Rock, Paper, Scissors!

by Laura Gehl

The Legend Of Rock Paper Scissors by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Adam Rex, is a great book to spark writing in your classroom.

Just in case you have any students who don’t know the game “Rock Paper Scissors,” you can start off by explaining the rules. Then you can let kids practice playing the game in pairs.

After you explain and play the game, have fun reading the book out loud to your class.

Once you have finished the book, here are some related ideas to get kids writing!

1.    There are some funny battles in this book, such as Paper versus. Half-Eaten Bag of Trail Mix and Scissors versus Dinosaur-Shaped Chicken Nuggets. Can you think of some other battles between regular objects that might be found in your home? Write out a battle scene between two of those everyday objects. Use dialogue! See if you can think of funny-but-not-too-mean insults to use, like those in the book (“Giant box monster” “tacky and vaguely round monstrosity” “weird scissory one”).

2.    There are humorous locations in this book, such as the “Kingdom of backyard” and the “tiny village of Junk Drawer.” What funny names can you make up for other locations in your home, school, or neighborhood? Write a story that takes place in at least one of those locations.

3.    An important theme in this book is that Rock, Paper, and Scissors are used to winning all the time…but they don’t like it. All three of these characters wish for well-matched opponents. Think about your own life. Do you agree that it is more fun to play a game if there is a chance you will lose? Have you ever been on a team that won every single game, all season? Did you like it or not? Do you have a younger sibling who you can always beat at every game? Is it still fun to play? Write a paragraph explaining whether you agree with Rock, Paper, and Scissors that playing games is most fun when you have an evenly-matched rival.

After you complete the writing activities, you might enjoy a fast-paced classroom battle of “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” Here’s what to do:

1)    Have students pair off (if you have an uneven number, you get to play too!).

2)    When one student wins against another student, the losing student instantly becomes part of the “squad” for the winner and starts chanting his or her name. “Emily! Emily! Emily!”

3)    When two winners play against each other, the one who loses—and his or her squad—all start cheering for the winner. Now you have a bunch of kids chanting “Nico! Nico! Nico!”

4)    Continue until only two students are left, with everyone else cheering for one or the other.

5)    One student becomes the class champion, with everyone chanting his or her name at once!  “ASHA! ASHA! ASHA!” Hooray!

www.lauragehl.com

7 ATE 9: THE UNTOLD STORY

by Laura Gehl

7 Ate 9: The Untold Story, written by Tara Lazar and illustrated by Ross MacDonald, is a clever mystery and a great book to read aloud in your classroom.

After you read 7 Ate 9 to your students, you can use it as a fun writing prompt for the classroom. Here are a few writing suggestions:

1) The author, Tara Lazar, took an old joke (“Why is 6 afraid of 7?” “Because 7 ate/8 9!”) and turned it into the plot of a book. Can you take a joke and turn it into a story? Use one of these jokes, or any other joke you like:

-“Why did the chicken cross the road?” “To get to the other side!”

-“How do you catch a fish without a fishing rod?” “You use your BEAR hands!”

-“What is it called when a cat wins a dog show?” “A CAT-astrophe!”

2) This book is positively FILLED with puns and plays on words.

Here are just a few:

-Private “I”

-I orders a slice of “pi”

-7 is described as “odd”

How many other puns and plays on words can you find in this book? Check the illustrations too! Make a list as a class.

3) 7 Ate 9 is a mystery story. Try writing your own mystery story. Before you start writing, organize your thoughts. How does the mystery begin? Is there a missing person or item? Who will solve the mystery in your story? What clues can you sprinkle into your story so that the mystery can be solved?

4) Ross MacDonald managed to draw numbers in a way that gives each one lots of personality. You try! Draw a number and give it hands, feet, and a face, like in the book. You can add clothes or any other touches you like. Now write a few sentences describing the personality of your number. What foods and activities does your number like? Dislike? Who are your number’s friends? Does your number have a pet?

5) Write your own ending to 7 Ate 9. Instead of 9 turning out to be 6, and 6 trying to frame 7…what else could happen? You decide! Think of a different solution to the mystery and write it down.

www.lauragehl.com

MAKE YOUR OWN MAD LIBS

by Laura Krauss Melmed

Leonard B. Stern, the creator of Mad Libs, passed away last Tuesday at the age of 88.  Mad Libs, a popular and enduring word game, has been going strong since Mr. Stern invented it in the late 1950’s. According to its publisher, Price, Stern, Sloan, an imprint of the Penguin Young Readers Group, the series, now comprising 120 volumes, has sold more than 150 million copies to date. And yes, there are Mad Lib apps, of which, according to the New York Times, more than two million have been downloaded since 2008 for the iPhone and iPad. 

