Poetry Prompt Jar

Guest Post by Laura Shovan

When I work with young writers in the classroom, one of the things we talk about is writing prompts. Unlike a writing assignment, prompts are akin to drills in sports, or the etudes that musicians practice in order to work on technique. When we write in response to a prompt, the focus is on trying, on playing around with ideas and language, not on the finished product.

In my middle grade novel in verse, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, teacher Ms. Hill keeps a jar of poetry prompts for her fifth grade students, who have free-writing time every morning. Educators have told me that they like this idea. If students don’t know what to write about, they can grab an idea out of the jar and see what bubbles up for them.

That’s exactly why I love working with prompts. As writers, we can’t always rely on inspiration to show up. Sometimes it needs a nudge – which a good writing prompt can provide. I also like the way that random writing prompts, because they are unexpected, shift young writers away from their favorite topics and help them to stretch, exploring new territory in their poems or stories.

So, let’s fire up the glue gun and make a Poetry Prompt Jar.

Materials:

Jar or box (big enough to put your hand inside)

Craft supplies

Glue gun (optional)

Writing prompts on small pieces of paper

For my prompt jar, I cleaned out an old protein powder container, then covered it with scraps of giftwrap. 

I thought it would be fun to decorate the prompt jar with a poem. Since my own children are too big for our Magnetic Poetry Junior set, I pulled out some tiles, constructed a little poem, and hot-glued it to the jar. 

My finished craft jar is kind of quirky. I may have gotten carried away. I'm sure Ms. Hill would have shown more restraint. 

Next, I put some folded up writing prompts inside the jar. However, I also added a few odds and ends: a button with flowers on it, a hamster-shaped eraser, a small wooden turtle. If you’re making a prompt jar for your classroom, consider including a few small objects or magazine clippings for students who are kinesthetic and visual learners.

Last, it might be fun to borrow an idea from the Little Free Library movement: Stewardship. What would happen if a student or two were responsible for the prompt jar? Prompt Jar Stewards might make sure that the prompts are returned when people are done, that nothing unexpected (or inappropriate) shows up inside the jar. They might even be inspired to create some writing prompts of their own.

Let’s close with a poem. In The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, one of Ms. Hill’s students writes a poem about the classroom prompt jar.

THE POETRY PROMPT JAR

By Katie McCain

For Ms. Hill

I am stuck.

I cannot rhyme.

My words are weak

as tadpole slime.

I dip my hand

into the jar

of poem starts

from near and far.

There’s tanka poems

from Japan,

Shakespearean sonnets

(I’m not a fan).

A limerick?

No. They’re too rude.

Why not an ode

to my favorite food?

When writer’s block

has made me pout,

the prompt jar’s here

to help me out

Laura Shovan is the author of The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary. She has served as a poet-in-the-schools for the Maryland State Arts Council’s Artist-in-Education program. Visit her at www.laurashovan.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

Writing with Animal Scientist Alexandra Horowitz

by Mary Quattlebaum

Many kids think that scientists work with beakers and microscopes, but Dr. Alexandra Horowitz is a scientist who works with her pets.  By carefully watching her dogs, she gains insight into how dogs in general behave and learn.  In a recent interview with the KidsPost section of the Washington Post, she talks about her newest book Inside of a Dog, a fascinating nonfiction account about the way dogs learn, how they descended from wolves, and why they behave as they do.

Below are writing lessons for the classroom or for individual writers ages 8 and up.  They are adapted from suggested activities in Dr. Horowitz’s Inside of a Dog.

EYES OPEN, PENS READY:  Some scientists study exotic animals—like pandas and lions--in the wild, but Dr. Horowitz thinks we can learn a lot about animals that are part of our everyday life, such as squirrels, sparrows, pigeons, and our pets.  Brainstorm a list with students of possible “everyday” animals. 

Classroom Writing #1:  Ask students to choose an animal at home and observe it closely for 15 minutes every day for a week.  Have them write down what the animal does during that time.  At the end of the week, ask students what they observed about their animal.  What did it do?  Why do they think the animal did that or behaved in that way?  Were students surprised by any specific behaviors?

