Finding the Wild World

Guest Post by Megan Wagner Lloyd  

Finding Wild follows two kid adventurers as they discover the beauty and wonder of the wild world. It asks the questions “What is wild? And where can you find it?” and invites readers on a journey to find the answers.

I’m so excited for teachers to share Finding Wild with their students. (And I’ve been thrilled to hear from teachers on Twitter who are doing just that!)

Three ways to use Finding Wild in the classroom:

1.    As a nature-writing prompt

When and where have your students experienced the wild? Going camping, gardening, playing at the park, cloud gazing…kids have so many unique experiences with nature to share. I was thrilled to read this blog post from a teacher who plans to use Finding Wild as an introduction to a nature-writing unit with her high schoolers (more proof that picture books aren’t just for little ones!).

2.    As a poetry mentor text

Finding Wild provides a great jumping off point to discuss metaphor, personification, and descriptive writing, and to encourage kids to include details from all five senses in their work.

  

3.    In preparation for any kind of outdoor field trip or nature excursion

Reading Finding Wild before going out and about can encourage kids to pay attention to the natural wonders, big and small, all around them. I think it would be a great to share it before winter and spring breaks, too, to encourage kids to get outside and play! And then when everyone’s back in the classroom, teachers could set aside some time for everyone to share their wild observations.

BIO: Megan Wagner Lloyd has been reading for (almost) as long as she can remember, and writing stories for just as long. Her debut picture book Finding Wild, illustrated by Abigail Halpin, was released by Knopf earlier this year. She lives with her family in the Washington D.C. area.

Learn more about Megan and her books at meganwagnerlloyd.com

Do You Want to be President?

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

A friend and fellow member of the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C. , Katherine Marsh  was urging her son Sasha to stop teasing his five-year-old sister Natalia.

“She could be president someday,” said Katherine.

“But I don’t want to be president,” responded Natalia.

“Why not?”

“Because I want to be a duck.”

Pamela Ehrenberg, another author friend, helpfully pointed out that Natalia could be both, recalling Duck for President by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin.

Indeed, Duck for President is a perfect starting point to help students write about our own presidential election without sinking into the quicksand of the current campaign. Even the youngest children will appreciate Duck’s constant search for a job that isn’t such hard work. 

Youngsters can write a sentence, a paragraph, a poem or a page –

·       Would you like to be president?  Why or why not?

·       Write a list of fair rules for voters. This could be a class list. In Duck for President, Duck’s first list of voter registration rules said voters must live on the farm, show a valid ID and be at least as tall as Duck. The “mice got together and protested the height requirement. So Duck crossed it off.”  (And there you have the beginnings of a discussion about how to change rules you don’t like.)

·       What do you think is the hardest part of the president’s job?

·       What would be the most fun?

For older students, there is a wealth of election and writing resources in the current issue of “Teaching Tolerance,” from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

from teachingtolerance.org

Students may end up agreeing with Duck that “running a country is no fun at all,” but at least they will appreciate the importance of carefully choosing the person who will. 

A YouTube Read Aloud version of Duck for President is available. 

Happy Writing!

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

The Importance of Finding your Tribe

by Joan Waites

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending a workshop at the Highlights Foundation in Boyd’s Mills PA, in the northeastern Pocono Mountains. The Highlights Foundation’s mission is “to improve the quality of children’s literature by helping authors and illustrators hone their craft.” Workshops are offered year round, often with guest faculty leading sessions on a wide range of topics and genres.

Working together with like-minded writers and illustrators along with workshop mentors can be invaluable. As writers and illustrators, we often work in solitude. Sharing ideas, critiques and industry experiences all help to take your work to the next level.

While it’s not always possible to participate in a workshop, attending events such as SCBWI conferences,  free bookstore and library lectures featuring guest authors and illustrators, or just organizing a group of writer and/or artist friends at a coffee shop or park to share work can help inspire and motivate you on your path to publication, whether it’s your first book or your 50^th.

Wherever you live, it’s likely there are other like-minded people willing to gather and work together.  Finding your tribe can be one of the most important ingredients to realizing your publishing goals.

www.joanwaites.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.

SELF-DESCRIPTION WITH SIMILE

by Jacqueline Jules

Simile may not be a hard concept for students to grasp. However, coming up with inventive rather than tired or trite comparisons can be challenging for many young writers. Luckily, Hanoch Piven has created two amazing picture books to help jump start creative thinking.

