Jada Asks Kelly the Tough Question
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Norman flipped over this letter . . .
Most of the time Norman gets mail—he has lots of finpals! But, every now and again one for Kelly pops up and we just have to share it!
Now that you’ve read Kelly’s response, click over for more from in this Q&A with Norman’s illustrator Noah Z. Jones
Did you know a baby goldfish is called a “fry” as in small fry? That’s where the term came from. For more about goldfish eggs, hatching & fry, check out puregoldfish.com.
Poetry Challenge #198-More Stars! More Wishes!
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a . . .
“Supercat” by Cristina Borobia
No… It’s a meteor shower. When you wish upon a star . . . faster! More stars! More wishes—
Meteor showers—the kind that light up the sky with fast moving bits of light also known as shooting stars—are the result of debris shed by passing comets. The comets passed 100-200 years ago and left a trail of dirt and rocks and ice particles behind. When this debris—some the size of a grain of sand—drift into Earth’s orbit, the burst into flame in a display similar to fireworks.
Poetry Challenge #198
Meteor Stars! More Wishes!
For today’s poem, write a shape poem about meteors*, shooting stars, comets, orbits, or fireworks. Make your poem look like its topic.
When it gets dark, be sure to get outside and watch for evidence of a comet’s passing.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
*Why today? Because June 30th is National Meteor Watch Day!
For more information about meteors and meteor showers and when to see them best here’s a stellar article from NYT Science.
Look up! and . . . Make a Wish!
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
Poetry Challenge #197-In The Pink?
Are you in the pink? Hope so? If you’re feeling blue, seeing red, a little green around the gills (or green with envy), time to pull out the paint pallet and mix it up for today is National Pink Day! Yep! June 23rd is set aside as a day to bust out the pink!
Legend has it that sometime in the last 17th century (back, evidently, when the world was all black, white, and primary colors), someone waxing lyrical (or frustrated with the English language), pointed to a dianthus flower named “pink” and said “that color.” Shazaam! The color “pink” was born.
From there, Pink, ever vibrant, varied, nuanced a word as it is a color, went on to mean so much more!
Pink in Roses:
Dark Pink Roses: If you want to express appreciation, gratitude, or to say thank you.
Medium Pink Roses: If you have a first love, want to congratulate someone or want to cheer up a friend who’s grieving or healing.
Light Pink Roses: If you want to show gentleness and admiration.
Poetry Challenge #197
In the Pink
Because “pink” is much too much for only one option, for this prompt choose your own pink to explore in poem. Here are some options. Surely one will tickle you, well…pink!
· Explore one or more meanings of the word pink in a poem.
· Write a about a day you felt “in the pink” what did you do? Who were you with? Where did you go?
· List all the shades of pink you can and blend them into a poem.
· Describe a pink person, place or thing.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just get with the pink!
Puffed up proudly pink now that you’ve created your poem? Here are ways the National Pink Day Calendar suggests celebrating: #NationalPinkDay
Use pink in a sentence.
Plant or give some pink flowers.
Dye your eyebrows pink.
Color or paint something pink.
Earn a pink ribbon by donating to Breast Cancer Awareness!
Feeling in the Pink Playlist:
“Theme from the Pink Panther” of course! Take it away Henry Mancini!
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 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!