American country with Dutch colonists.

“She rented a house, cultivated a large garden, and plunged into the work of discovering and breeding caterpillars.”

When she returned to Amsterdam several years later, “Maria’s beautiful, accessible art and text electrified her fellow naturalists. Most of the species she discovered were unknown to Europeans at the time, and her observations were widely quoted and discussed.” 

Joyce Sidman raised caterpillars herself while she was writing about Merian and also read her books, including The Caterpillars’ Marvelous Transformation – a primary source for her research. Sidman wrote a short poem for each stage of a butterfly’s life, from egg to approaching death.

The Girl Who Drew Butterflies is the tale of a young woman who stepped far outside the typical world of 17^th century girls to become a botanical illustrator and scientist who “saw nature as an ever-transforming web of connections – and changed our view of it forever.”

Here are several ideas to let Maria Merian’s work spark creativity in modern-day young people.

1.    Take a walk outside.  Ask students to look carefully at any living thing – plant, insect, bird. Write a short poem describing the plant or animal – or written from the point of view of that plant or animal, like Sidman’s poems.  Budding artists could instead draw their chosen creature or plant with all the detail of Merian’s illustrations.

2.    Maria Merian traveled to the Dutch colony of Surinam, also known as Dutch Guyana, and now spelled Suriname. Where in the world would you want to travel and why? What would you want to see or learn there?

3.    Are you passionate about something that you would like to make your career? It’s ok if you have no great passion yet, but if you do, write about why you would like to spend your life working in that field.

In her poem about a butterfly in flight, Joyce Sidman mused,

“How vast

the swirling dome

of the sky!

How strong the wings

I have grown

for myself!!”

Encourage young writers and readers to grow strong wings for themselves by writing, drawing and carefully observing the details of their world.

Earth's Point of View

by Laura Gehl

Get your class thinking about writing fun, humorous nonfiction with Stacy McAnulty’s Earth: My First 4.54 Billion Years (illustrated by David Litchfield).

After you read Earth out loud, here are some ideas for getting your students writing:

1)    Earth is written in first person, from Earth’s point of view. Think of an object in your classroom. Write about the school day from the point of view of that object. Make sure to show your object’s personality in your writing…is the object shy? A know-it-all? Silly? Vain?

2)    Earth tells the life story of our planet. Whose life story would you like to tell? Pick a person, object, or animal in your life, and write a short autobiography. (Hint: before you start writing, you will need to decide what are the most important events and details to share…you can’t include everything, or your story will be too long and boring!)

3)    At the end of the book Earth, author Stacy McAnulty has a funny note addressed to an “alien visitor.” What if an alien visited Earth and it was YOUR job to teach that alien everything important about our planet? Write a speech, make a pamphlet or poster, draw a cartoon…use your creativity to show what facts you would tell the alien visitor about Earth, and how you would make those facts seem interesting to your audience!

www.lauragehl.com

Lucía the Luchadora

Guest Post by Cynthia Leonor Garza

My new picture book, Lucía the Luchadora, illustrated by Alyssa Bermudez, is about a little girl who wants to be a superhero. When Lucía is told by the boys that girls can’t be superheroes, she gets mad, spicy mad, but with the help of abuela, comes up with an ingenious plan. She returns to the playground with her identity concealed behind a lucha libre mask and cape and becomes a playground sensation. Soon, all the other kids are dressed up as luchadores, too, but when Lucía witnesses the boys telling another girl she can’t be a superhero, Lucía must make a decision: Remain hidden behind the mask or reveal her true identity, which a real luchadora must never do.

There are lots of ways this book can be used in the classroom to teach both younger and older students and English language learners. Dr. Rebecca Palacios, an inductee of the National Teachers Hall of Fame and preschool educator for over 30 years, developed a curriculum guide to go along with the book. Here are some activities drawn from the guide:

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS: After reading Lucía the Luchadora, explore social-emotional questions by asking:

·       At times Lucía felt “mad, spicy mad.” Why did she feel this way? How did she resolve her feelings?

·       Lucía felt so strong with her mask on. Why do you think she felt this way? 

·       How did Lucía help the pink crusader who felt so sad? Why was this important for her to do? 

·       Why are feelings important in our lives? How can we help others with their feelings?

  

ONOMATOPOEIA: Lucía the Luchadora also has lots of fun onomatopoeia like POW and BAM!  Have a ten-minute word scavenger hunt to find these words. Discuss what they mean. How do these words affect the story?

CULTURE: Explore the cultural aspects of the book. Look at the illustrations and have students find pictures they don’t recognize or words in Spanish. What might those pictures represent, and what do the Spanish words mean?

