Ask Norman T Goldfish: How Do You Live Underwater
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Hey Kids! Do you know how to swim? Can you hold your breath underwater? Can Norman hold his breath out of water? Hmmmmmmmm…Scroll down to read Norman’s answer.
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
To learn more, click over to read “Goldfish Out of Water: What to Do” on caringpets.org.
Poetry Challenge #196-Simple Poem of Freedom
Juneteenth! Jubilee Day! Liberty Day! Freedom Day! is this Saturday, June 19th. That’s the official day marking the end of slavery in Texas and the United States. About 2 months after the end of the Civil War, on June 19th, 1865, U.S. General Gordon Granger march into Galveston, Texas and read General Orders No. 3:
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.
Saying-proclaiming-making laws—declaring slaves free—is not the same as doing it. As U.S. History since June 19, 1985 has shown, we the people have repeatedly, in myriad ways—social, fiscal, political, physical—tried to maintain slavery. Finally, now—again?—awareness that the U.S. Constitution’s promise to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity is resulting in active change in support of all peoples’ rights. Let’s join the Juneteenth Celebration with, to paraphrase Bobby Darin , a simple poem for freedom.
Poetry Challenge #196
Poem of Freedom
In celebration of Juneteenth, write a poem of freedom. It might be a prayer, a hope, a promise, but, in the spirit of Bobby Darin’s Simple Song of Freedom, try writing it in the form of a chant or song. To do that write:
A rhythmic stanza of at least 4 lines (rhyming or not),
A rhyming refrain (of at least 2 lines)
Another rhythmic stanza in the form of the first.
Continue the pattern: stanza-refrain-stanza as long as you’d like. End your poem of freedom with the refrain or a riff on the refrain.
Let Freedom—for all—ring!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Ask Norman T Goldfish: What's Your Favorite Plant?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Hey Kids! Check out Ron’s fintastic cactus. Have you ever touched one? Prickly right? Scroll down to read Norman’s answer.
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
To learn more about plants goldfish love, click over to “10 Best Plants for Goldfish” on AquariumNexus.com.
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter! Click Here for Details!
And!!!!! Everyone who sends Norman a question will be entered to WIN a prize in Kelly’s Giveaway!
Poetry Challenge #195: If it Walks Like a Duck & Talks Like a Duck . . .
Back in the before time—aka when I was a kid—we cracked ourselves up trying to talk like Donald Duck. BTW: Teacher’s hated it… It’s not sooo hard. If it helps, Donald’s voice creator, Clarence Nash, called it his “nervous baby goat” voice. You sort of suck your cheeks in, push your lips out into a duck bill shape, flatten your tongue and push it out until until the tip is even with your lips—now repeat after me:
Hello! My Name is Donald Duck.
How was your DD impression? Better than this?
Now, on with the show . . .
Poetry Challenge #195
If it Walks like a Duck and Talks like a Duck . . .
Why the Donald Duck voices, today? Because its National Donald Duck Day! The cranky cartoon duck in a sailor suit’s birthday made his screen debut on June 9, 1934 in Disney’s cartoon The Wise Little Hen. And he’s still quacking along!
The challenge for today (should you choose to accept it*) is to write a poem in the spirit of Donald Duck. Perhaps your memory of watching Donald Duck, or from Donald Duck’s viewpoint, or about ducks in general or Donald in particular, your choice. Here’s where it gets Quackers!
Make it a rhyming poem in which the first line ends with “Quackers” or “Quack” and each of the following lines rhymes with that.
Get into a Ducky frame of mind.
Set Your Time for 7 Minutes.
Ready. Set. Write!
As DD famously said (cue nervous baby goat), “There, I knew I could do it!!
*Don’t know that DD ever had a chance to appear in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. series and witness the tape disintegrate, but if he had . . .
Clarence Nash—the original voice of Donald Duck (1934-1983) “Actually, I wanted to be a doctor; but instead I became the biggest quack in the world.”
