Have A Blast With Beep And Bob!

guest blog by Jonathan Roth

Bob is an ordinary kid who finds himself having to go to school in the most terrifying place he can imagine: outer space! Luckily he makes friends with a lost little alien named Beep, and together they face all the usual school challenges (tests, too much homework, bullies) and the not-so-usual (lack of gravity, black holes, giant space spiders). You can read all about their adventures (Bob keeps a journal and Beep draws the pictures) and use the following prompts to create your own!

Writing Prompts:

In a few words or paragraphs or pages, complete the following:

“I was just accepted to go to school that’s located _____________ miles away, somewhere near ________________________ but I’m super nervous to go there because ___________________________.”

“Don’t be mad, but I just let an alien into the school and it___________.”

“You’re never going to believe this, but we just went on a field trip to _________ and just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse ____________________.”

“I once traveled to the future for a day and to my great surprise _____________________.”

“Whatever you do, don’t push the red button because it ___________________!”

“I just found a special spray that cures me of my biggest fears, which are ______________ but the spray also gives me strange side effects such as ______________.”

“My Emergency Space Pack is full of such helpful items as ___________________ but also has some pretty useless things like _______________________.”

“Oh, no, I forget the password that disables the Self-Destruct Button I just accidentally pushed, but I know it’s one of my twenty favorite things, which are _________________ and _____.”

“I just read the entire BEEP AND BOB series, which was pretty good, but I have an idea for an even better series which is about ___________________.”

Illustration Prompts:

Beep is a cute alien, but there are some aliens Bob hasn’t met. So Bob will know who to look out for, please draw:

Squeep, who’s even cuter than Beep

and Klob, who’s super scary.

Know any other aliens? Draw them too!

I hope you have fun with your writing and illustrating. The main thing to remember is that you can always, always improve with practice. And being creative can be a blast!

http://beepandbob.com/

Salvador Dali Clocks

by Joan Waites

Creating art based on the work of famous artists in history are lessons commonly used in classrooms from kindergarten to college. While studying and copying from the masters is an important part of an art education, it can sometimes frustrate the younger student that has more difficulty with drawing and painting.

A fun and alternative way to learn about a particular artist and their work, is to have students create a 3-D project based on a painting. A sculpture made of found or recycled objects, papier-mâché, or clay can be a fun alternative lesson.

In a recent art class, we looked at the work of Salvador Dali, perhaps most known for his painting titled The Persistence of Memory. Students were instructed to make a “melting clock” from air-dry clay. After observing and talking about the original painting, clocks were sculpted using about two fist size pieces of clay, with the winding mechanism and clock hands added. Numbers were carved into the clock face. After the project dried for a week, the clocks were painted with acrylic craft paint, using similar colors from the original painting.

For a writing exercise, ask students to observe the various objects in the painting and come up with a short story. Why do they think the shapes are distorted? What do the objects represent? How do the objects relate to one another? What would happen if you found a “melting clock?”

Materials used:

Crayola brand air-dry clay

Plastic bowl (bottom side up) to mold and warp the clock face

Pencil or other tool to carve the clock numerals

Acrylic craft paint (silver, gold, blue and black)

www.joanwaites.com

Peep and Egg: I'm Not Trick or Treating

by Laura Gehl

My newest picture book with illustrator Joyce Wan, Peep and Egg: I’m Not Trick or Treating, is the second book in the Peep and Egg series. Unlike Peep and the other farm animals, poor Egg isn’t excited about Halloween. Egg is terrified of witches, mummies, and vampires; there is absolutely NO WAY that Egg is going trick or treating!

Peep and Egg: I’m Not Trick or Treating can be a fun writing prompt in your classroom.  After you read the book aloud, here are a few ideas to try with your students:

1)    Peep and Egg wear coordinated Halloween costumes. Peep is a butterfly, while Egg is a caterpillar. Challenge your students to make a list of other coordinated Halloween costumes that would be fun for siblings or friends to wear. Some possibilities include salt and pepper, ketchup and mustard, or milk and cookie.  For an extra challenge, see if students can come up with ideas that work especially well for an older sibling and a younger sibling, the way a butterfly and a caterpillar work for Peep and Egg.  A seed and a flower, a tadpole and a frog…how many examples can your students think of?

