Here's where you can find some writing prompts and exercises to keep those writing muscles strong and flexible!
My posts here will follow in the order I would teach a writing workshop class, but they certainly don't have to be followed in any particular order. Hope you can use some of these ideas!
Keep scrolling for some tips on informational writing! (Posting May 12)
Posted week of March 16:
The first piece of advice comes from a really great writer named Ralph Fletcher. He knows how important it is for writers to keep a notebook, a place for your thoughts, questions, interesting words, and doodles. You don't have to worry about spelling or grammar, and you can share only if you want to. Some of what you write may be turned into longer pieces of writing, but much of it may not. I think of it as my writing garden, a place where I can "plant seeds" or ideas. The Writer's Notebook is just for you! (I like to start by decorating the cover!)
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| My favorite place to write is on my porch! |
Another one of my favorite writers, Georgia Heard, suggests making a heart map. I've done this with many students over the years. Here's mine, it shows all the things and people close to my heart:
Here's a link for teachers and families to get started on your own Heart Map. I would love to post your heart map, so take a picture and send it to lee@bpsk12.org!!!
Posted week of March 23:
I love lists. I make lists all the time. The heart map is a kind of list, right? Well, today I found myself making a list of some of the things I am grateful for.
The thing about lists is that sometimes I start thinking about one or two of the items on my list, so I know those are things I can circle or check or put a doodle next to, and then maybe come back and write about them. Maybe not- but my notebook is a place where I'm storing my ideas- like planting seeds in a garden. If I pay attention to them, "water" them, "weed" them, then my ideas will grow.
After looking at my list I decided to try a short poem combining a couple of the ideas. Here's what I came up with:
Sitting with a cup of tea
An opened book upon my knee
Waiting for the mood to read
But all I want is a cook-ie.
I think I need a line between the third and fourth lines.
What do you think? Can you help me out?
Leave a comment, or send me an email with suggestions!
Posted week of April 6:
Another list- this time I didn't write my list. I walked around my home office and just took pictures of some of my favorite things. I know "things" are not really that important, but the memories and feeling things remind you of are very important.
You can take a picture and print it, or draw a picture in your notebook, and just write about what that object means to you.
How did you get it?
Where did it come from?
Who or what does it remind you of?
Don't feel like writing? Why not have a family meeting where each person tells about something they treasure and why? I bet you'll hear some interesting stories!
Here are some of my treasures:
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| My best friend, Mrs. Jaffe brought me these bobble head turtles when she came back from a vacation. |
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| This is a mini beach scene, compete with sand! This reminds me of fun times on the beach with my family, swimming and making sand castles! |
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| This is my memory board. It has photos, tickets, buttons, postcards... just things, but each one a memory! (Yep that's Mrs. Jaffe with my daughter, Katie, on a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston!) |
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| I bought this little picture from an artist on Venice Beach, during one of several trips I've taken to visit family in California. |
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| This is a water color I painted myself after a walk through a forest of birch trees in the fall. |
posted April 9
Writers' notebooks are places where we keep ideas that we gather. (The next part in the process is to go through and find the seeds we want to pay attention to and "grow" them into poems or stories or essays.) Today, I'm still gathering.
This morning as I sip my coffee and work on a jigsaw puzzle I am stumped- looking for a single piece- for a couple of days now. I go from one corner of the puzzle to another, but I always come back to that part. If you have ever done a difficult jigsaw puzzle, you understand my frustration! I know the piece is part of a white flower because I keep checking the picture on the cover of the box. I look closely, and notice the actual shade of that part of the flower is not white, but blue- sort of- a lazy blue. LAZY? Yep, that's the thought that pops into my head. Why, of all the ways to describe the color blue -and there are a gazillion- do I think it's "lazy?"
So, that gets me thinking. I hurry to write that down in my notebook- lazy blue, then I look outside and see a cardinal on the bird feeder- startling red against the dreary gray of the morning. Behind the feeder, I see the rhododendron bush beginning to bloom- blooming pink. I realize I could spend a lot of time just thinking of ways to describe what I observe. That's an important part of the writer's notebook! Even something as simple and mundane as working on a puzzle can lead to inspiration. So, I hope you will be open to inspiration! You never know where, and when it will happen!
(I still haven't found the "lazy blue" piece, but I will!)
Happy Writing!
posted April 13
Details- some writers start with a big idea, and they try to explain it using details, but I think some writers might notice details first, and put them together to make a big idea.
Let's try something. If you can, walk around your house and list details- I mean really look hard and notice color, shape, smell, texture, anything at all.
Here's an example.
You can make a table or just write the details in a paragraph:
Yesterday I baked a blueberry pie. The rolling pin I used to roll out the pie dough belonged to my Grandma Rose. This rolling pin is about 2 feet long, thicker in the middle, and skinnier on the ends, and its so smooth, almost silky feeling. It's brown, but when you look closer, you can see the wood is really several different shades of brown.
This is just an observation about something I use a lot, and it's in my notebook, so I can go back and think about how I might make it a story or a poem.
Hope you'll try being a keen observer today, and share what you notice!
posted April 16
Did I mention you have to write in your notebook EVERY DAY? Well, maybe not every day, but writers write things down all the time, every day, and all throughout the day. Random thoughts, observations, questions, all of these are ideas for stories, plays, poems, songs, drawings, you name it!
Try keeping your notebook with you today, and as you think of something, jot it down. You'll be amazed at all the things you notice, and all the thoughts you think!