In My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks, Piven creates funny family portraits with everyday objects. On one page, Dad is described “as playful as a spinning top” and “as fun as a party favor.” The next spread shows a picture of Dad with a spinning top for a nose and a party favor for his right eye. Likewise, the family dog who is “as stinky as an onion” is humorously portrayed in a collage with onion eyes and a pepperoni nose.

At the back of the book, Piven challenges young readers to describe their own families, suggesting they make a list of ordinary objects that indicate “smart,” “soft,” “scratchy,” “strong,” etc. The use of objects provides a visual that should energize young writers wishing to provoke the same laughter Piven’s picture book does.

Piven tackles classroom portraits in My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil with the same hilarious results. Different members of the class are described as “quiet as a fish” or “happy as gummy worms.” An afterward explains how Piven has conducted workshops in object art around the world.

If these picture books don’t stimulate inventive similes and lots of laughter in your writing workshop, nothing will.

Ask your students to collect simple objects to describe themselves, family members, or classroom friends. Give them the opportunity to make a collage and write a story about it. Have fun!

www.jacquelinejules.com

Writing Ideas for President's Day

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

Pick a president’s name, any American president. Write the name vertically, down the paper. You are ready to write an acrostic poem, with each letter beginning a new line of the poem. Students working as a whole class, pairs or individuals can be as imaginative or fantastic as they wish, but each line should have something to do with the chosen president.  As poet educator Jack Collom advises, “…it can be some weird or hard-to-see connection…you don’t have to rhyme…don’t be afraid to sound crazy; it often means you’ve come up with new ideas.”  (More of Collom’s ideas on teaching poetry in schools here.)

Ask your school librarian to identify books about the presidents, including some that are not straight biographies but offer different views or aspects of the man’s life (so far – they’re all men!).  Good examples would be Master George’s People: George Washington, His Slaves and His Revolutionary Transformation by Marfé Ferguson Delano and Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library by Barbara Rosenstock. 

If students read far enough in Master George, they might decide to use “Wheatley” to begin their “W” line, because the West African-born slave and poet Phyllis Wheatley wrote and mailed a poem to the general which he praised for its “elegant lines” and “genius.”  That poem contributed to General Washington’s changing attitude toward African Americans.

A close look at Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library could lead to “fire” for one of the “F” words. Fire destroyed the library in Jefferson’s parents’ home and the Library of Congress itself, prompting Jefferson to sell the library more than 6,000 of his own books.

Share the poems along with any stories that explain the presidential connection.

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

A FIZZLE BOX OF WRITING IDEAS

by Jacqueline Jules

The beginning of the year is all about establishing routines. Writing workshop is no exception. Very young students will need to know where to find lined paper in your classroom. Older students may decorate a particulate notebook for writing. As you create a writing friendly environment, consider reading Helen Lester’s autobiography Author: A True Story to your students and adding a “Fizzle Box” to your collection of writing supplies.

In Author: A True Story, Helen Lester, the popular children’s author of Tacky the Penguin and Me First, talks about her career as a writer. Her declaration that she began at age three with scribbled grocery lists that looked the same right-side up and upside down validates the early writing efforts of all young children. She also shares the challenges of overcoming a learning disability called “mirror writing.” Lester’s humorous account of her perseverance to become a published writer will delight young writers. She is honest about the effort it takes to write a good story, providing inspiration to students who also struggle. Her description of a “Fizzle Box” where she deposits ideas for future use can became a great resource in your own classroom.

After reading Lester’s autobiography, introduce a “Fizzle Box” of your own. You can use a plain recipe box or a pretty container for boxed greeting cards. Any box with a flip out lid will do. Show it to the class and then distribute index cards to your students. Spend time as a class brainstorming future writing ideas. In the primary classroom, emphasize that everyday experiences can make great writing topics: soccer games, vacations, field trips, picnics, playdates, etc. With older elementary students, encourage the students to go a step further with humorous experiences, lessons learned, firsts, favorites, siblings, embarrassing moments, etc.   

Ask each student to write down one idea on the index card for the classroom “Fizzle Box.” Keep your box in an easily accessible place. The next time you have a student who “can’t think of anything to write about” during writing workshop, ask him or her to flip through the index cards in the classroom “Fizzle Box.” Since many of the ideas inside were generated during classroom discussion, students may find their creative juices flowing the minute they pick up a card.    

www.jacquelinejules.com