And because this is a celebration of all things Donald:
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL & Entry to Win Prizes in THE Quarterly Give-Away!
Ask Norman T Goldfish: How Do You Fall Asleep?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Hey Kids! Do you ever have a hard time falling asleep? Especially after an exciting day? Do you think it might be the same for goldfish? Scroll down to read Norman’s answer.
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
To learn more about when, where and how goldfish sleep, click over to “Do Goldfish Sleep” on PetMD.com.
And for more: click over to “How Do Fish Steep” at modestfish.com
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter! Click Here for Details!
And!!!!! Everyone who sends Norman a question will be entered to WIN a prize in Kelly’s Giveaway!
Poetry Challenge #194-Make Mine Rocky Road
It’s June! Summertime searches for the best ice cream have begun!
Today we’re honoring Rocky Road ice cream.* This smooth chocolate ice cream mixed with nuts & marshmallow. Is your mouth watering?
Mix up your own rocky road ice cream blend and sneak in whatever you like—we do!
Poetry Challenge #194
Make Mine Rocky Road
While on the subject of ice cream, what do you like better—soft serve or hard? What’s your favorite kind? What’s the strangest flavor you’ve seen?
For this poem, pick a flavor. Think about what ingredients are in your ice cream. Make a list of 5 or more words associated with that flavor—one word on each line. (Be sure to put the flavor first.) Use the words in your list as the first word in each line of a poem.
Here’s Cindy’s list for Rocky Road. You can use this list or make your own to write a poem:
Rocky
Road
chocolate
almond
mini
marshmallow
Hurry! You have 7 minutes before it melts!
*Why today? Because June 2nd is National Rocky Road Day. William Dreyer of Dreyer’s Ice Cream fame, is credited with blending his partner Joseph Edy’s chocolate confection of chopped nuts & marshmallow with his ice cream to create a new flavor sometime in the late 1920s. And while Americans claim the name Rocky Road was given “to bring smiles to faces during the Great Depression,” Australian’s claim it’s named for the Rocky Road gold hunters traveled. Since Australia’s version of Rocky Road candy dates back to 1863, they win. BTW: Rocky Road candy is said to have been created by George Ferrin as a way to sell confections damaged during the long trip from Europe—he mixed the broken candied fruits, marshmallows, etc with locally-grown nuts and cheap chocolate to disguise the flavour.”
George Ferrin’s “Rocky Road” would have looked like this…Yum!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Ask Norman T Goldfish: How Long Are YOU?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Hey Kids! Check out the size of that goldfish in Connor’s drawing! It is huge! Below is a movie of Norman & his new friend in their bowl. Take a look and then write down how long you think Norman is. Then scroll down to see if your answer matches Norman’s.
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter! Click Here for Details!
Poetry Challenge #193-Happy Paper Airplane Day!
When was the last time you flew? Probably since the first soaring bird-spotting, people have been trying to fly, by fashioning wax-coated wings and turning themselves into birds and building ginormous $23 million dollar quackers like the “Spruce Goose” a troop carrier with a wingspan of 320 feet—longer than a football field—made of wood laminated with plastic and covered in fabric and designed to carry more than 700 soldiers, or in its purest form with a single sheet of paper with imagination folded in!
Poetry Challenge #193
Happy Paper Airplane Day!
Because someone needed a reason, today, May 26th, is National Paper Airplane Day. A day during which we are, each of us, honor-bound to create a paper airplane. Let’s do it!
For this prompt, shove devices aside and take up a sheet of paper. Imagine yourself folding that paper into an airplane—resist the urge to make one (for now). When its finished imagine yourself climbing aboard and soaring away!
What’s your destination? Who’s with you? What’s it feel like to fly?
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Ready! Set! Write!
When your finished, fold your poem into a paper airplane and send it into the world! Double-Dog Dare YOU!
If you need a paper airplane refresher, click on the image for step-by-steps to create the BAT X.3
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL