Embarrassed? Frightened? Write a Poem!

by Jacqueline Jules

Poetry is a great outlet for expressing strong emotions. The Poetry Friday Anthologies are a wonderful source for poems about first day jitters, disappointments, fears, and other emotional moments students experience on a daily basis. I’d like to share two poems I wrote that your students could use as models to write about their own feelings.

“Embarrassed” appeared in The Poetry Friday Anthology, K-5 Edition,2012.

In this poem, I use food images to describe the feeling of being embarrassed after saying the wrong thing. I say “Words spilled like soda/Now there’s a stain.” Sometimes things slip from our mouths in a sloppy way we didn’t intend. It can feel like being a sloppy eater and having potato chips end up in your hair.

The use of images to describe one’s feelings is a powerful tool in writing, particularly in poetry. Ask your student to think of an embarrassing moment. It can be a time when they said something they were sorry for or it could simply be a time when they dropped something or lost their balance in front of someone they wanted to impress. Can they think of an image to describe their feelings? Can they compare it to another situation or object readers will immediately identify with?

Begin with a freewrite, asking your students to describe the situation in prose, with as many metaphors or similes that come to mind. Freewrites give writers the opportunity to find their images first before trying to rhyme or condense their thoughts into a poem. Sometimes, writers choose words only because they rhyme. Doing a freewrite first can help writers avoid this pitfall.

Another strong emotion is fear. Fear of homework. Fear of thunder. Fear of being embarrassed. These poems, “The Math Beast” and “Thunder” appeared in Balloon Lit Journal, August 2015.

In “The Math Beast” I compared math homework and my fear of failing to a tiger roaring in a cage. In “Thunder” I compared the frightening sound of a storm to a stampede of buffalos on the roof.

Ask your students to write about something they fear. Storms? Tests? The High Dive? Monsters? Can they compare their fear to something else?

Once again, begin with a prose freewrite, encouraging your students to identify images before they try to write a poem. Poetry should contain at least one clear picture for the reader and having one in mind before you start is very helpful.

There are so many emotions to write about. Encourage your students to explore emotional terrains and describe their feelings in concrete images.

www.jacquelinejules.com

IF YOU COULD FLY ON A GIANT BIRD

by Jacqueline Jules

In my picture book, Princess and the Ziz, a princess flies all over the world on the back of a giant yellow bird.  The Princess and the Ziz is my own retelling of a very old Rapunzel tale involving King Solomon’s daughter who was rescued from a tower by a giant yellow bird called the Ziz.

During author visits, I often challenge young writers to imagine what it would be like to ride on the back of a giant bird. Where would you want to go? I’ve had many lively discussions with students about where they would like to go if they could ride in the air with a bird. While some students say the Bahamas, Disney World, or some other vacation spot, others tell me they’d like to visit grandparents or other relatives. One student told me she would like to fly over the rainbow with a giant bird. Now wouldn’t that make a good story!

Once a destination has been decided, students can brainstorm what they would see. If you are flying over Antartica, you might see penguins and snow. If you are flying over the jungle, you would see lots of greenery. Ask younger students to describe the scene in as much detail as possible. Older students could combine this writing exercise with geographic research. For example: If you were flying over Egypt, you would see pyramids. What else?

From there, students should consider what they would hear on their journey through the air. On the back of a bird, not enclosed the way you are in an airplane, you would hear the wind and the flapping of wings. Could you describe that? If you were flying over a city, you would hear the noise of traffic and building construction. What would that sound like? This could be an opportunity to encourage your students to use onomatopoeia. Students could make up their own words to imitate what they might hear from way up in the sky.

Finally, how would it feel to be in the sky on the back of a giant bird. Would you be frightened or excited? Would it be chilly? Would the ride be smooth or bumpy?

Visit my website for a writing template  to use in your primary classrooms.