Maybe you can share a thought or two with me!!
posted April 27
This week I am posting poems about color on the home page. They come from a book called Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neill. She writes that once, when she had a deadline but no finished pieces, she gave her editor a bunch of her scribbled notes about colors. Mary had been writing her thoughts about colors for awhile- just jotting down random thoughts when they came to her. Anyway, her editor saw that these ideas were poetry! Or, that they could become poems with a little revision. So, this week why not try writing down your thoughts about colors.
One way to start is to divide your page into 4 or 6 (however many colors you want to write about) sections, and lightly color each one a different color. In each section, write down what that color makes you think or feel. I bet you come up with some interesting thoughts about color!!
posted May 4
This week we will focus on writing a short poem. Poems are filled with sensory images- words and phrases that make the reader see👀, hear👂, taste,👅 smell👃, and feel 🤲whatever the poet is trying to say. So, today you can look through your notebook or even out your window for images and ideas that might help you write a word painting. Yes- a word painting! That's what I think a poem is.
The type of poem we will try is called Haiku (hi-coo) and I think most of you have heard of it.
Kids like writing haiku because it's short- only 3 lines, but it gets tricky if you follow the rules. (But you don't always have to!)
On the home page of this blog, I have typed out some haiku from a book by Paul Janeczko. Read them a few times- out loud. (Poems should be read out loud!)
See if you can figure out three main "rules" that haiku typically follow. (I already mentioned the first🤫)
posted May 6
I've had a few questions about haiku, so here is what I have learned:
- Haiku is a short poem usually about nature
- The style originated in Japan
- It has 3 lines;each line has a certain number of syllables
- Generally it's 5-7-5 (5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third), but the "spirit" of the poem is what is most important.
The form of 3 lines, with the 5-7-5 syllable count is less important, but it can be a fun challenge to try!
If you go back to the home page and scroll to those poems I posted, count the syllables- not all are 5-7-5!
I hope you have some fun- remember in all poetry- write from your heart!
I have been noticing all the birds at my feeders lately, so I thought I'd try capturing an image of a bird in the sky looking for a place to eat.
Here are my poems- I didn't count the syllables at first, and then I did, but in the end I only changed a word or two, to make the image more clear. For example, in the first poem I had originally had "A bird," but I changed that to "Blue jay" so my reader could better imagine what I saw.
Blue jay swiftly flies
wings spread wide looking for food
it soars above me
Looking for a snack
she sees the welcoming feeder
and fills her belly with seeds
Please share your poems with your teacher or with me! I would love to post your writing here!
Posted May 12
Some of you are doing informational writing now. You may have some choice about the topic, but no matter what topic you write about, there are some writing strategies you can use to make your writing clear and interesting to the reader. Below is a video of an example of informational writing from Why Does the Earth Spin? And Other Questions About Our Planet by Mary Kay Carson
Listen for
- the "hook" or lead that captures the reader's attention and makes the reader want to read on.
- the way the information is organized
- transitions
- conclusion
Here is the lead:
As Earth was forming, it heated up and its insides melted. Heavy materials in the melted rock sank toward Earth's center. Lighter materials floated up to the top. This created layers inside earth that still exist.
Do you notice how the author gets the reader's attention? I think the phrase, "its insides melted" is really interesting. That makes me want to read on, and find out more about these layers. The lead also lets me know what the central idea is: the earth is made of layers!
Before writers write they make a set of notes so their ideas are organized. In the video I show how the author may have created a set of two-column notes before writing.
Here is a paragraph with some transitions (I have underlined them). Notice how these phrases refer back to the previous idea to make the piece flow smoothly.
If you drifted down about 3,960 miles you'd reach the very center of Earth. This is Earth's core, a ball of mostly iron and nickel. These metals are so squashed by the weight of the planet above them that they are squeezed into a solid inner core. Temperatures here range from 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit to 12,000 degrees F. Surrounding the solid inner core is the outer core. It is also made of metals, but they are less solid and more like a liquid. The next layer is the mantle. More than half of all the material making up Earth is in its middle mantle layer. The deepest part of this layer is about 1,800 miles below the surface. The mantle is a vast layer of hot, mushy melted rock that's moving.
(Usually transitions are at the beginning of sentences, but they can be in the middle!)
So finally (there's another transition word) we come to a conclusion. Like leads, there are different kinds of conclusions, but usually the main job of a conclusion in an informational piece is to wrap up the ideas and leave the reader thinking about the author's main idea. You judge whether this conclusion does that. Here is the rest of the piece:
The top layer is what you stand on, the crust. Compared with the mantle, it's an astonishingly thin layer, like an egg's shell or the skin of an apple. Earth's crust is thicker under land and thinner under the oceans. The rocks and minerals that make up the ocean floor and dry land are part of the crust. The crust of the continents is ten times older than the ocean crust. Scientists have found rocks in Australia that are 4 billion years old.
Well, what do you think? Is this a good conclusion? Why or why not? I'd like to hear your thoughts, so please post a comment! (I will add to this post later in the week and share my own ideas, but I'd like to hear from you first!)
Posted May 15
I have been thinking about the conclusion or ending of the piece. At first I thought it did not sound like an ending, but like just another paragraph. An ending is the last thing your reader hears, so you want it to be memorable in the same way that you want your lead to hook the reader.
After reading the ending a few times I think it is memorable- the fact that scientists have found 4 billion year old rocks is pretty amazing, but it doesn't exactly "wrap-up" the whole piece. So here are a couple of examples of how a writer may have concluded the piece:
Each layer, the inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust has its own unique structure and characteristics. Together they make up our fascinating planet.
OR
A trip to the center of the earth would take you through each of the layers: the crust, the mantle the outer core, and finally to the inner core. You won't need sunscreen, but be sure to wear your heat proof suit!
If we were in a classroom right now, I'd ask each student to write his or her own conclusion. Please try it and send me you your ideas to post here!!
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