Wishing all of you a wonderful start to 2010!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Christmas greetings to everyone!
May the Christ child’s gift of peace and love light the way in your New Year.
I share with you my poem, “Christmas Day.”
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Teachers First with Poetry
I am very pleased to announce that TEACHERS FIRST.com chose my poem, “Buggy Alphabetics,” as a teaching poem on their website.
Click on the link to TeachersFirst.com and scroll down the page a bit for a quick hands-on poetry lesson featuring my poem–so wonderfully illustrated on my website by Nikki Schaefer. Of course, you’ll want to visit my acrobatic bugs in the
Writings section of my website, so you can enjoy the slideshow as well.
If you want to try an ABCEDARIAN–an alphabetic poem that uses the letters A-Z in proper order as the first letters of every line–start with only a few letters. As you become more comfortable with this poetic challenge, see how far you can go–alphabetically–with your lines. In a new Abcedarian I created below, I give myself a little leeway with an extra word, here and there, after the main letter word on a few lines. I also use two semi-invented words. (Can you find them?) That’s why poetry is so much fun–it’s puzzles and puns and wordplay all wrapped up in the coolest formats.
Give an ABCEDARIAN a try!
*****
FEATHERED FESTIVITIES
A
Bright
Cardinal–
Dressed
Elegantly–
For the Festivities,
Gathered
Holly berries
In a
Jaunty
Kitbag
Loaded with
Miscellaneous
Nuts and
Offerings,
Perfect
Quota for the
Robins,
Sparrows, and
Turtle doves’
Up-tempo
Vocal
Warblings and
X-citing
Yuletide
Zelebration!
A Snowy Treat
Well, it is beginning to look a little more like Christmas here. We had a dusting of snow last night. In the spirit of the snowy season, here is a link to a recipe for SNOWMAN SOUP–a hot cocoa mix you and yours can make to enjoy or give as a gift.
Have fun and bundle up!
Let It Snow!
HIGHLIGHTS Magazine has a new hidden picture puzzle for December: Let It Snow by Linda Weller.
Click on the link to download the picture and start searching. I am always amazed how the artists manage to hide all the objects in plan sight. Remember, sometimes it’s easier to find a hidden object by turning the picture upside down or sideways.
Life can be like that sometimes too–when you take a look at something from a totally different perspective, you can find new answers or ideas. And since I can truly stand on my head, I do know what the world looks like upside down. Do you?
What would snow look like if you were standing on your head? Would it be falling down or falling up? Here is how I would write the letters if I were upside down…
W
O
N
S
Tis the season to be silly!
Holiday Dinosaurs
I visited New York City last week to hang out with my son Matt. We braved the wind and rain on Wednesday to visit some museums. Guess where we found a pair of evergreen dinosaurs?
At the Museum of Natural History. The dinosaurs smelled super fragrant and were very, very big!
So that started me thinking, what do dinosaurs do for the holidays? You, of course, know where to look for the answer to that question–picture books!
Here are some suggested titles to help discover all the dinos’ holiday happenings:
DINOSAUR ON HANUKKAH by Diane Levin Rauchwerger
THE DINOSAURS NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS by Anne Muecke
HAPPY HOLIDAYSAURUS by Bernard Most
If you wrote a story about dinosaur happenings over the holidays, how would your holidaysaurus be celebrating?
Fun New Reads
Although it gets rather crazy this time of year, I have been able to read some new picture books. A few I really enjoyed–both for the stories and the illustrations–are listed below:
THE ODD EGG by Emily Gravett/ Simon & Schuster, 2008.
I love the softly drawn animals–who all have an egg, “except for Duck.”
Duck finds a special egg and proceeds to hatch it, despite the hoots from the others.
The book has some fold-and-reveal flaps which young readers will enjoy.
And when Duck’s egg finally does crack, everyone is in for a surprise.
ALL THE WORLD by Liz Garton Scanlon/ illustrated by Marla Frazee/ Beach Lane Books, 2009.
Even though this is not a Christmas book per se, its message is the Christmas message of “hope and peace and love and trust.”
This is a lyrical book, with an unassuming rhyme and easy flow, as writeen by Ms. Scanlon.
I was already a fan of the illustrator, Ms. Frazee–who I’ve had the privilege of meeting.
She creates lush pages, splashed with color and life.
This would be a sweet present to find beneath the tree for most anyone.
YUMMY: EIGHT FAVORITE FAIRY TALES by Lucy Cousins/ Candlewick, 2009.
I’m a fairy tale fan from once upon a time, and this new collection–written and illustrated by Ms. Cousins–presents easy to read stories with bright, bold pictures sure to capture young readers’ interest.
I shared this book with a second grade student, and he thoroughly enjoyed reading three of the eight tales–we ran out of time for more.
Too many young readers are not given adequate exposure to the richness and fun of classic fairy tales. Thanks, Ms. Cousins, for creating this wonderfully magic tale collection.
Reading with the children in your life is the best gift you can give them.
Have fun!
Turkey-Time Fun
Thanksgiving is almost here–fun with the family and lots of luscious food. But if you want to have some creative fun this Thanksgiving, here is a link to HIGHLIGHTS magazine. You’ll learn how to make your very own TURKEY FINGER PUPPET.
You might want to make up your own Thanksgiving story to accompany your turkey–and perhaps you’ll want to make additional finger puppet characters as well.
Or perhaps you’ll want to use your turkey puppet to help tell what you’re thankful for this year.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Illustrator Floyd Cooper in St. Charles
I had the great opportunity yesterday to see illustrator, Floyd Cooper, in action at the Missouri SCBWI conference in St. Charles. The award winning illustrator demonstrated his unique style of erasing–using a kneaded eraser to create the underpainting for his works of art. Somehow Mr. Cooper was able to create a quick portrait for us as he talked, the microphone in one hand and the eraser in the other, as he worked with the paper virtually upside down to his perspective. It was amazing, but then he is a Coretta Scott King Award winning illustrator.
He is the illustrator for MEET DANITRA BROWN by Nikki Grimes, whom I met a couple years ago at a writers’ workshop. What an incredible combination of words and art!
FRIGHTFUL FUN
I don’t know about where you live, but here it has been an especially gray, rainy, chilly fall. I guess our ghoulish weather is fitting preparation for Halloween next week. Plus, it’s certainly perfect weather for snuggling up with a good book.
Have you been reading any spook-tacular books lately? If not, here’s a few suggestions from my website under FRIGHTFUL READS.
There is also a HALLOWEEN CROSSWORD puzzle to try.
Or for those looking for an activity, see if you can MAKE A SPIDER or a SPIDER SNACK.
So no matter the weather between today and Halloween, you’ll have plenty of fun stuff to do. Enjoy!