There is also an Author’s Note on luchadores, luchadoras and lucha libre at the end of the book as well as an illustration of lucha libre legend El Santo inside the book. Have older students research a famous luchador or luchadora. What is the difference between a rudo and técnico? Where do luchadores today live? What are they fighting for? Why is the mask so important in Mexican wrestling?

STEM & ART: Have some art and math fun by having the students create their own masks. Have them engineer a design and figure out how to fit a mask on a face. Discuss the symmetry of the design and which tools and resources would be best for creating such a mask. Have the students use geometric figures to make their masks, and incorporate some of art and design elements from the book.

Last, everyone needs a lucha libre name. Have students write about a fun alter ego!

BIO: Cynthia Leonor Garza spent most of her childhood under the hot South Texas sun running around with her three brothers. She's a journalist who has worked for several newspapers and her commentaries have appeared on NPR and in The Atlantic. Of all the lucha libre masks she owns, her favorite one is pink and gold. She currently lives with her two young daughters and husband in Nairobi, Kenya.  Lucía the Luchadora is her first picture book.

Rock, Paper, Scissors!

by Laura Gehl

The Legend Of Rock Paper Scissors by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Adam Rex, is a great book to spark writing in your classroom.

Just in case you have any students who don’t know the game “Rock Paper Scissors,” you can start off by explaining the rules. Then you can let kids practice playing the game in pairs.

After you explain and play the game, have fun reading the book out loud to your class.

Once you have finished the book, here are some related ideas to get kids writing!

1.    There are some funny battles in this book, such as Paper versus. Half-Eaten Bag of Trail Mix and Scissors versus Dinosaur-Shaped Chicken Nuggets. Can you think of some other battles between regular objects that might be found in your home? Write out a battle scene between two of those everyday objects. Use dialogue! See if you can think of funny-but-not-too-mean insults to use, like those in the book (“Giant box monster” “tacky and vaguely round monstrosity” “weird scissory one”).

2.    There are humorous locations in this book, such as the “Kingdom of backyard” and the “tiny village of Junk Drawer.” What funny names can you make up for other locations in your home, school, or neighborhood? Write a story that takes place in at least one of those locations.

3.    An important theme in this book is that Rock, Paper, and Scissors are used to winning all the time…but they don’t like it. All three of these characters wish for well-matched opponents. Think about your own life. Do you agree that it is more fun to play a game if there is a chance you will lose? Have you ever been on a team that won every single game, all season? Did you like it or not? Do you have a younger sibling who you can always beat at every game? Is it still fun to play? Write a paragraph explaining whether you agree with Rock, Paper, and Scissors that playing games is most fun when you have an evenly-matched rival.

After you complete the writing activities, you might enjoy a fast-paced classroom battle of “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” Here’s what to do:

1)    Have students pair off (if you have an uneven number, you get to play too!).

2)    When one student wins against another student, the losing student instantly becomes part of the “squad” for the winner and starts chanting his or her name. “Emily! Emily! Emily!”

3)    When two winners play against each other, the one who loses—and his or her squad—all start cheering for the winner. Now you have a bunch of kids chanting “Nico! Nico! Nico!”

4)    Continue until only two students are left, with everyone else cheering for one or the other.

5)    One student becomes the class champion, with everyone chanting his or her name at once!  “ASHA! ASHA! ASHA!” Hooray!

www.lauragehl.com

Storytellers -- CABA Awards

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

“There is a unique kind of magic that comes from hearing a story told. With only the power of a voice, an entire world can be created,” writes Evan Turk in the author’s note to the new book he wrote and illustrated, The Storyteller.

The Storyteller is one of this year’s Children’s Africana Book Award (CABA)  winners.  The awards honor books that contribute to an accurate, balanced picture of Africa.  The Storyteller takes place during a drought in the ancient Kingdom of Morocco. Only the power of storytelling is capable of filling everyone’s brass cup with water to share.

Encourage children to write their own story – and then share the stories out loud or with pictures. Talk about what makes a story so exciting that readers or listeners never get bored and keep wanting more.

·       Are there stories or legends you hear at home about the countries or places where your parents or grandparents were born?

·       Can you imagine a story to explain a natural phenomenon – like why fireflies sparkle at night, what the man (or lady) in the moon might be thinking or why pandas love to eat bamboo?

·       Write about a day in your life when something magic happens to you – like the boy in the story whose brass cup is suddenly overflowing with water.

Each of the 2017 CABA books could generate writing prompts – beginning with finding out more about the African country featured in each title.

