Tag: kids

Furry Thursday

Furry Thursday, No. 4

Hannah Spuler

Can you guess the animal based on the clues?
Smash up science and English parts of speech together with this guessing game!

adjectives: graceful, large, faithful, fast, furry, affectionate, elegant, shiny, heavy, strong, friend, frisky
verbs: gallop, canter, neigh, ride, pull, graze
nouns: mane, tail, race, show
biome: mostly Grasslands, will adapt to a variety of biomes

Think you know which animal?
Click here for the answer!

Simplified definitions:
Adjective: a describing word, placed before a noun (or pronoun)
Noun: a person, place, thing, or idea
Verb: an action word
Biome: the type of environment where living things make their homes, a habitat (ex: desert, rainforest, tundra)
herbivore: plant-eater
carnivore: meat-eater
omnivore: eats both plants and meat

Furry Thursday chipmunk

Freewrite Wednesday

Freewrite Wednesday: Your Country or… ???

Hannah Spuler

Ready to free your writing? Let’s do a freewrite together!

Your country or this one?

If you had a choice, would you rather live in this country or another one? Which country would you want to live in and why?


Questions to get you started:
What does your choice country look like? What are the good things about it? Why did you choose this one over a different one? What are some possible struggles you might have in this country? Who might you meet there?

Set your timer for 10 minutes and write, write, write!

About Freewrites: A freewrite is exactly what it sounds like: free! Use a freewrite to practice channeling thoughts from your mind to the paper. Never done a freewrite? Learn more in my Guide to Freewriting 

Poetry Tuesday

Poetry Activity: Fill-in-the-Blank Poem

Hannah Spuler

Interested in poetry?
Combine rhyme and meter using this fill-in-the-blank poetry activity for kids, adults, and everyone in-between!

fill in the blank poem

A. Review: Rhyme

Remember the lesson about rhyming?
These are examples of words that rhyme:

stop, hop, lop, plop

Need a refresher on rhyming? Click here.

B. Review: Meter

Remember the lesson about meter?
Here are two lines that have four beats, or stresses:

Twinkle, Twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.

Need a refresher on meter? Click here.

C. Fill-in-the-blank poem

Below is a fill-in-the-blank poem where the basic idea and structure is there and you get to fill in the blanks! This poem has a strong meter as well as an AABB rhyme scheme (lines 1 and 2 rhyme with each other and lines 3 and 4 rhyme). If the word is at the end of the line, make sure you keep the rhyme scheme. Give it a try!

(Title)

My       (noun)       is/are cold
And my       (noun)       is/are old.
My       (noun)       is/are hot
But my       (noun)       is/are not.

My      (noun)       is/are blue,
My      (noun)       too,
But not my       (noun)     ,
Because it’s/they’re       (noun)        .

I have a       (noun)       
And he/she/it has a      (noun)      .
I/We        (verb)       outside
But I/we        (verb)       inside.

My      (noun)        is tall,
My      (noun)        is small,
And that is all,
My friend.

The End.

 

Simplified definitions:
Noun: a person, place, thing, or idea
Verb: an action word


Hungry for more? Check out this week’s…

Poem Study: The Brook, by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Advanced Poetry Lesson: Odes, Week 2

 

Poetry Tuesday

Poem Study: The Brook

Hannah Spuler

Let’s read a poem and study it together!

the brook scenic-787617_1920

Not sure how to study a poem? Here are some ideas! Choose one or all of these:

  1. Read aloud and enjoy the poem
  2. Neatly write out your favorite stanza for handwriting practice or…
  3. Copy and paste the poem into your word processor and print it out
  4. Draw a picture about the poem
  5. Circle or color-code the words that rhyme. (Learn about rhyme here!)
  6. Read more about the author’s life
  7. Share with someone you love <3


The Brook
(excerpt)

I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river;
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

I wind about, and in and out,
With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling,

And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel
With many a silvery waterbreak
Above the golden gravel,

And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeams dance
Against my sandy shallows.

I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses.

And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river;
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

By Alfred Lord Tennyson


Hungry for more? Check out this week’s…

Poetry Activity (for kids, adults, and everyone in between): Fill-in-the-blank poem

Advanced Poetry Lesson: Odes, Week 2

Fun List Mondays

What are 5 Places in the World You Would Travel to if You Could?

Hannah Spuler

Fun List Monday, July 9

Tuscany, Italy, New Zealand, Paris. Oh, the possibilities! Thanks to the internet and quick transportation, the world may seem small, but think of the thousands of places you still haven’t visited! I can’t wait to see what’s on your list.

country

Write a list with me! Every Monday I will post a fun list. Fill out your list and enjoy it by yourself, share it in the comments or on Twitter (with the hashtag #FunListMondays). Not convinced? Read about how lists encourage better writing here.

Like this activity? See other Fun List Mondays here!

Story Share Topic!

Story Share Topic: New Country

Hannah Spuler

Ready for this week’s Story Share Topic?
Join in the fun! Write your story and share by Thursday night, July 12, for a chance to have your story shared on the site on Friday, July 20!

This Week’s Story Share Topic:

Your country or this one?
Write a story about someone who wakes up every morning in a new place.

Why does this keep happening? Is this a problem? Where do they wake up? Do they want it to stop? How do they use it to benefit themselves or others?
(Please keep it between 100 and 1000 words.)

