Look at Things from a Different Angle

Guest Post by Sue Fliess

We all know the story of Santa Claus, who has his long list of gift requests for all the girls and boys around the world. We know he has a sleigh and his 8 (plus Rudolph) reindeer who guide that sleigh. And we know he uses his magic to deliver all those gifts in one magical night, letting children wake up to delight in them Christmas morning.

But we really don’t know much about Mrs. Claus. What is she like? Is she meek? Headstrong? Fun? With my new book, Mrs. Claus Takes the Reins, I decided to explore the personality of Mrs. Claus, the woman behind the scenes who always makes sure Santa is ready for his long journey. When Santa gets sick and decides Christmas must be cancelled, I thought Mrs. Claus might be just the kind of woman who could take over in a pinch, and get the job done—with the help of the elves, but really with no magic at all. And does she ever! She uses her smarts and skill and overcomes every obstacle…and even returns to the North Pole ten minutes early.

Rewrite a story from a new point of view!

Ask your students to choose a favorite book, then rewrite a scene from that book (or a new story altogether, if it’s a picture book), from a different character’s point of view. What if we heard the trickster magician’s side of the story in Frosty the Snowman? Or in Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn Dixie, wouldn’t it be fun to know what the dog is thinking? Maybe we hear Peeta’s story from the Hunger Games, or how Hagrid is feeling in a scene from Harry Potter.

Encourage students to do this while they are writing original stories as well, to help develop the secondary characters in their stories. The discoveries may surprise them!

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Experimenting with Imagination

guest post by Sue Fliess

The title of my new book Mary Had A Little Lab came to me in a dream—really. So when I visit schools and talk about this book, I tell them that they can dream up any story they want—or any machine they’d like—the only limit is their imagination. 

 My book is about Mary, a scientist and inventor, who makes her own dreams come true. She doesn’t have friends, so she decides she needs a pet. But rather than buy one, she makes one! A sheep, of course.  Once she makes a sheep, she is no longer lonely, and it soon allows her to make friends. Then her friends want sheep as well. But her Sheepinator goes haywire and starts making so many sheep that she and her new friends have to solve this new problem. The story has several problems that Mary and her friends must solve before the end. It’s like any experiment—things don’t always go right the first time. It takes many tries. Just as this book did to get it right!

One fun activity I do with students when I visit schools is to have them line up and recreate the Sheepinator from my book. They each have to choose what function they serve, what simple machine or movement their body must do to perform that function, and what sound it makes. They go in order, until, at last, a sheep pops out in the end—one student getting to be the sheep (I have a costume for this part, but that’s not necessary!). This gets them thinking about machine parts, how things work, and how things must work together.

Another activity is to have students create their own version of a Sheepinator. Draw a schematic on paper, then build it with arts and crafts and explain how it works.

A third, and maybe my favorite, it to ask students “If you could construct a machine to make anything you wanted, what would it be and what would it make?”  This allows them total freedom. Maybe they want to create an ice-cream-o-scooper, which makes any flavor of ice cream with the push of a button. Or a Cash-o-matic that spits out money. They can draw it, explain how it works, and even create a 3-D model of it, if they like.

Let the inventions begin! 

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!  Sue lives with her family and a Labrador named Charlie in Northern Virginia. For more information about Sue and to check out her books and song parodies, go to http://www.suefliess.com/

It’s a Parody Party!

guest post by Sue Fliess

Okay, so maybe I get overly giddy about writing parodies, but for me they are just so much fun! I’m not sure what inspired me to write my first parody song, but once I did, I was hooked. Essentially, I like to take popular songs and change up the lyrics to make it about writing or poke fun at part of the writing journey. I think it’s cathartic to me to be able to express some of the less appealing parts of being in book publishing or being a writer. Humor gets me through the rough patches, and I figured others in the same boat might need a laugh. I’ve done parodies on finishing a book, revising, wanting more books, and even dipped my toe into the political spectrum. But I had not thought of doing a parody for a book, which seems hard to believe! So when an editor, who’d seen my parodies, asked me to try my hand at a parody for a children’s book, I said yes! And We Wish For A Monster Christmas was born!

Try it with your class!

Depending on the age of your students, you can have them do simple or more complex parodies. For the younger set, maybe just take the title of songs they know, and have them change the titles, or just the main chorus. For older groups they can choose a song and rewrite all the lyrics. What I do is print out a page with 2 columns. The left column I have the actual song lyrics and on the right, I create my own to match the beats or syllables. But since it’s a parody, it doesn’t have to be exact. Also, my parodies surround a central theme, but for younger students, it may be a challenge to rewrite a whole song around one topic.

Literary parody

Not in the mood for music? Have your class write a parody of a nursery rhyme or poem they know from a collection. For instance, Mary Had a Little Lamb or Humpty Dumpty might be good starters. Again, they can just create a new title, or rework the whole piece.

No matter which direction you choose, it’s sure to be a fun activity that lets kids be silly and use their imaginations. 