The Princess and the Ziz is certainly not the only book which depicts a character flying in the sky via a giant bird. In Roald Dahl’s The Minpins, Little Billy flies around the world having adventures on the back of a giant swan. Fairy tales also depict characters riding on the backs of birds. Thumbelina in the story by Hans Christian Andersen flies on the back of a swallow.

Ask your students to write their own story about a character flying with the help of a friendly bird. Imaginations and feathers can soar through the clouds. Happy Flying!

www.jacquelinejules.com 

CHARACTER DOODLES

by Joan Waites

A fun and simple art project to create with your students is a page of character doodles.

Starting with a blank sheet of paper, randomly draw with a permanent black marker, shapes, swirls and varied lines till the page is almost filled. If desired, leave one larger white space to be used later for writing. To make the project more challenging for older students, have them draw with their non-dominant hand, or with their eyes closed. 

Next, fill in the shapes created on the page using various colors. Use a medium that can be drawn on top of when dry such as watercolor, markers, acrylic paint or colored pencils rather than something waxy like oil pastel or crayons.

Once the shapes are filled in with color, ask students to look closely at the art. Can they see a face or an animal? A funny creature? A building or perhaps a tree? Using black or other colored markers, have students add facial details, designs, and embellishments to the characters and objects that emerge on the page.

To add a writing exercise, have students use the large white space on the page to compose a short story, poem, or character study about one or more of their characters.

Happy doodling!

www.joanwaites.com

SUMMER OR AUTUMN

by Alison Ashley Formento

School may have started where you live, or it will start soon, but you can keep summer memories strong and celebrate the season to come, too. This easy and fun writing exercise encourages students to use personal experiences to compare and contrast the seasons of summer and autumn.

Write your favorite summer activity.

Example: Swimming at the local pool

Write five personal facts about that activity.           

Example:

Swimming helps me keep cool on a hot day.

It’s fun splashing with my friends.

I like to dive off the side of the pool.

I came in third in the backstroke race in my age group.

My arms are strong from swimming. 

Write your favorite summer food.

Example: Watermelon

Write five personal facts about that food.

It tastes sweet.

It’s cool in my mouth on a hot day.

I like to collect watermelon seeds.

I planted a whole cup of seeds in my yard.

It’s fun to eat watermelon with my hands.

Write your favorite autumn activity.

Making a leaf pile in my back yard.

Write five facts about that activity.

I help my family rake leaves in our yard.

I like to pile the leaves next to an old tree stump in our backyard.

Jumping into a giant pile of leaves is fun.

One leaf pile I made was taller than my dad.

My dog likes to hide in a leaf pile.

Write your favorite autumn food.

Apple pie

Write five facts about that food.

My family goes to a farm to pick apples for pies.

Fresh apples off a tree are fun to pick and crunchy to eat.

I help my mom make crusts for pies.

Apple pie makes our house smell like cinnamon when it’s baking in the oven.

Warm apple pie makes vanilla ice cream melt, but it tastes great together.

Use the personal experience facts you’ve listed to write a convincing explanation for readers why you believe one of these seasons is more enjoyable than the other.

www.alisonashleyformento.com

What Came Before? What Came After?

by Joan Waites

At a recent conference I attended, an artist representative spoke about consistency of character when illustrating a book, but also when showing work in your portfolio. She suggested including at least three sample illustrations in progression. Starting with one image, the advice was to do another two showing what happened with that character before that image, and what happened after. While good advice for illustrators, I thought this would also make a wonderful drawing and writing exercise to use in the classroom.

Using a picture book, pick out  a single illustration or a two page spread towards the middle of the book, using a book that children are not too familiar with. Cover any text with Post-it notes. 

Ask children to look at the illustrations, and then come up with their own drawings of what might have happened before this illustration, and what might have happened after. 

Depending on the age of the students, a more simple or complex book can be used for the prompt. This can also be used as a writing exercise only, or in combination with the drawings.