The talented Mr. Stern was an Emmy Award winning T.V. writer for the "Sergeant Bilko” and “Get Smart” shows. He also wrote for “The Honeymooners” and “The Steve Allen Show.”  In fact, he invented the game of Mad Libs while reaching for an adjective to describe Ralph Cramden’s boss’s nose! Obviously, this was a man who enjoyed both playing with words and making people laugh. The brilliantly simple game of Mad Libs, for anyone who has been living in a bubble, asks that players blindly fill in blanks in strategic places in a story, using designated parts of speech. The goofy result is then read aloud, usually to peals of giggles. 

Mad Libs is all about knowing your parts of speech, a skill that is necessary for good writing, not to mention coherent speech. In a tribute to Mr. Stern, whom I never met but wish I had, here is a “make your own Mad Libs” writing exercise designed to put a little fun into the dry business of learning how to tell an adjective from an adverb:

Find online and copy a few simple, familiar nursery tales such a “The Gingerbread Boy,”  “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” or “The Three Pigs.” Reformat the tales in large font, double spacing between the lines. Give each child a copy of a tale, and some markers or highlighters.  First, briefly review the parts of speech and their meaning. Then give each student a copy of a story. Ask the students to go through the story with their markers and mark a line through four nouns, three plural nouns, four adjectives and four adverbs, using a different color marker for each part of speech (at this point, you should be circulating to help the students do this correctly.)  Now have each student list the parts of speech down the left side of a blank piece of paper, in the order they appear in the story. Each student should then pair off with another child and take turns filling in one another’s lists of blanks. Students should then write in the new words above the ones that have been lined out. Finally, have the partners read their silly stories to one another. A few volunteers can read their stories aloud to the class.  Point out the ways that changing the words can change the sense, or make nonsense, of the story.

More writing lessons can be devised based on many other popular word games such as Boggle, Scrabble, or Apples to Apples. As Mr. Stern helped generations of kids to realize, playing with words can be fun!

http://www.laurakraussmelmed.com/

Writing Tall

by Pam Smallcomb

            In most elementary schools, students complete a study unit on tall tales.  Many of these wonderfully funny stories came from our own continent. Some of these tales originated in Canada, and some in America. The heroes in these stories faced challenges and dangers that pioneers and the working class of the 19th century might have had to face in their own lives. Things like drought, or building a railroad across our country. However, the way the hero solved these problems was different.  He used abilities that no normal human could possibly have. Today we might call those abilities superpowers.

            In the beginning, many of these stories were based on real people. As the stories were told and retold, they became bigger than life.  Perhaps gathering around a campfire, telling a story of a hero gave people the courage to try again the next day (or maybe they were just fun to hear).

            When writing your own tall tale, it’s good to remember that there are some things that these stories have in common. Here are just a few:

1. Your hero should have an unusual childhood or birth story. For example, it’s said that John Henry was born full-sized. He was over 8 feet tall! He went to work on the railroad when he was just 3 weeks old.

2. Your hero should have a regular job.  During our frontier days, Paul Bunyan was a logger, Pecos Bill a cowboy and John Henry a railroad worker. The tall tale hero in your story could have any job we have today: computer specialist, autoworker, plumber, etc.

3. Your hero needs a superhuman trait (of strength, size, etc.). He should have courage. Pecos Bill rode a tornado like a bronco. He used a rattlesnake for a lasso.

4. Exaggeration. There can never be enough in a tall tale. More is better. For example, it took five giant storks to carry the infant Paul Bunyan to his parent’s home.  He was just that big.

5. A tall tale is written as if it were completely true and factual.

6. A tall tale often explains natural phenomena (like the Painted Desert or the Grand Canyon.)

7. A tall tale is a story that is told humorously, and the problem of the story is solved in a funny way.

Many tall tales do feature male heroes. For a look at some female heroes starring in their own tales, grab a copy of Cut From the Same Cloth by Robert San Souci.  Tall tales are always a fun read, and a great way to teach kids about exaggeration, humor, and putting an upbeat spin on the hardships we face in life.

       

http://www.pamsmallcomb.com/