Would you like to give your students some practice in writing poetry?
With these guided prompts, your students do not have to “sit down and write a poem” but will surprise you by creating something fun and maybe even memorable. Here goes . . . (more…)
Colorful leaves. Pumpkins. Football. Cooler weather. Raking. Apple pie. Candles. What are signs of autumn to you?
Students are more likely to write if the topics are related to something that is going on at the moment, so let’s cash in on the season by using these fall-themed writing prompts. Some of the prompts you’ll find below are simply fun prompts; others are tutorials complete with printables.
While they are enjoying these ten seasonal prompts, you are giving them practice in opinion writing, description, figurative language, poetry, and more. Shhh! It’s our secret!
These prompts {and tutorials} are appropriate for grades 5 – 12.
Ready? Fun awaits . . . (more…)
Do you hear that thunder? It’s the crash of schoolbooks all over the country slamming shut for the summer.
As a parent, you want your children to continue using their reading skills. You know there are so many wonderful books they would enjoy reading now that it is summer and the distractions are fewer. Treasures await them. Do you have a plan to make it happen?
If not, you can use mine.
A summer reading list is more fun for your tweens and teens if it’s (more…)
Ray Bradbury, author of Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, was born August 22, 1920.
Though he’s been gone for a few years, we still celebrate this man who helped make science-fiction the respected genre it is today.
Many years ago, Ray Bradbury wrote the short story “The Veldt” with an intriguing kids’ bedroom in it. Before these were even invented in the real world, flat-screen TVs were embedded in the four walls of this bedroom so the children could have experiences and feel what was going on.
When the dad, George Hadley, steps into his children’s room one day, he sees two people on the screens. This is what he encounters in the walls’ African plains. (more…)
SHARON’S BLOG
All this month we’re celebrating National Poetry Month with famous poems worth knowing. Be sure to check out the many links at the end of this post for more poetry appreciation and practice!
What is today’s poem? Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees.” Here are the first two lines:
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree
SHARON’S BLOG
Have you ever come across something unusual and wondered how it got that way?
Robert Frost in his poem “Birches” does just that. He finds some birches in the woods that are bent down and wonders what happened to make them curve down. Did a boy come by and climb them, bending them down? Did an ice storm overwhelm the branches?
Then he remembers swinging on birch trees when he was a youngster, and he misses the little boy he once was. He misses the enjoyment of being young and swinging on birches.
Writing tools for all ages!
 |
 |
 |