2)    Peep tells Egg Halloween jokes to help Egg feel less scared. What other strategies can your students think of for helping a friend or younger sibling who finds Halloween frightening?

3)    As a class, brainstorm a list of “scary” Halloween characters—monsters, zombies, etc. Then work with your students to make each character less scary by adding nontraditional traits. How about a monster who loves to sing songs from Disney movies, or a zombie who wears a rainbow bikini? 

4)    For many kids, the best part of trick or treating is the CANDY.  Ask your students to invent their own Best Halloween Candy Ever.  Would it be a dark chocolate bar studded with white chocolate chips in the shape of a skull? Or a lollipop that looks like an eyeball, with an oozing red center that tastes like cherry cola?  Anything goes!

5)    Even though many kids find trick or treating fun, there are plenty of kids who are scared by Halloween in general and trick or treating in particular. Can your students make a list of other activities that are fun for some kids but scary for others? Rock climbing? Horseback riding? Ziplining?

Peep and Egg: I’m Not Trick or Treating reinforces the message introduced in Peep and Egg: I’m Not Hatching…that sometimes all we need to overcome our fears is someone we love by our side.  Happy early Halloween!

www.lauragehl.com

30 Day Creative Challenge

by Joan Waites

The new school year has officially started, and classrooms are buzzing again!

A fun way to get the creativity flowing after the summer break is to initiate a 30 day creative challenge for your students.

Using 5x7 index cards (or other small pieces of paper), pick a simple one word prompt for children to do a quick drawing or doodle. Emphasize that the drawings don’t have to be realistic; they can be funny, whimsical or anthropomorphized. On the back side of the paper, have students do a short writing exercise. For example, using the word “paintbrush,” have students draw a paintbrush and then on the back of the drawing either describe the object using the five senses, write a poem about the object, or turn the object  into a character for a story and list character traits. 

Do this every day for 30 days allowing about 10-15 minutes per day. At the end of the 30 days, have students look over their collection of challenges. Have them pick out their favorite drawings and creative writing. Ask students to expand these simple exercises into a short story or picture book. These 30 day challenges can be kept in an envelope and used throughout the year as inspiration for other artistic works or writing assignments.

Happy September!

www.joanwaites.com

MAGICAL HAPPENINGS IN A NIGHT GARDEN

by Laura Gehl

The Night Gardener, by Terry and Eric Fan, is the story of a town where something magical is happening.  Each night, a mysterious Night Gardener trims a tree into a wondrous creation—a cat, a bunny, a dragon.  And then one extra special night, a little boy named William is invited to help!

The Night Gardener makes an excellent writing prompt for the classroom.  After you read the book aloud, here are a few ways to use this beautiful picture book with your students:

1)    What if each student in your class had the chance to become a night gardener?  Challenge students to make a list of the tree creations they would wish to produce. In the book, trees are trimmed into animal shapes, but your students need not limit themselves to animals.  What about a tree in the shape of a lollipop? A robot? A dress?

2)    In The Night Gardener, the townspeople are changed by the beauty that the Night Gardener brings. Ask your students, “Other than trimming trees into fantastic shapes, what are other ways that you could beautify your neighborhood in the middle of the night?”  Students can write their own ideas, which might range from picking up trash to painting happy faces on parking meters to planting flowers in vacant lots.

3)    This book is written by two brothers.  Ask your students to think about whether it would be easy or hard to work with a family member—a sibling, parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or cousin—to create a book, a painting, or another type of work of art. Ask each student to write about which family member he or she would like to collaborate with, and why.

4)     Give students the chance to look closely at the illustrations in the book, and specifically at all of the townspeople. Do your students see people of varying races or ethnicities? Ask each student to write about why including diverse characters in picture books is important.

The Night Gardener reminds us that small actions can have big consequences, and that it only takes one person to change an entire town forever. Each one of your students can make a positive difference too!

www.lauragehl.com

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOX!

guest post by Timothy Young

Boxes are incredibly useful and somewhat mystical things. Without boxes, birthdays would be less exciting, we’d have a heck of a time on moving day and Schrodinger would have no problem knowing if his cat were dead or alive. Thankfully, we have boxes and my new picture book, Do Not Open The Box!, is a story about one boy and a box. Benny comes across a very large box with a sign on it that says “Do Not Open.” Benny is curious and thinks of all kinds of things that could be in the box, both good and bad, and has to decide whether to give in to temptation and open it.