Classroom Writing #2:  A dog is not a person in a furry suit.  Humans experience the world by seeing it; dogs smell it.  Imagine walking into a room and being extremely aware not of the lamp or the book on the floor but of the many smells therein.  Have students close their eyes and concentrate on their sense of smell.  What are all the different smells?  Have them try this in two different rooms (perhaps one could be a kitchen at home) and record what they smell.  They also might get down on their hands and knees and pretend to be a dog and move through the rooms for about 10 minutes, experiencing things at the dog’s level.  How does the room look/feel different to a dog than a human?

Ask students to do one of two writing projects: (1) Based on what they learned/recorded in Classroom Writing #1, they might choose a particular behavior they observed (sleeping in certain postures, eating a certain way, barking, tail wagging) and do some additional research to learn why this species of animal does this behavior.  The first paragraph might focus on what they learned by watching this one animal, with the second paragraph providing information on why this particular type/species of animal does this behavior.   Or (2) Based on what they noticed about smell/perspective in Classroom Writing #2, they might pretend to be a dog (or their dog) and write a story or poem in the first person (using “I”) from the dog’s point of view.  What do their dog-selves notice about the world?

www.maryquattlebaum.com

Get Hooked on Words: Kwame Alexander’s Booked

by Jacqueline Jules

Kwame Alexander, Newbery award-winning author of The Crossover returns to center stage of the children’s literature world with another winning novel-in-verse. In Booked, Alexander introduces us to Nick Hall, the son of a linguistics professor who, in Nick’s opinion, suffers from  chronic verbomania. Nick’s dad has a serious obsession with words and insists that his soccer playing son memorize the dictionary he wrote. Nick’s hilarious definitions such as “onomatophobia—noun: fear of hearing a certain word. DEAD!!!!!” will make middle school readers laugh out loud and inspire a new appreciation for the power of words. This book will make an excellent classroom read aloud and platform to discuss the inner meanings of words and how choosing the right word to describe your feelings can make all the difference. What’s more, the poetry is superb. There are so many ways this book can be used in the writing workshop classroom. I’ll list my top three below:

1.    Word Definitions—share Nick’s dictionary entries from Booked. Challenge your students to write their own creative definition of words. (ie: “wordbound: adjective: unable to find expression in words. Kinda ironic, right?”)

2.    Poetry Model/Mentor Text—Share “Texts to April” from page 232  which is a love letter from Nick to the girl of his dreams and a love song to poetry itself. “The poems were cool./The best ones were like bombs,/ and when all the right words came together/it was like an explosion.” Ask your students to write a poem in the form of a long text.

3.    What was in Mac’s Dragonfly Box? Booked ends with an unsolved mystery. Nick’s favorite adult at his school, the librarian, gives Nick his special Dragonfly Box. The last line is “You’ll never believe what was inside . . .”  Ask your students to write a story about what was inside the box, why it was a great gift for Nick and what Nick did with the Dragonfly Box after the novel ended.

Happy Verbomania!!

www.jacquelinejules.com

CHARACTER HAIKU

Guest Post by Claudia Mills

      As a child I loved to write poetry. As an adult, I’ve felt too intimidated even to try, with one exception. I love to write poetry “by” the characters in my stories. I created child poet characters in a number of books, such as Lizzie at Last and Dinah Forever, and had tons of fun writing poems that Lizzie and Dinah might have written. There is something liberating about writing poems under an alias. It frees me from fear that my poem won’t be good enough, because after all, this isn’t really “my” poem, it’s Lizzie’s or Dinah’s.

        In my forthcoming book The Trouble with Babies, the third book in my Nora Notebooks series, the kids in Nora’s class are writing haiku for a poetry unit. So I had the challenge of writing haiku for each featured character in the class.

        Emma dotes on her cat, Precious Cupcake, so I gave Emma a cat-loving haiku:

Precious Cupcake

by Emma

My cat is the best.

