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Every Tuesday my class does creative writing, and I like to experiment with different forms of poetry. A few weeks ago we wrote color poems.  Choose a color, any color. (We used the names on our crayons to help our selection.) Think about your five senses: how does this color look, smell, taste, sound? How does the color make you feel? Arrange your sense details into poem form. My students seemed to enjoy the assignment and their poems turned out wonderfully. I typed and printed them, everyone chose background paper to match their color, and we hung them on the lunchroom walls (otherwise knows as the Hall of Fame.) Here are a few of my student's poems:    Here is a free, downloadable worksheet with a process similar to the way we created our poems. I gave the kids freedom to arrange lines as they pleased, and one student even chose to include a set of rhyming lines.  Now, color away. The world could use some poetry and whimsy about now.
I don't often use story prompts, but when I do, I find the process fun and rewarding. Prompts take me out of my writing comfort zone. It's like when the waiter accidentally switches your safe cheeseburger order to the Chef's Surprise, and you realize you actually quite like the smoked herring dish. My latest story prompt experience went something like that. The word limit:
But then I went to bed with monsters on the brain. I remembered being scared of the dark. The lights and shadows flickering through the bedroom I shared with my little sisters. How Second Sister and I used to terrify Small Sister with threats of the White Lady and the Thin Hand. Somewhere in there I fell asleep. (To dream about monsters, probably.) When I got up the next morning, a story bobbed before my eyes, even before my Southern Pecan latte appeared. I could hardly wait to start typing. The word limit forced me to trim every extra monster talon and eyelash, with the help of amazing writer friends. (Thanks, guys!) Again, I realized I am too Dickens-like in my wordiness, so word limits are super healthy for me. I submitted my story to Kids Book Review, and they chose to post it on their site this month. Coming some Friday this month, to a website near you: "Shadow Monsters" |