There are many books about boxes and their plots are as different as the number of things you could find in a box. For example, Too Many Toys by David Shannon, Not A Box by Antoinette Portis or The Birthday Box by Leslie Patricelli tell very unique stories about what kids do with boxes.

Writing Exercise:

Put a box on a table. Ask students to write two lists of what they think could be in the box. One list will be things that would realistically be in the box. The other will be a fantasy list of what they’d like to be in the box. Examine the differences between the possible and the impossible.

Art Exercise:

The students can pick an item from each list and draw a picture of a dragon eating cupcakes or monsters reading textbooks.

Timothy Young has been an animator, puppet maker, toy designer, sculptor, art director and graphic designer. He’s designed for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, the Muppets, The Simpsons, Disney, and Universal Studios. Tim is the author/illustrator of 6 picture books including Shadows On My Wall, The Angry Little Puffin and the highly acclaimed I Hate Picture Books!. His latest, Do Not Open The Box, will be released on January 23rd, 2016. He lives with his family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Find out more about him and his books at www.creaturesandcharacters.com

Writing Connections with Jon Scieszka

by Mary Quattlebaum

Make writing and science fun with Jon Scieszka!  His latest book is the third in his zany Frank Einstein series.  In Frank Einstein and the Brainturbo, students can hang out with Frank’s two wacky robot sidekicks and learn about the human body.  In an interviewwith the KidsPost section of the WashingtonPost, Scieszka talks about encouraging curiosity and his favorite facts about the body.

MAKE YOUR OWN HUMAN:  Frank creates a kind of super-charged brain.  As a class, students might create their own human.

Research:  Assign each student a certain part of the human body to research.  Ask each to find and write down three facts for his or her body part.

Writing:  Ask each student to write down two things that might happen if his particular part of the body were super-charged or made bigger or better than real life?  What would that body part then be able to do?  Ask each student to draw a picture of his/her super-charged body part.  What might happen if a villain tried to grab and run away with it?  Why would a villain want it?  How might the student (as a zany kid scientist) save it?

Sharing:  Teacher might have a silhouette of the human body on  the bulletin board, and students might post one or all of their true facts on the bulletin board.  In this way, students can learn about the intricate work of many organs and body parts.

www.maryquattlebaum.com 

Back to School with BALLOONS Lit. Journal

by Jacqueline Jules

In August, I was very pleased to see my poems, “The Math Beast” and “Thunder” featured in Issue 2 of a new online publication called BALLOONS Lit. Journal.

After reading the journal in its entirety, I would like to recommend this rich resource to teachers and young readers everywhere. BALLOONS Lit. Journal features work from both established and young writers from all around the world. It also includes work appropriate for a wide age range of students.

The inclusion of work by young people makes this a wonderful model for young writers. Share the poem, “Rain,”by ten-year-old Sage as an excellent example of using descriptive details and then ask students to write their own weather poems.

Two fiction stories in this issue are told from the viewpoint of inanimate objects. “Knight Errant” is a clever chess story set in medieval times with a twist ending.

“Carnival Balloons” follows the worried thoughts of a balloon watching over a lost child.

Both of these stories could be used as models for writing from an object’s viewpoint, particularly a toy or game.

The art in Balloons Lit. Journal is utterly delightful. “The Earth—A Miracle” by Hyonju (Karen) Ahn could inspire writing about the earth, the solar system, and/or ecology.

Ahn’s “City Lights” could make a terrific writing prompt and discussion for sensory details. Project the art on a smart board screen and brainstorm descriptive words for the busy sights and sounds depicted. Ask your students to describe a visit to the city or write a story about someone who is experiencing New York City for the first time.  

Attractively designed and available for free to educators, BALLOONS Lit. Journal, should be on your back-to-school list for writing workshop ideas. Check it out at 

http://www.balloons-lit-journal.com/issue-2.html

 www.jacquelinejules.com

Get Out Your Crayons!

by Joan Waites

In my last blog post, I outlined an art and writing activity based on the classic children’s book, Harold And The Purple Crayon.  Instead of using just one purple crayon (as per the exercise and the book), now it’s time to get out the whole pack!