The 2017 CABA Winners are:

·       Gizo-Gizo! A tale from the Zongo Lagoon (Ghana) by Emily Williamson with the students and teachers of the Hassaniyya Quranic School in Cape Coast Ghana/Sub-Saharan Publishers / available via African Books Collective

·       The Storyteller (Morocco) by Evan Turk/Atheneum

·       Amagama Enkululeko! Words for Freedom: Writing Life Under Apartheid (South Africa) Anthology/Cover2Cover/ available via African Books Collective

2017 CABA Honor Books

·       Aluta (Ghana) by Adwoa Badoe/Groundwood Books

·       The Bitter Side of Sweet (Ivory Coast) by Tara Sullivan/Putnam

·       The Boy Who Spat in Sargrenti’s Eye (Ghana) by Manu Herbstein / self-published for international distribution via Ingram Publishing Services /Techmate in Ghana

2017 CABA Notable Book

·       The World Beneath (South Africa) by Janice Warman/Candlewick

This is the 25^th anniversary of the CABA awards - 90 books set in 24 countries have been recognized since the awards began.  The authors of all seven 2017 winners will receive their awards at a celebration dinner November 3, 2017, in Washington, D.C.   

Ten previous winners are also attending the dinner, including Kathleen Wilson winner of the first CABA, five-time CABA winner E.B. Lewis and two-time winners Liz Zunon, Baba Wague Diakité and Ifeoma Onyefulu.  Ntshadi Mofokeng, representing the NGO Equal Education will be coming from South Africa, author Manu Herbstein will be traveling to the celebration from Ghana, Adwoa Badoe from Canada and Janice Warman from the U.K. Click here for tickets and more information. 

On Saturday, a free CABA family festival will be held at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.  Children can learn to spin a yarn and weave a story, based on tales from Ghana, Morocco and Ivory Coast.  A panel of CABA authors/illustrators is featured and both current and past CABA winners will be signing their books. The event is free and open to the public. More information here. 

“When a storyteller dies, a library burns.” Old Moroccan saying

 https://childrensbookguild.org/karen-leggett-abouraya

Family Chores, Siblings, and Writing Fun

by Laura Gehl

My new book, Koala Challah, illustrated by Maria Mola, is about three sisters. The older two sisters have important jobs to help their family get ready for the holiday of Shabbat—the Jewish day of rest, which occurs each week and is a special time to enjoy being with family. Lila, the youngest sister, wants to help too. But every time Lila tries to help, she ends up making a gigantic mess!

This book can be used in the classroom to encourage your students to reflect and write.

After reading Koala Challah out loud, here are some activities to try:

1)    What jobs do you do every week, or every month, to help your family? Do you put away dishes? Feed pets? Take out the trash? Are there any jobs you would like to try? Have you ever tried to help out your family and then ended up causing more problems, like Lila?

2)    Lila is the youngest of three siblings. Do you have any siblings? If you have older siblings, are you jealous of how much they get to do, like Lila is in the book? If you have younger siblings, do you see them trying to copy you, like Lila does in the book? If you don’t have any siblings, how do you think that changes the way your parents treat you? Do your parents expect you to do more to help out, because you are the only kid? Do they play with you a lot, since you don’t have siblings to play with, or do they expect you to read books and find other ways to play independently?

3)    In Koala Challah, Lila shows a lot of persistence. She keeps trying to find a job to help her family. And after she settles on a job—baking challah—she keeps trying until she perfects her recipe. Can you think of a time you showed persistence in your own life? Did you keep trying and trying until you learned how to do the monkey bars on the playground? Did you keep working and working until you could shoot a basket, or solve a Rubix Cube? Write about a time you persisted until you accomplished your goal, or write about a goal you have and how you plan to be persistent until you accomplish it.

4)    In Koala Challah, Lila is helping her family get ready for the holiday of Shabbat. What holidays or rituals do you celebrate with your family? What is your favorite type of family celebration? How does your family prepare for this holiday or celebration? Do you have any special job to help your family get ready?

5)    Koalas live in the wild in Australia. Where do other animals live in the wild? Pick an animal and research where that animal lives in the wild. Or pick a country that you are interested in and research which animals live in the wild in that country.

6)    Challah is a braided bread that Jewish families eat on Shabbat. What are special foods for your family? Do you ever help make those foods? Would you like to try?