White, soft, fluffy, blue eyes, tail.

She is the cutest.

Critter-loving Amy is disappointed that her mom won’t let her get a pet snake:

When I Grow Up

by Amy

When I’m a mom some-

Day, my kids can have ten snakes

And I’ll say “Hooray!”

          Tamara is the class dancer:

Hip Hop

by Tamara

When I start to dance

My feet have their own ideas.

My body follows.

          After explaining the classic haiku structural pattern of three short lines with 5-7-5 syllables, have students write haiku “by” the characters in a favorite book, or a book report selection, or a classroom read-aloud.

          If students will be using a common text, ask them collectively to recall as many characters as they can, listing the names on the board for easy reference. As each character is mentioned, have students refresh each others’ memories about key traits or scenes in which they appear. Then it’s time to start writing.

          It can be fun to compare student poems written “by” the same character. If the text is Charlotte’s Web, for example, all kinds of poems “by” Wilbur may emerge:

                              I may be a runt.

                              But I can be terrific.

                              And radiant, too.

Or:

                              I’m glad I’m a pig.

                              But I hope no one makes me

                              Into a pork chop!

Or:

                              The best kind of friend

                              Is a spider who can write

                              Words into her web.

Note that this last poem is about Charlotte, but written by Wilbur, as he reflects on Charlotte as wonderful friend. But if students get confused and write their poems about, rather than by, their chosen character, they are still generating poetry and linking it with their insights into literature.

          Once you get started writing this kind of short verse, it’s hard to stop. That’s the power – and pleasure – of character haiku.

BIO: 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 (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.

Explaining Unfamiliar Words, Concepts, and Facts

Guest Post by Laurie Wallmark

Whether your students are writing fiction or nonfiction, there might be an unfamiliar word, concept, or fact that needs additional explanation. This might be anything from a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fact to a sports move, a fantasy world setting to an alien language. Here’s a writing exercise to help your students think about the many techniques available in their writer’s toolbox that will help.

First, as a group exercise, have your students imagine they’re writing a story about a little boy with asthma. Explain that not everyone knows about this disease. Ask for suggestions of how this could be explained in the story.

Here are some possible techniques:

·       Simplify the definition – it’s a disease where you have trouble breathing

·       Give an analogy – it’s like trying to breath through a straw

·       Show an action – describe a character having an asthma attack

·       Offer an example – character can mention famous people who have asthma

·       Show in the narrative – the text explains what asthma is

·       Use a question & answer – have another character asks about the disease

As an example, you can read my book Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine and point out how even difficult concepts can be explained using appropriate text techniques. Ada Byron Lovelace was the world’s first computer programmer. In order to appreciate her groundbreaking achievement, the reader needs to understand the concept of an algorithm. Some of the techniques I used to explain this were:

·       Give a definition – “A set of steps that are followed in order to solve a mathematical problem or to complete a computer process.”

·       Simplify the definition – “Ada decided to create an algorithm, a set of mathematical instructions.”

·       Show an action – “Ada broke the problem into a series of simple steps.”

·       Use an example – “The machine could follow these instructions and solve a complex math problem, one difficult to figure out by hand.”

Now it’s time for the students to do a writing exercise on their own. Have them think of an unfamiliar word, concept, or fact they might need to explain in a story. If they’re having trouble coming up with anything, you can give suggestions such as: cultural or religious traditions, sports terms, or hobby activities. Challenge them to write five or more ways to give an explanation to their reader. At the end of the exercise, have them share their techniques with the class. Have the students discuss which techniques they think work better.

BIO: Laurie Wallmark writes picture books and middle-grades, poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from VCFA. When not writing, Laurie teaches computer science at Raritan Valley Community College, both to students on campus and in prison. Her debut picture book, Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine, received four starred trade reviews (Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and School Library Journal) and several national awards, including Outstanding Science Trade Book. Visit http://www.lauriewallmark.com/

Michael Shiner: A True American Original

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

“It is sometimes called the City of Magnificent Distances, but it might with greater propriety be termed the City of Magnificent Intentions…”   That’s how Charles Dickens described Washington, D.C., when he visited in 1842.  The only compliment he paid to Washington was the “very pleasant and commodious library in the Capitol.”