It’s hard miss the relatively new adult coloring book craze when you walk into a book store. Coloring books are displayed at every turn.  From simple scenes to intricate patterns, lush florals, and whimsical animals, there is something for every age and interest.

The new “queen” of coloring books, UK illustrator Johanna Basford, has even topped the recent best-seller lists with the following titles:

Coloring provides a great way to relax and de-stress, while at the same time trains the brain to focus and work on fine motor skills. Using crayons, markers, or colored pencils, a coloring session is not only fun, but therapeutic for adults and kids alike.

To add a writing exercise that can be used with a coloring page, ask your students to create a story based on the illustration they are coloring. Below is a sample of a page I created last year for a coloring book used by patients at Saint Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Print the page on 81/2 X 11 paper and color. 

Created by Joan Waites

Ask your students to imagine the story happening in the picture. Where is the girl going? What are the elephants doing? Who is the bird? The monkey? Where does this story take place?

Enjoy some coloring time, and enjoy these last weeks of summer!

www.joanwaites.com

Writing Connections with Brian Selznick

by Mary Quattlebaum

Brian Selznick is acclaimed for his distinctive, detailed artwork and his innovative books.  I talked with him recently, in conjunction with an interactive exhibit of his work and just before his amazing 2015 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC. Click here for the video of the Arbuthnot Lecture, “Love Is a Dangerous Angel: Thoughts on Queerness and Family in Children’s Books” (you can fast forward to minute 38 for Selznick’s opening) and here for the KidsPost/Washington Post article on his books and the exhibit.

Below are a few writing prompts for the classroom or for individual writers ages 8 and up.

Writing About Wonders:  A Cabinet of Wonders figures prominently in Wonderstruck (Scholastic, 2011).

Classroom Discussion: Ask students to bring in a natural wonder (intriguing seashell, fossil, unusual rock, etc.).  Research cabinets of wonders and have class (in entirety or in small groups) work together to create their own “cabinet” or display.

Classroom Writing: (Nonfiction/Captions) Assign one child to each item and have him/her research and write a short nonfiction description of it (to include 3 facts).  (Creative) Youngsters might also be encouraged to find or write a poem about one of the natural wonders in the display.

Sharing:  Mount the display, with captions, and give youngsters a chance to share more information or ask questions of one another.  What was their favorite piece in their cabinet—and why?

Related Projects:  This approach could be adapted to other classroom or family projects.  For example, rather than finding objects, people might assemble photographs of family members and/or pets or take photographs of treasured family objects and then write short captions for a scrapbook.  (This might be something especially enjoyable to do, as an entire family, during the summer.)

www.maryquattlebaum.com

  

Using Fables and Fairytales to Help Students Generate Ideas

by Laura Gehl

When I visit classrooms to read my new picture book Hare and Tortoise Race Across Israel, I remind kids that one way authors get ideas is by starting with stories they already know.  I show various examples of picture books that are adapted fables and fairytales, including Goldilocks and Just One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson and The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz.

In your own classroom, you might want to read out loud a few examples of adapted fables and fairy tales.  Then you can transition to helping your students think about different ways of changing a known story. 

1)    Change the characters

Ask students to fill in the blank.  Goldilocks and the Three ______________.

Monsters?  Princesses?  Basketballs?  Other ideas?

How would changing the characters change the plot of the story?

2)    Change the setting

Ask students to fill in the blank.  Hare and Tortoise Race Across ____________.

Washington D.C.?  The United States?  Mars?  Other ideas? Which landmarks would students choose to include in each location?

3)    Change the numbers

Ask students to fill in the blank.  The _____ Little Pigs

5?  10?  100?  Other ideas?

If there were 5 little pigs, what materials might the two additional houses be made out of?  How would one hundred little pigs work together to defeat the wolf?

Ask your students—by themselves, in pairs, or in small groups—to choose one fable or fairytale and change the characters, the setting, or the numbers.  Then students can try writing up (and maybe illustrating!) their own stories.

