Facing Fear of the Dark with Heightened Senses

With his Zapato Power sneakers, Freddie Ramos can jump high, hear from far away, and run at top speed. But even a boy with superpowers can be afraid of the dark. When a big storm takes out the electricity at his apartment building and most of the city, Freddie is forced to face his fears. 

A special set of night goggles helps Freddie until he realizes that a friend needs them more than he does. At that point, Freddie relies on what he learned in science class about the five senses. If one sense is not working, you can use the other ones. In the climax of the story, Freddie uses a heightened sense of hearing to navigate in the dark and rescue an elderly neighbor.

Read Freddie Ramos Sees in the Dark with your students. Discuss their own fears and how they have handled them. Ask if they have ever used their sense of hearing or touch to find their way in the dark. Discuss how each of our five senses provides important information.

Writing Prompt: If you could invent a tool to help you face a fear, what would it be? What would this invention do? How would it work? Would you try to sell your invention? If so, how would you advertise it?      

Freddie Ramos Sees in the Dark is book #14 in the Zapato Power series. In each book, Freddie uses his superpowered sneakers to solve a mystery and help his neighbors. Check out the other titles in the series at Albert Whitman, the publisher’s website. 

BIO: Jacqueline Jules is the author of fifty books for young readers including the Zapato Power series, the Sofia Martinez series, My Name is Hamburger, The Porridge-Pot Goblin, Never Say a Mean Word Again, and Tag Your Dreams: Poems of Play and Persistence. The resources page of her website has many activities for educators and parents. Visit www.jacquelinejules.com 

HOW TO GROW A NATURALIST

by guest blogger Nancy Viau

A naturalist is someone who loves and appreciates nature and who studies plants and animals as they live in nature. Naturalists often write about their observations in journals, magazines, and non-fiction books. I chose to pen my observations in the form of a picture book, Look What I Can Do!. My goal was to have children see a variety of animals in their natural habitat, accomplishing tasks and overcoming challenges that are part of growing up. Illustrator Anna Vojtech has done a wonderful job bringing my words to life and creating lush spreads filled with color and depth.

What follows is a very basic science activity with writing tie-ins (for grades K-2). Its purpose is to increase awareness and respect for the animals in our immediate surroundings.  

Introduction
Train your young students in the art of observation by practicing with common objects. For this activity, they should use only two senses: seeing and hearing. Allowing children to use only sight and sound as reference points helps them to stay on task. Plus, later on, when observing animals, students may be too far to smell them, and of course, they shouldn’t be encouraged to touch them!

Put a pencil on every desk.

Using the questions below, have students create a list (oral or written) based on what they see and hear.

           What color is the object?

What shape is it?

            How big is the object?

(Big as a______; Long as a _______; Fat as a _______, etc.)

                          What is the object’s placement in the environment?

                          Does the object make a sound of its own?                           

Repeat with three other objects: a watch, a cup of water, a crumpled paper.

Research

Students research three animals that may be found in the immediate area of the school. They note color, size, what they eat, their homes, families, and habits.

Activity

The easy part:

Students choose two to three favorite animals.

Each student receives a notebook (Naturalist’s Journal) and pencil. A towel or rug square to sit on comes in handy, too.

Time to head outside! Students find a place where they are likely to spot one or more of the animals they have picked.

The hard part:

Students sit and wait, very quietly. Students should not coax any animal out with snacks or noises.

The writing:

When an animal is spotted, students observe and make notes based on sight and sound only.  

They are not to make up stories (yet).

A sketch is also appropriate.

Back in the Classroom

Share and compare findings.

Make a classroom collage using sketches or cut-out pictures of animals observed.

Create a map of the observation area. Students add in their animals.

Discuss non-fiction and fiction, and how facts and research are used in both.

Children use their detailed observations of animals to write each type of story. Encourage use of descriptive language with sight and sound elements.

Corresponding Lessons

             Five Senses

             Habitats

Onomatopoeia

Communities/Neighborhoods

Introduction to Scientific Method 
              

Nancy Viau is the author of three nature-inspired books: Look What I Can Do! (Nominated for the Keystone to Reading Book Award), Storm Song, and Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head. Her Fall 2014 title, City Street Beat, invites readers on a toe-tappin’ musical journey from the country to the city. When not writing, Nancy can be found hiking, biking, or visiting schools across the country and around the world (via Skype). Visit her at www.NancyViau.com

THAT OLD THING: FAMILY STORIES

by Mary Quattlebaum

Our word “January” comes from the two-faced Roman god Janus, who was positioned to look both forward and back in time.  The first month of the year is always a time of beginnings, but it’s also a chance to glance back and to make connections between past, present, and future.  This writing prompt explores shared family memory and always yields a heartfelt piece of writing (and a few surprises for the writer!) whether I’ve done it with 8 or 80 year olds.