To share: Email me at Fridaystoryshare@gmail.com

FAQ: If you don’t want to share your story, can you still write one? Absolutely!
Do you have to write a story on this particular topic? Nope! Writing stories is a great creative writing exercise, no matter what the topic. The topic is a prompt to get you started!

Writing with little ones? Read this post about how to include young children in writing activities.

Furry Thursday

Furry Thursday, No. 3

Hannah Spuler

Can you guess the animal based on the clues?
Smash up science and English parts of speech together with this guessing game!

adjectives: nimble, hurried, scared, alert, furry, delicate, beautiful, small, cute, rascally, silky, fluffy, soft
verbs: munch, hop, freeze, nibble
nouns: lettuce, ears, herbivore, rodent
biomes: grasslands, woodlands, deciduous forests, wetlands, taiga

Think you know which animal?
Click here for the answer!

Simplified definitions:
Adjective: a describing word, placed before a noun (or pronoun)
Noun: a person, place, thing, or idea
Verb: an action word
Biome: the type of environment where living things make their homes, a habitat (ex: desert, rainforest, tundra)
herbivore: plant-eater
carnivore: meat-eater
omnivore: eats both plants and meat

Furry Thursday chipmunk

Freewrite Wednesday

Freewrite Wednesday: A Letter to Another Country

Hannah Spuler

Ready to free your writing? Let’s do a freewrite together!

country

Pretend you are writing a letter to a friend in another country, explaining what it’s like to live in your part of the world. What would you say?


Questions to get you started:
What foods do you eat? What is the weather like? How big is your country? What traditions do you have? What are you proud of? Not proud of? Why would this person want to visit your country?

Set your timer for 10 minutes and write, write, write!

About Freewrites: A freewrite is exactly what it sounds like: free! Use a freewrite to practice channeling thoughts from your mind to the paper. Never done a freewrite? Learn more in my Guide to Freewriting 

Poetry Tuesday

Poetry Activity: Write Your Own Nursery Rhymes!

Hannah Spuler

Interested in poetry?
Combine rhyme and meter using this activity for kids, adults, and everyone in-between.

nursery rhymes

A. Introduction: Nursery Rhymes
Can you finish this phrase?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great—

Did you get it??
Okay, now how about this one?

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candle—

And this one?

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn,
The cow’s in the meadow, the sheep in the—

How did you do?
If you grew up with nursery rhymes, you probably could have filled in all those missing words in your sleep, and even recited the rest of the rhyme. If you grew up speaking English, chances are, you knew at least one of those nursery rhymes.

You also probably knew that nursery rhymes were made for children. But have you ever stopped to think about why they are so easy to remember?

Any guesses?
(Drumroll please…)

They rhyme! (Probably why they’re called nursery rhymes.) Take the first example…

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candlestick.

They also have a simple meter:

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candle stick.

(Not quite sure you understand? Look at these past lessons: rhyme, meter)

B. Write your own nursery rhyme!
Let’s use some classic nursery rhymes and change them slightly to make them into new poems! During this activity, watch for the rhyming words and the meter!

  1. Read the poem
  2. Fill in the blanks to change the meaning and make it as silly (or serious) as you like
  3. Make sure you keep the beat (stresses) the same as the original poem or may end up sounding a bit funny!

Original:
Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such a sight
And the dish ran away with the spoon!

Fill in the blanks to write your own poem!
Hey Diddle Diddle, the _______ and the fiddle
The __________ jumped over the moon
The little __________ laughed to see such a sight
And the __________ ran away with the spoon

Original: 
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells, and little maids all in a row.

Fill in the blanks to write your own poem!
________ _________, quite contrary, how does your ________ grow?
With silver ________ and _________  ________, and little _________ all in a row.

Pleased with your poem? Share it in the comments or post it on my Facebook page so we can all read and enjoy them!

C. Extra Challenge: A Nursery Rhyme From Scratch
To write a nursery rhyme, come up with either:
1. A lesson to teach children (aka, How to Count, or Why Kids should Eat Their Veggies) or
2. A simplified story from history  (aka, The Noble Duke of York)

See if you can come up with four lines of the poem, where the first two lines rhyme and the second two rhyme. See what you can create, and don’t forget to share!

Hungry for more? Check out this week’s…

Poem Study: My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Advanced Poetry Lesson: Odes (Week 1 of 2)

 

Poetry Tuesday

Poem Study: My Shadow

Hannah Spuler

Let’s read a poem and study it together!

edit shadow little-2176130_1920

Not sure how to study a poem? Here are some ideas! Choose one or all of these:

  1. Read aloud and enjoy the poem
  2. Neatly write out your favorite stanza for handwriting practice or…
  3. Copy and paste the poem into your word processor and print it out
  4. Draw a picture about the poem
  5. Circle or color-code the words that rhyme. (Learn about rhyme here!)
  6. Read more about the author’s life
  7. Share with someone you love <3

My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.

He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close besides me, he’s a coward, you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nurse as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

~Robert Louis Stevenson


Hungry for more? Check out…

Poetry Activity (for kids, adults, and everyone in between): Write Your Own Nursery Rhymes

Advanced Poetry Lesson: Odes (Week 1 of 2)