Another fun activity for classroom writing is to create a mash-up.  What if Goldilocks wants to race against Hare and Tortoise?  Or what if the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood turns out to be the twin brother of the wolf from The Three Little Pigs…and they decide to team up?  Encourage your students to brainstorm different combinations of fables and fairytales, then to write up their favorite.

Starting with a known story takes the pressure off of kids to “think of an idea,” which frees them to be creative and, most importantly, to have fun!

Laura Gehl is the author of One Big Pair of Underwear, a Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended Title; Hare and Tortoise Race Across Israel; And Then Another Sheep Turned Up; and the Peep and Egg series (hatching spring 2016).  Laura also writes about science for kids and adults.  She lives in Maryland with her husband and four children.  Visit Laura online at www.lauragehl.com and www.facebook.com/AuthorLauraGehl.

Differently Abled Writers

by  Karen Leggett Abouraya

Each year, on the same day we learn about the life-changing Newbery and Caldecott Awards in children’s literature, the Schneider Family Awards are announced, honoring authors for their portrayal of the disability experience.  This year’s winners are:

·  Alan Rabinowitz and illustrator Catia Chien for A Boy and a Jaguar (for children up to age 8) – about his own life as a boy who stuttered except when he talked to animals,

·  Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin (ages 9 to 13) – about a girl with autism who must leave the security of her routines to find her beloved dog after a storm, 

·  Girls Like Us by Gail Giles (teens), about two girls with learning and developmental disabilities who are making the difficult transition to independent living after high school.

All three books enable young readers to see life from the perspective of someone who thinks and works differently, but is not really that different in the ways that matter most. And as it turns out, one of the Newbery Honor books this year is by Cece Bell (El Deafo), an author who is deaf and made a marvelous video about her experiences. There are most likely some differently abled youngsters in your classes.

Nic Stearns, a founder of the ArtStream inclusive theatre in Maryland/Virginia, is about to publish a children’s story written jointly with Megan, a young woman who has Down’s Syndrome. 

As we come to the very end of National Developmental Disability Awareness Month, I’d like to share the type of conversation Nic has with Megan that helps build the story and can serve as a model you can use in class to help every student feel like a writer. The role of Nic in the conversation can be played by a teacher, an aide or even another student (perhaps an older student mentor).  Nic and Megan are writing a story about two friends, Pauline and Tiff.

Nic: "What is Pauline's favorite color?"

Megan pointed at her own purple shirt.

"Purple? Does she wear a lot of purple?" Nicolette asked.

Megan answered, "Yes. Only purple."

Nicolette asked, "What does Pauline like to do? Does she like to sing or does she like to dance?"

"Tap dance!" Megan answered excitedly.

"Does Pauline wear her tap shoes at home?" Nicolette asked.

"Yes," answered Megan.

Nicolette asked, "Well, how about at school?"

"Yes," Megan said.

"Where else does she wear them?" Nicolette wondered, "To the grocery store?"

"Yes," Megan affirmed. "And when she gets ice cream."

Often, Nic moved the story along by giving Megan fill-in-the-blank sentences: “The most important thing about friendship is………..”

As Nic Stearns says, writing became an “opportunity to look beyond Megan’s disabilities to see the beautiful, creative person she is.” (More about ArtStream and the writing project here.)

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

Photo-Writing Fun with Turning the Page

by Mary Quattlebaum

Looking for ways to explore/enhance creativity?  Want to encourage your kids to write during the summer?  Or as a teacher, would you like to welcome your students back to the classroom with an engaging, thought-provoking prompt?

Whether you’re a writer, a parent or a teacher, the tips I received recently from Turning the Page might prove fun and helpful.  For 12 years, TTP, a literacy organization in Washington, DC, has spearheaded a photography/writing program in several DC public schools.  TTP staff visits classrooms, lends digital cameras to students, and gives a few lessons in composition, camera angles, and light/shadow so that students can begin to think through artistic choices before taking their photos.  The students then choose certain photos to jumpstart a piece of writing—which might be a poem, description, reminiscence, or information about the subject.

Photo by Sarah Mercier

In this photo, Zion, a third grader, stands proudly beside her photo/writing at the art gallery that showcased the students’ work.  

Ellie Canter oversees TTP’s Literacy Through Photography program.  She offers the following suggestions for summer or early fall photo/writing activities.  (These can be adapted to all ages.)