In Capital Days, Michael Shiner’s Journal and the Growth of Our Nation’s Capital, Tonya Bolden recounts the history of Washington, D.C., often from the point of view of Michael Shiner, born enslaved but able to secure freedom for himself and his family.  He spent most of his life working at the Washington Navy Yard, keeping a journal that cataloged some of the city’s most important events, including numerous fires, laying the cornerstone for the Washington Monument and the inauguration of 11 presidents.

Bolden is the winner of the 2016 Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award.  She is honored for all of her books, including many stories of American history, often from the point of view of African Americans.  Bolden will be honored at an Award Luncheon on April 9 in Washington, D.C., and everyone is invited.  Find the details here. 

Bolden’s books are rich with opportunities for student research and writing.

In addition to Michael Shiner’s journal itself, Capital Days is filled with pictures and stories drawn from original documents. Here is a poster published by the Anti-Slavery Society as part of its campaign to end slavery and slave trading in Washington, D.C. 

You can enlarge this poster here. 

·       Ask students to create their own anti-slavery poster.  What would they say or show that might convince legislators to make slavery and slave trading illegal in the nation’s capital?

In 1807, three free black men who could neither read nor write established Bell School near the Washington Navy Yard where they worked. It was the first school for black children in the nation’s capital. 

·       Have one student pretend to be carpenter George Bell while another interviews him. Why did Mr. Bell think it was important to start a school? Who did he expect to attend the school (boys and girls)? What problems or challenges did he encounter in opening the school? Both students can write newspaper articles based on Mr. Bell’s answers.

Read the full quote about Washington from Charles Dickens, where he writes very disparagingly of “spacious avenues that begin in nothing and lead nowhere.”

·       Ask students to write a review of their own city, as if they were writing for Yelp or TripAdvisor.

Reading Michael Shiner’s journal was like having a conversation with him across the dinner table about daily events. In 1861, “they commenced hauling flour from the different warehouses in Washington, D.C., and Georgetown to the Capitol of the United States.”  The Capitol – still under construction – would serve as a bakery, barracks and hospital for Union troops.

·       Ask students to interview a long time resident of their community – perhaps a relative or resident of a retirement community.  Ask about details of a particularly important event in the community or even the nation and turn those details into a narrative description or story.

Capital Days is also an excellent tool to help students learn the importance of good glossaries, thorough footnotes and an index. In her Author’s Note, Bolden calls Shiner a “true American original.”

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

INSPIRE YOUR STUDENTS WITH BLUE DOG

by Joan Waites

This past week, my young art students completed a project based on the Blue Dog paintings by the late artist George Rodrigue. After talking about the artist and looking at examples of his work, students were instructed to create their own version of a blue dog painting. The idea was not to copy the original work exactly, but to give their own dog a personality by using color choices, background design, and any accessories they wanted their dog to wear.

The paintings were completed on canvas paper with initial sketches done in pencil. Students then traced over their pencil lines with black oil pastel. Acrylic paint was used to fill in color, and as a final step, black acrylic ink was used to go over the oil pastel lines that may have been covered up in the painting process. Works like this could also be completed using basic supplies such as oil pastel, tempera paint, or using colored pencils and crayons.

There have been several books for children written by the artist featuring Blue Dog, including Why is Blue Dog Blue and Are You Blue Dog's Friend? 

As a writing exercise to complement the art, ask students to write a short story featuring their blue dog character. Where does he/she live? Who are his/her owners? What does their dog like to do? Who are his friends, and the question that might reveal the most exciting part of the story…why is Blue Dog blue?

www.joanwaites.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 

BREAKING OUT OF COMFORT ZONES

by Marcia Strykowski

I always used to think ‘Write What You Know’ was the best method for writing a story, but sometimes it’s surprising how changing it up can bring fresh ideas to your palette. In my books, Call Me Amy and Amy’s Choice, I have a connection to my main character—13-year-old Amy—because she lives in a tiny fishing village on the Maine coast that is very similar to where my grandparents lived all the while I was growing up. However, lately I’ve switched gears. My most recent work-in-progress is about a boy who lives in a big city.