If your school allows students to bring in homemade food, encourage them to help make foods that are special to their families and then bring those foods in to school to share! Have a tasting day! If your school does not allow homemade food, students could still help make special foods at home and then bring in pictures and/or recipes.

www.lauragehl.com

Heroes and Historical Fiction – The Six-Day Hero

Guest post by Tammar Stein

The Six-Day Hero tells the story of Motti, a scrappy 12-year-old Israeli boy living in Israel on the eve of the Six-Day War. Idolizing his older brother, a soldier in the Israeli Defense Force, Motti dreams of being a hero. As the Six-Day War begins and his brother is called up to fight, Motti realizes that war isn’t a game. Motti knows his older brother is a hero, but through the six days that will decide Israel’s fate, he discovers other heroes in surprising places. He may even be a hero himself.

In 1967, Israel teetered between existence and annihilation. By winning the Six Day War, it averted annihilation…and began the modern dilemma of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This summer (June 5-11) marks the war’s 50th anniversary.

I wrote The Six-Day Hero after discovering there was nothing on the topic for Middle Grade readers. Well-researched historical fiction can open a door into the past. By letting readers feel what those historical events were like, not just dry facts like places and dates, but also sounds, smells, tastes, and emotions, history sudden leaps to life.

Because historical fiction can be the doorway to understanding historical events, I felt that I had a responsibility to make sure my facts were correct. The plot and the characters are fictional. But the facts in The Six-Day Hero are all real. The order of events leading up to the war and during the war are true. The quotes from foreign leaders on the radio are true. Even the color of the public bus that the boys ride is historically accurate. In order to make sure that each fact in the book was correct, I read nonfiction books, pulled newspaper articles from the time period and interviewed a dozen Israelis and Americans who had lived through the Six Day War.

Reading The Six-Day Hero is a wonderful way to introduce current events into your curriculum. The Six Day War happened 50 years ago. That probably seems like ancient history to your students. But since this is the war that started the situation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it still has a big effect on millions of people. It’s not ancient history, it’s current events.

Ask your students to find Israel on the map. Have them find Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Find Morocco and Tunisia. Compare them to the United States. Notice their size difference and their distance from each other. Discuss whether a country’s size correlates to its influence. What are some reasons that countries go to war? What are the risks and rewards of war? What are the risks and rewards to refusing to fight? Ask your students to write an essay on one of these topics.

Ask your students to collect newspaper articles and do research on a place frequently mentioned in the news. Could they create a character sketch of a fictional person who lives in this place? Could they write a description of the setting?

Discuss the differences between fiction and non-fiction. Between plot (fiction) and setting (which could be fiction or non-fiction). Ask students to name examples of fictional settings and non-fictional settings. Discuss the novel and have your students separate fact and fiction. Knowing that the historical facts are correct, where is the fiction?

Books can open new worlds to us. They can introduce us to distant lands and make us feel kinship with strangers. I hope your students walk away from The Six-Day Hero with a new appreciation that behind every news story is a story of people.

Tammar Stein is the author of four young adult novels, including Light Years, an American Libraries Association Best Book of the Year, a Virginia Reader’s Choice, and a Texas Summer Reading List book. The Six-Day Hero is her first Middle Grade novel. It is a Junior Library Guild Selection. You can visit Tammar at www.tammarstein.com

“All Talk and No Action”

guest post by Claudia Mills

          Oh, that boring word said. We do need to have some way to know which character is speaking in a stretch of dialogue, but to hear said, said, said, said, said, said is almost unbearable.

          The only thing worse, alas, is to switch out said for a bunch of “fancy” speech verbs. An occasional shouted, whispered, complained, retorted is a welcome relief, but a long string of hundred-dollar speech verbs calls attention to itself much more than plain old said ever did. Worst of all is modifying each said with an adverb: said sadly, said angrily, said wistfully.

          Solution: introduce brief bits of action into dialogue. Letting us know what characters are doing as they speak not only identifies speakers, but places readers fully in a scene. Instead of talking heads, we have living, breathing, moving human beings.

          For example, in my recent book about an aspiring seventh-grade writer, Write This Down, here are some instances where a speaker is identified simply by my showing what she is doing as she speaks:

 “That isn’t funny.” Now Kylee’s distressed enough that she puts down her knitting.

Or:

Kylee shrugs. “Okay.” But she crinkles her forehead in a skeptical way.

           One way to demonstrate this technique to your students is to create a short dialogue, written as in a play, just the words spoken. Here’s one I use when I teach:

“How are you?” 

“I’m fine. How about you?”

 “Just okay.”

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s my mom.”

“What about her?”

“I think she’s sick, like really sick.”

“Oh, no!”

          Have the students name the two characters. Now edit the dialogue (on the board) with each line tagged with, e.g., “John said” or Mary said.” Read it aloud so the students can hear how deadly this is. Next try replacing each said – every single one – with a fancy speech verb, or speech verb plus adverb. Read it aloud. Ouch!