* Ask kids to choose 1-4 photos that they have taken or that have been taken this summer.  Ask them to write about each (whether a poem, description, fact, creative story, or memory).  The photos/writing might become part of a family or classroom album.

* Focus the photo-taking, for example on things that begin with a certain letter of the alphabet.

* Appreciate family and community.  Kids might take a photo of an older family member, for example, and do a short interview.  Or they might photograph and write about a pet, their favorite thing, or the most interesting part of their neighborhood or home.

* Involve others.  Canter mentioned one particularly powerful exercise.  DC students were asked to photograph and write about “The Best Part of Me.”  Some chose their minds, others chose other aspects of themselves.  Isaiah, a fifth grader, took a picture of his biceps and wrote a playful poem on “My Mighty Muscles.”  The students then asked their parents to name a best part—and the responses generated interesting discussions at home and school, Canter said.

* Look at novels that include photographs to see how the photos enrich the story.  Revolution by Deborah Wiles is a wonderful example.  The novel tells the story of Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964 and mixes headlines, quotes, photos, and song lyrics with the narrative.  Students might tell a longer story about their summer using these same elements.  

* For additional ideas or information on the Literacy Through Photography program, visit Turning the Page’s website www.turningthepage.org and blog http://turningthepagedc.wordpress.com/

www.maryquattlebaum.com

WRITING POETRY: A NOVEL APPROACH

by Jane Harrington

A creative friend of mine (okay, fellow writer and Pencil Tips blogger Jacqueline Jules) suggested I share some writing prompts from a book of mine, My Best Friend, the Atlantic Ocean and Other Great Bodies Standing Between Me and My Life With Giulio, a novel premised upon a high school freshman’s poetry journal from her English class. (Did I really just describe the book in fewer words than make up the title?) So, here are a few ideas from the missives of my protagonista, Delia:

Describing her teacher’s efforts to get his somewhat “blocked” students to produce SOMETHING, Delia writes, “He told us we should not feel ‘constrained’ by trying to make our poetry ‘fit into a structure’ as we write it. That to become good writers we need to ‘release the words and let them flap about on the winds of our creativity.’ He says the best writing comes from free writing about anything that inspires, and that later we can edit the writing down to its most ‘vital essence.’ And that, he says, will result in good poetry.” Delia responds well to this and has much fun with “flapping words.”

In other journal entries, Delia writes about how the teacher has the students using some unlikely sources for poetic inspiration, such as cellphones. He has them write out their text messages: “so boi wut up?” one student offers as a first line, noticing a similarity to rap or “fly” when he sees his texts set up as verse. The students also get an assignment to look to popular media, specifically advertising, to find uses of poetic devices. When one student passes a note calling the whole idea bogus, sarcastic Delia responds in her journal: “Read zines and watch the tube for homework? Yeah, sounds awful.”

There are other ideas that could be plucked from this short novel, so you may want to give it a read. Admittedly, looking to fiction for teaching ideas is sort of like asking a cartoon character for advice, but, hey, whatever works! Lots of libraries carry this book (and its prequel, which also has a ridiculously long title, much to the chagrin of librarians who have to catalog the things), and a BN or Amazon search should turn up cheapo used copies, far-too-expensive new ones, and reasonably-priced eBooks. I’ve yet to see a person reading these books without at least a few snorts of laughter, so you can always pass your copy along to a kid in need of a smile. (And I’m happy, always, to answer readers’ questions. There is an email link on my website.)

www.janeharrington.com

NAMING YOU CHARACTER

by Mary Amato

A frequent question kids ask me is: how do you come up with your character names? I have fun with symbolism, metaphor, and connotation. The girl whose sisters tell her she is a chicken? Henrietta in The Chicken of the Family. The brothers who like to invent fun? Wilbur and Orville Riot from my Riot Brothers series.

Have fun using literary elements to create fictional character names for the following characters. There is no right or wrong. Examples are given for the first four.