Breaking out of your comfort zone by changing the way you always write can set your writing free, while avoiding the usual setbacks and roadblocks. Rather than thinking, ‘oh, he wouldn’t do that…’ think instead, maybe she would!

Many fourth and fifth graders are more comfortable reading and rereading the same series of books over and over and this may factor into their writing, as well. Here’s a fun way for your students to come up with new ideas to write about.

Give everyone in your class a slip of paper. Have them write three items on the paper: main character’s name, main character’s age, setting (city, country, space, under the sea, school, etc.). Collect the slips in order and then pass them out again in reverse order. This takes the pressure off. Rather than writing about their own very familiar beloved characters, they’re now writing about someone or something else.

Have them ask themselves ‘what if?’ as they write their stories. What if there is a sudden snowstorm? What if the bike gets a flat tire? What if the main character isn’t even human, but an alien, superhero, or beast? Write fast, the first lines that come to them. They shouldn’t think about it too much, just go with their thoughts and keep writing.

Another story starter idea is to pass out pictures from old calendars and have your students use the scene for their setting. No matter which methods they use, changing it up is bound to uncover all sorts of new possibilities for their stories.

After these mind stretching exercises, students can go back to ‘writing what they know,’ but hopefully they’ll be less wary of experimenting and including new ideas. Happy writing!

BIO: Marcia Strykowski works at a public library. Earlier, after earning her BS in Fine Arts, she worked for seven years in textbook publishing. She is a member of SCBWI. After numerous magazine and anthology contributions, Call Me Amy was Marcia’s first novel. It was chosen for Bank Street College of Education’s Best Books of 2013. Amy's Choice , a sequel to Call Me Amy, was released the following year. Both tween novels were published by Luminis Books. You can find out more about her and her books at http://marciastrykowski.com/

Writing Connections with Pam Munoz Ryan

by Mary Quattlebaum

Pam Munoz Ryan brings magic and music to a novel about social justice in Echo (Scholastic, 2015, ages 10-14). I talked recently with Pam about this new novel, set during World War II, and its magical harmonica.  Click here for the KidsPost/WashingtonPost  article.

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

FAIRY TALES AND MAGICAL OBJECTS:  The book opens with a fairy tale and an unlikely magical object: the ordinary harmonica.

Classroom Discussion:  Ask students how the harmonica helped the three children in the separate stories.  What did students learn about harmonicas?

Classroom Writing:  Ask students to bring in an ordinary object from home (baseball bat, stuffed toy, box, charm, etc.).  Have them write their own tale in which this object is magical.  What does it do?  If they do some research into the object (as Pam did with the harmonica), how might it enter into or make the tale even more interesting?

SOCIAL JUSTICE:  All the young characters wrestle with issues of social justice.  In Nazi Germany, Friedrich is marked as “undesirable” because of his birthmark.  In Pennsylvania, Mike and his younger brother can be farmed out to do unpaid labor by their orphanage.  In California, Ivy, who is Mexican American, must go to a school that’s different (and has fewer resources) than the one for white children.

Classroom Discussion:  How do these three children deal with the injustice in their lives?  Brainstorm other times in history when there was injustice (slavery, Civil Rights era, women denied the vote, etc.).  How did things change?  Have students think about some rules they may consider unfair at school or ways they feel they may have been treated unjustly at home or in the wider world.  How did this make them feel?  What did they do?  Have them list, first alone and then as a group, some injustices they see in this country and in the wider world.  What are some ways they might create change?

Classroom Writing:  Make up a character (or write about yourself) in a moment of injustice. First describe the injustice and how it affects others.  Then write about what happens to you or your character.  Read aloud and discuss.

MORE DETAILS ABOUT PAM:  Pam’s author website is www.pammunozryan.com.