1.  Ask students to look at home for “family treasures” that have been passed down through one or more generations.  Examples might be a holiday ornament, a quilt, a piece of cookware, or a memento. Avoid photos.

2.  Request them to write down a memory or two they have about this item.  Where is it usually kept?  How do they feel about it?

3.  Brainstorm with students in class questions to ask an older family member.  Who brought this item into the family?  How did this member get it?  What is its history?  What exactly is it made of?  What does it represent to the interviewee?  What are some of his/her childhood memories associated with it?  Anything else the family member might like to add?

4.  Have students conduct the interviews at home or by phone and then bring them to class, along with the item. If the item is large, encourage them to bring in part of it (for example, a drawer).  (If you’re doing this with children, ask them to bring non-breakable things or a photo of the item.)

5.  Ask them to explore this item through each of their five senses, if appropriate.  What does it look, sound, and smell like?  How does it feel?  Ask them how they feel about it and whether their feelings have changed since the writing of a few days ago.  Did they learn anything new or surprising during the interview?

6.  Have students include their writings and interviews (all dated) in a folder that might be passed down with the item to a future generation.

A personal note:  On my mother’s side of the family is a child’s rocking chair, made in 1884, that has always been passed down to the oldest girl.  When my daughter was born, my mom had the chair stripped of layers of old paint, strengthened, and re-finished to its original luster. She also researched the chair’s design and craftsman and included her reflections on its history. What a precious gift—the chair and my mother’s words--I now have to give to my daughter!  (My poem “Antique Rocker” from my book Family Reunion includes my thoughts on the chair.)

www.maryquattlebaum.com

 

COOKING UP SOME WRITING FUN

by Mary Quattlebaum

We’re now in that “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” so beautifully described by John Keats; and with pumpkins and Halloween candy highly visible, many a person’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of food (to adapt Tennyson’s spring-time line to autumn).

Food is a great connector, joining people within and across time, regions, countries, and ethnicities.  Nothing can generate a spirited classroom or family discussion quicker than mention of a favorite (or detested) food.  I’ve done the following prompt with kids and adults alike.

Favorite Food

1.  Ask students to name their favorite food.

2.  Have them close their eyes and call to mind a time when they prepared or ate it.  With their eyes closed, have them focus on each of the five senses, one at a time:  What do they notice about this particular food, on their plate or in their hand?  Are there any particular sounds associated with this food or with the eating or preparing of it?  What about smells?  Taste?  Touch, as in the temperature of the food and the texture in the mouth?  Ask whether they are eating alone or with a group and what else they might notice about the setting or occasion.

3.  Have them open their eyes and write, using at least three of their five senses, and trying to give a sense of where and when the food was eaten.

4.  Share some descriptions with class.  For students writing about the same food, have class point out differences and similarities in descriptions.  Discuss how each person brings something different and unique to the description because each writer is unique and will notice different things/have different experiences to draw from.

Resources

Two helpful websites and their attendant blogs link food, children’s books and writing and education:

http://jamarattigan.com/ -- Jama’s Alphabet Soup, written by children’s author and foodie Jama Kim Rattigan, is self-described as “an eclectic feast of food, fiction and folderol.”  It’s a delightful feast, indeed, with recipes, writing reflections and interviews with children’s authors and illustrators.

http://jeanraiford.com/ -- Preschool Parfait, developed by preschool teacher Jean Raiford, provides seasonal activities and recipes that playfully enhance the early learning environment in reading, science, math and social and physical skills.

www.maryquattlebaum.com

How Does Your Garden Grow?

by Laura Krauss Melmed

Midsummer gardens in my northwest D.C. neighborhood are splashed with day-glow orange lilies, sunny black-eyed susans and spikes of royal purple salvia.  Following on Pam Smallcomb’s recent post inviting middle grade readers to a literary picnic, this glorious garden display suggests a good summertime (or depths of winter) writing activity for younger children, centered around the question, “How does your garden grow?” Two picture books serve as good jumping off points for such an exercise.  They are My Day in the Garden by Miela Ford, lushly illustrated by Anita Lobel (Greenwillow 1999), and My Garden by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow 2010).