After children have completed the assignment, have them share work with their classmates, then reveal the illustrations and/or text from the actual book. How does the student work compare?

www.joanwaites.com

THE BEST WORDS IN THE BEST ORDER

by Mary Quattlebaum

The title of this post is taken from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s definition of poetry—but it should hold true for stylish prose as well.  In this era of sound bites and Instagram, though, how might we help our students to better appreciate the power and beauty of language?

A writing prompt that gets people looking deeply at words and thinking about how easily we take language for granted is the “How to, for Aliens.”

1.  Ask students to do this exercise:  An alien is visiting from outer space and has no knowledge of our world.  Write down the directions for him or her on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Or how to cheer for the school’s football team.  Or how to wash a dish.

2.  Share and discuss May Swenson’s poem “Southbound on the Freeway.” How do you know that the alien is talking about cars?  What specific words give you the clues?  How does the alien see people?  What images seem especially vivid and fresh?

3.  Have students return to their initial writing prompt and revise for clarity, word choice, and sound.

4. Share some pieces aloud, asking students to try to figure out what the alien is being asked to do.  Enjoy!

www.maryquattlebaum.com

TRYING A NEW FOOD WITH A BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END

by Jacqueline Jules

Before our oldest son moved to New York City and married a New York girl, my husband and I were pretty timid when it came to restaurants. We almost always chose the same chain restaurants with American style food.  But entertaining New Yorkers, accustomed to a wide variety of ethnic cuisine, forced us to broaden our palates. We didn't want to be called boring by our adult children.

So the first time I tried Indian food, I was with my son and daughter-in-law at an independent local restaurant I had found in a coupon book and hoped was good. I didn’t really care if I liked the food or not. I just wanted my kids to be impressed that I had suggested something other than Outback or Olive Garden.

The restaurant was decorated in red and black. There was an open beaded curtain draping the entrance to the dining area that jingled softly as we walked through. When we sat down at a polished black wood table, the waiter told us the meal was a buffet.  We went up to the serving line to see an assortment of colorful dishes in steaming metal hot trays. Each one contained vegetables and/or meat in a dark sauce. No plain meat patties or white potatoes in sight. Spices I later learned were cumin and tumeric tickled my nose. A creamed spinach with homemade cheese chunks caught my eye. Everything was labeled clearly, so I knew that the brown lumpy substance in front of me was eggplant and onions, not a mystery meat. I took little portions of several things before going back for seconds. Some of the foods were a little spicy for my previously unadventurous palate, but I found most of them very flavorful and a nice change from more bland American style fare. I especially enjoyed the sweet carrot pudding on the dessert table. I’ve always been a fan of carrot cake and tapioca pudding. The Indian carrot pudding was a soupy mixture of them both.

All in all, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Indian food. From that time on, I’ve eaten at several different Indian restaurants and always enjoyed it. In fact, Indian food was my choice for a birthday and Mother’s Day treat in recent years.

So that’s my story of trying a new type of food for the first time. What’s your story? If you are looking for an easy structured lesson to demonstrate beginning, middle, and end, try asking your students to describe the first time they tried a new food. Ask them to answer the following questions in sequence:

BEGINNING:

1. Where were you and who was with you?

2. Why did you try the new food?

MIDDLE:

3. Describe the food and the place where you ate it, with sensory details. How did it taste, smell, look, etc? Can you compare it to other foods or experiences?

CONCLUSION:

4. What did you learn? Would you try the food again?

Conclusions, which are often hard for young writers, are particularly easy to develop when writing about a new food experience. It is natural to discuss one’s decision to eat the food again or not. With luck, this concept will transfer to narratives on other topics, such as vacations or accidents. Would you like to go there again? Did the experience teach you something about yourself?

So try asking your students to write about the first time they tasted a new food. And when you present the idea, describe a new food experience of your own. Students love to learn more about their teachers and when you write the prompt yourself first, you can give them a model to follow.

http://www.jacquelinejules.com/