          Ah, but now let the students offer suggestions about where the dialogue should take place: in a shopping mall, at the pool, in the school cafeteria? Once a setting has been established, a few of the speech tags can replaced by brief bits of action, specific to that setting. Vary their placement by sometimes having action precede a line of speech and sometimes follow it.

“How are you?” John asked Mary, as they walked toward the pool.

“I’m fine,” Mary said. “How about you?”

“Just okay.” John fiddled with the towel draped over his shoulders.

Mary stared at him. “What’s the matter?”

After a long pause, John said, “It’s my mom.”

“What about her?” A kid on the high board dove into the water with a huge splash, but Mary didn’t turn to look.

 “I think she’s sick, like really sick,” John whispered.

          “Oh, no!”

          Don’t let dialogue be “all talk and no action.” Small bits of interspersed action make the talking real. Action makes talkers come alive.

Claudia Mills is the author of over 50 books for young readers, including How Oliver Olson Changed the World (an ALA Notable Book of the Year) and The Trouble with Ants (which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly), as well as the Franklin School Friends series of chapter books from Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Claudia lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her family and her cat, Snickers. Visit her at www.claudiamillsauthor.com.

Tips, Tricks and a Little Bit O’ Luck!

guest post by Sue Fliess

When I was growing up, making leprechaun traps was simply not a thing. I’m not sure when it became a trend, but I know that my first reaction as a mom of preschoolers was, “Oh, great, I’m already so tired and now I have one more thing I have to do!”

But I must confess: I think I enjoyed making the traps more than my children did! I got so into it. We used an old fish tank, painted some rocks gold, made a ladder, and propped open the fish tank like an animal snare. My boys helped in all of this—as much as 3 and 5 year olds can—and decorated the tank with shamrocks and rainbows.

But it wasn’t enough for me to stop there. I knew my boys would want proof that a leprechaun stopped by. So, I left a note (which rhymed, of course!) from Liam the Leprechaun, which gave my boys clues for looking for the treasures he’d stolen, which I’d placed around the house. We did this for a few years, until they grew out of it—or, more truthfully, my older son grew frustrated with never catching Liam. Once he wrote a note back to Liam expressing just that.

All of this planted the seed for my new book, How To Trap a Leprechaun, long before I knew I would write it. But when I sat down to write it, all of the material presented itself from my own experience. It was one of those books that flew from my brain to the page with relative ease.

This how-to book written in rhyme explains to kids what leprechauns are and what they might be attracted to, so kids can decide how to build their traps, what types of things to put in the traps, and how they might decorate them. There is even some instruction in the back of the book for teachers/educators.

Depending on the age of the kids you’re working with, there are lots of ways to present a how-to writing activity on building a leprechaun trap.

Simple Machines

Have this be a ‘simple machine’ building day. Require kids to have one moving part to their traps. Maybe an incline, pulley, or a lever.

Rubric practice

Create a rubric for the trap, making sure they use one or more specific materials, such as, ‘you must use at least one pipe-cleaner, and it must have a shamrock.’

Plan it!

Have them create a blueprint before starting. They can draw a picture of what they want the trap to look like, and write out the steps they’ll take to make the trap.

Collaboration

Put them in small groups to have it be a collaborative trap-building activity (like the kids in my book). This promotes teamwork and brainstorming.

An unstructured structure

You can also just keep it completely unstructured. Put out materials and/or encourage them to bring some materials from home to use in their traps. Let them create in an unstructured environment.

Whatever assignment you give, you may want to ask the students to do presentations when they are finished. This gives them a public speaking opportunity where they’ll have to clearly explain something in multiple steps: how the leprechaun may be lured, how he might enter the trap, what will keep him there. Every trap is sure to be very different! Emphasize that there’s no wrong way to make a leprechaun trap, so every effort is commended.

BIO: Sue Fliess ("fleece") is the author of numerous children's books including A Fairy Friend, Calling All Cars, Robots, Robots Everywhere!, The Hug Book, Tons of Trucks and Shoes for Me! Her background is in copywriting, PR, and marketing, and her articles have appeared in O the Oprah Magazine, Huffington Post, Writer's Digest, Education.com, and more. Fliess has also written stories for The Walt Disney Company. Her picture books have received honors from the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators, have been used in school curriculums, museum educational programs, and have even been translated into French. She's a member of SCBWI and The Children's Book Guild of DC. Sue lives with her family and a Labrador named Charlie in Northern Virginia. Visit her at http://www.suefliess.com/