My Day in the Garden begins with, “Breakfast with the morning glories” and moves through “hide and seek with a toad, flower-counting with the butterflies, berry-picking with the birds,” and more.  As evening falls, “fireflies come to say goodnight.” For a lesson based on this book, first ask the children to close their eyes for a few moments and imagine that they are spending the whole day in a lovely garden on a sunny summer day. What do they see? Smell?  Hear? What might they feel with their fingers? With their feet if they took off their shoes? Are there fruits or vegetables growing in the garden to pick and eat?  What do they taste like?  What if a lawn sprinkler were suddenly turned on?     

Next read the story aloud.  Then take the students through morning, afternoon and evening in their own imaginary garden, asking them to come up with activities different from those in Ford’s text.  Write their responses on chart paper or a smart board.  Also invite the children to take a careful look at Anita Lobel’s illustrations.  How did she bring her own element of surprising originality to the story? Why might she have chosen the colors she used?  Point out that Lobel’s illustrations are highly patterned, explaining what this terminology means. Ask the students why Lobel may have chosen to decorate her illustrations in this way. How do her patterns relate to the theme of the story? How do they make you feel? Finally, have each child choose one of the garden activities described by the class and illustrate it.  

In My Garden by Kevin Henkes, a little girl helps in her mother’s garden, which requires hard work, but imagines a garden all her own.  In this garden, “There would be no weeds, and the flowers would keep blooming and blooming and never die…the flowers could change color just by my thinking about it… the rabbits would be chocolate” and “unusual things would just pop up—buttons and umbrellas and rusty old keys.”  There would be tomatoes “as big as beach balls,” and strawberries “glowing like lanterns at night”.  For a writing exercise based on this book, children could create their own six page “My Garden” book with a sentence and picture on each page describing the features of their own fabulous, fanciful garden.  

For a craft activity to accompany either book, have the students create a Fanciful Flowerpot Garden. You will need a 5-inch clay pot for each child, acrylic paints, florists foam, three craft sticks painted green per child, construction paper, pages from old garden catalogs (optional), glitter, and an assortment of small decorations such as beads, candies, gold stars, etc. and glue. Have each child paint a flower pot decoratively. Then have them draw a flower, insect and vegetable on construction paper and cut them out, or alternatively cut pictures of flowers and/or vegetables from a garden catalog.  Onto the tops of three sticks, have each child glue variously, a flower, a vegetable and an insect. Then have them decorate their sticks with glitter, stars, beads, etc. Fill each flower pot with florist’s foam. When the glue has dried, push the bottom of the stick into the florist’s foam. Your fanciful gardens are ready to be admired!

http://www.laurakraussmelmed.com/ 

PENCIL TIPS: WRITING WITH THE FIVE SENSES

by Mary Quattlebaum

I don’t know what to write!  Have you heard this wail from your students?  The five-senses exercise gives them a fun and focused way to start.  I’ve done this exercise with all ages, from third graders to college students to adults.  It helps hone descriptive and revising skills.

Exercise:  Use the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch (at least 3 of 5) to write a description of a place.

*  Before writing, have students first close their eyes and quietly picture this spot in their minds.  Go through each of the senses one by one, asking them “What do you see in this place … hear … smell … taste … touch?”  And finish by asking, “How does being in this place make you feel?”

*  Have them write, using at least 3 of their 5 senses in their description of this place. Descriptions should be relatively short (about 1 to 3 paragraphs long).

*  After writing a first draft, have students revise, encouraging them to use more descriptive words (“lush, green” grass rather than “pretty” grass, for example); more specific nouns and adjectives (what kind of bird or what color, for example), and stronger verbs (“run” or “skip” rather than “go,” for example).

Variations

For young people:  I often challenge them to describe a place outdoors that is special to them.  This helps them to focus on and perhaps better experience the natural world.  Otherwise you tend to get descriptions of bedrooms and malls.

For creative writers:  In addition to sharpening descriptive skills, the exercise can be a boon for creative writers trying to flesh out scenes and create a well-rounded world for their characters.  (I often do this exercise, trying to imagine the scene before writing/revising it.)  It’s endlessly interesting because you can apply it to places/scenes real and imagined, scary, tranquil, or chaotic.

For everyone:  Ours is a culture that gives and receives a lot of information through our sense of sight.  And our vocabularies tend to be sight-rich—with many fewer words dealing with taste and smell.  By being aware of and drawing upon all your five senses in your writing, you’ll often find yourself more alive to your senses in the real world.

 http://www.maryquattlebaum.com/