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!  Sue lives with her family and a Labrador named Charlie in Northern Virginia. For more information about Sue and to check out her books and song parodies, go to http://www.suefliess.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/

Writing Instructions with A Fairy Friend

Guest post by Sue Fliess

To believe in magic fills the heart and mind with wonder. As a child, I always imagined I wasn’t alone and believed that some kind of magical creatures must exist. Were there aliens? Beings that we couldn’t see, but lived among us? So tiny we didn’t know they were there, or so big that our Earth could fit on their fingernail? I thought anything was possible.

In my newest book, A Fairy Friend, illustrated by Claire Keane and published by Macmillan, I write about magical, mystical fairies; how they live among us, and how one only needs to know where to look and what to do to attract one.

The story invites the reader to join that miniature dream world by giving detailed instructions on how to do so. 

Want to have one come to you?

Here is what you need to do…

Build a house of twigs and blooms,

Decorate her fairy rooms—

Walls of blossoms, cotton floor,

Sparrow feather for her door.  

This is a great opportunity for you to have your class write their own set of instructions (explaining to them that they are writing from a second person point of view), talking directly to their reader. 

Have students choose something they are passionate about—sports, dancing, dogs, playing an instrument, building, cooking, etc. The first few sentences can be description about that topic or thing.

Friendly fairies soar the skies,

Ride the backs of dragonflies.

Wings of fairies shimmer, spark,

Twinkle, glimmer in the dark.

The next part can be where they write out instructions on, for example, how to score a goal in soccer, how to teach a dog to sit, how to pirouette, construct a fort, or even how to make a peanut butter sandwich.

Encourage them to be as detailed as possible, and to assume that the reader has never tried this particular thing before. If possible, as with the dance move, have the other students follow the instructions of their peers.

They can wrap it up by writing about the results of following the actions – how it feels to score a goal, what it’s like to perform a ballet recital, how yummy a peanut butter sandwich is, and so on.

Many reluctant writers find writing instructions lots of fun. And it is a welcome change for  students to be able to instruct someone else on what do to, instead of always being told what do to. 

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. Her Oprah article was included in the anthology, O's Little Book of Happiness. 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 www.suefliess.com.

LIBRARIES RULE!

guest post by Sue Fliess

Not that you needed a good reason to talk about the importance of libraries, but just in case you were looking for one…Books for Me! is the rhyming story of a young Hippo girl and her Dad going on an outing to their local library to find great books. This book is the third adventure with our young Hippo, illustrated once again by Mike Laughead. In Shoes for Me!, she makes a trip to the shoe store with Mom to pick out a pair of new shoes. In A Dress for Me!, she gets to choose a new dress. When I do school visits, I always get a plethora of wonderful suggestions for more “for me” adventures for Hippo. See what your class comes up with…I’d love to hear them!

Books for Me! is about the joy of discovering all kinds of books—adventure, science fiction, mystery, history, folktales, non-fiction—and how a library is the perfect place to do it. It’s an opportunity to talk to kids about fiction versus non-fiction, the different sections of the library, and what a librarian does. Get them thinking about what kinds of books they are drawn to—help them discover their favorite genre. 

Another fun activity you can do with your students as you read this book to them is to talk about rhyme. Ask them to help you finish the sentence and talk about the rhyme they hear at the end of the stanzas. For example: “Lots of choices I can see. Will I find some books for me?”

Have your students help you write a rhyming poem. I usually have kids fill in the last word of the alternating line or lines. Here’s an example:

Winter is cold, but snow is fun.

Summer is hot from the yellow _____.

In addition, you could have your students try their hand at their own poem, rhyming or otherwise. The idea is to get them thinking of their own stories and writing them down.

See if your class can identify some of the books that have been worked into the illustrations and the text, such as “Books on mittens (The Mitten by Jan Brett), broken chairs, mice and moons (Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown) and puzzled bears (The Three Bears).” They will likely recognize many. If possible, have these books on-hand also, so they can see how the covers were included in Books for Me!

Questions you can ask: 

What is rhyme? 

Can you give an example of some rhyming word pairs?

What’s your favorite book/story? Is it fiction or non-fiction?

Name one thing you learned from a book this year.

What’s your favorite part about the library?

Why do we go to the library? (no wrong answer here J)

If we can help kids see now that libraries are windows to the big world they’re in, they’ll develop a lifelong love of reading.  

Bio: Sue Fliess ("fleece") is the author of eighteen children's books (published or forthcoming) including Tons of Trucks, Robots, Robots Everywhere!, How to Be a Superhero, and most recently, The Hug Book and Books for Me! Her background is in copywriting, public relations, marketing, and event planning, and her articles and essays have appeared in O,the Oprah Magazine, Huffington Post, Writer's Digest, Education.com, Daily Candy Kids, Travelmuse.com, and more. Fliess's picture books have received honors from the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and have been used as curriculum teaching tools in elementary school classrooms as well as children's educational programs in museums. She's an active member of SCBWI, the Children’s Book Guild of D.C. and The Author’s Guild. Sue lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, two boys, and a Labrador puppy named Charlie. Visit her online at www.suefliess.com