A race car driver: Lefty Turner

A bus driver: Miles A. Head

A barber: Harry Shears

A smart guy: Noah Lott

A nurse:

A horse trainer:

A teacher:

A dancer:

An athlete:

An annoying brat:

A dentist:

Share ideas and be as creative as possible. You could use these characters in stories or poems.

www.maryamato.com

VEHICLES FOR CREATIVITY?

by Jane Harrington

I was listening just the other day to an NPR interview of Julie Bruck, the poet who just won the Governor General’s Literary Award in Canada (an honor about equal to our National Book Award). She recited an excellent poem about children and animals, and then went on to talk about how she keeps creativity moving along in her own life and the lives of her writing students. One way: Caves.

Yes, we writers and illustrators know about caves. At least those of the mind, where we have to regularly crawl into quiet nooks in order to hear the muse. And it was in that context that Julie spoke of caves, but it got me thinking of some creative hideaways of childhood. You know—the forts we made in our rec rooms, from couch cushions and blankets. These places had detailed backstories involving the Wild Things or the Star-bellied Sneeches, or sometimes they were train cars filled with escaped circus animals or dogs that found a door left ajar at the pound. The memory of these cozy conjuring compartments got me wondering if getting students to make “writing caves” at home might be a way-fun method to combat distractions and (oh, I’ve heard it from the mouths of babes) writer’s block. My own college-aged students would laugh at the notion of making a hideout—though secretly want to do it!—but the elementary set would probably hop right aboard.

Another vehicle for creativity that Canada’s poetess spoke of was…a vehicle! She free-writes something she calls “car pages” while sitting in a parking lot, and she asks her students to do the same. A lot of these ramblings seem to become excellent poems. So, that got me thinking, too. I don’t know about you, but I get the most amazing ideas when I am behind the wheel of a car. (Of course, I can’t write anything down, which is enormously frustrating, but….) What if we were to challenge our students to do some “backseat scribing”? Using Naomi Shihab Nye’s idea (from Mary Quattlebaum’s post of last week) the car could be that playful space filled with metaphor. I mean, what could possibly be a better symbol of protection than a seatbelt? Or maybe kids would get a kick out of creating dialogue between car parts, as with the side dishes in Jacqueline Jules’ November 19 post or Mary Amato’s “Talking Toothbrushes” (November 5). “Get your hands off of me!” the sassy steering wheel might say to Mom.

And, of course, verses borne of the world going by outside car windows or the folds of a fort—well, that’s poetry in motion, you’d have to say.

www.janeharrington.com

SUMMER WRITING RESOLUTIONS

by Laura Krauss Melmed

Six months into 2012, our New Year’s resolutions may have lost some of their luster.  Mine haven’t but that’s only because I never make any!  As I’m not a very good long term planner, resolving to do anything for a whole year only seems like setting myself up for failure.  But summer is a nice manageable chunk of time in which I might actually be able to keep the promises I make to myself.

When it comes to writing, I always find winter the easiest season for keeping focused.  In the lazier pace of summer (my favorite season, despite having lost our power in Friday’s massive storm) I tend to lose my resolve.  So here is a list of the five summer resolutions I have made to guide me through the next couple of months, and maybe beyond:

1)    I resolve to write for two hours a day, five days a week, without interruption.

2)    In order to accomplish the above, I will turn off my computer during the writing period.  For me, this will mean writing in a room other than my office where the big monitor of my desktop calls seductively.  It also means abandoning my laptop; ergo, I will be writing by hand.  Woo-hoo! I get to take a preparatory field trip to Office Depot where I will select some crisp yellow legal pads and a package of new pens with exactly the right hand feel as well as flow and thickness of ink.  My current fave is the Pilot B2P gel pen, medium point.

3)    I will start a poem exchange.  That means finding a partner who will pledge with me to write a poem a day (I’m hoping this will be my daughter).  The idea is to check in at the end of the day and say the poem has been written.  It is not necessary to send your poem to your partner, although it’s fine to do so.  No critiquing unless the other person asks for it.  Success lies in just writing the poem so that you can confirm completion with your partner at the end of the day.

4)    Writing can be isolating, so I’ll start a new, energizing endeavor involving other people.  In my case, this will be forming a book club or play-reading club, both of which I have been talking about wanting to do for years.

5)    I plan to read several autobiographies or biographies of creative people in fields other than writing, to learn more about the endlessly interesting creative process.  The first is Yes, Chef, by Marcus Samuelsson. I would welcome other suggestions! 

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