Poetry Challenge #232-Wait One Dog-Gone Minute!
Oh my . . . where has the time gone? We are already 46 days… 8 weeks… 12.6 percent of the way through 2022! Before we go one more step forward into the future, let’s take 7 minutes to reflect, regroup, and revise!
Poetry Challenge #232
Wait One Dog-Gone Minute
Choose one of your poems to revise. Do not pick it because it is “almost” good. Do not pick it because it’s soooo bad that in your will you’ll demand it burned so no one will ever ever ever see it. (I have some of those too.) Just pick one—whichever one catches your eye—pick it.
Now, use the elements of your chosen poem to create a Tanka.
Tanka is an ancient Japanese form of poetry expressing mood, thoughts, feelings, desires—usually about nature. So, no matter what the subject of your poem, see if you can’t include a hint of the natural world.
Tanka directions:
A Tanka has five-line poem with a total of 31 syllables.
Lines #1 and #3 have 5 syllables each
Lines #2, #4 and #5 have 7 syllables each.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
To find out more about Tanka poems—along with the answer to every question about Tanka imaginable—click over “How to Write a Tanka” by lisbdnet.com
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000+ days 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): All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
What Inspires Me #8-Oportunistic Reading
“Library” the word is intimidating. It conjures images of at worst, grizzled frowny faces judging or shushing; at best Marian and Professor Harold Hill dancing and singing ala The Music Man! (Okay, if I thought there was a chance of this kind of shenanigans going on inside my library, I’d be there. Yes, I am obsessed with The Music Man revival. Tickets anyone?)
Which is why I’m saying Fie on Home Libraries Fie! Gasp NO!
YES! But wait for it . . . I have a less-intimidating and much more inviting alternative. (And have author Carrie Pearson to thank for it.)
What Inspires #8 Opportunistic Reading
Instead of taking on the daunting task of creating a “library” aka bookshelves lined with gilded spines, study spaces in your room with an eye to providing/inviting reading opportunities and then cluster books in baskets, racks, stacks, barrels, and yes, the occasional bookshelf, in these spots where they are eye catching and easy to grab when a reading opportunity arises. Including near dining tables and in the bathroom—definitely the bathroom!
How to get started? First, make it fun and functional. And if you like me need order. Try this for starters:
Curate and display books by the color of their spines. Children’s books, in particular, are made to engage visually so the spines of hardcover books are beautiful colors. They really pop when they are displayed in similar groupings either vertically or horizontally. Or get really creative and make a book rainbow on each shelf. – Carrie Pearson Books
And this for seconds: Google it! That’s what I did to find “Books Storage Ideas for Kids”!
Need More? And here’s a link to the full blog post featuring this gem from Carrie and 13 others: “Expert Tips to Create a Functional Library at Home | Redfin”
Be warned, while you’re sorting and scattering you’ll most likely be rereading, too! Dang!
Poetry Challenge #231-Uncrank the Crank
Curmudgeon, crank, grump, sourpuss, bellyacher, grouse, crosspatch, malcontent, crab, grumbler, grump …Uncle Ted! Call um what you will, we all know one (maybe even are one…) the person who is chronically cranky, aka The Grouch!
Caroll Spinney was the original puppeteer behind Oscar and Big Bird:
Surprise! Today is Do a Grouch a Favor Day (Feb 16th). A day devoted to turning those grouchy frowns upside down.
Think of all the things you could do to try to make a grouchy person smile.
What might you give them?
What might you say to them?
What might you do for them—to them—to brighten their gloomy dispositions?
After his mom posted this Grumpy boy’s school photo it went viral. Click over to @today’smom for the rest of the story. But first…before you DO one thing more…
Poetry Challenge #231
Uncrank the Crank
Write a rhyming poem with things to try to make a grouch happy. Remember to smile!
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 2000+ days 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
What Inspires Me? #7 My Go-To Scroll-To
Confession time: What do I do to recharge when my C-Battery is out of juice or way low? What do I do when I’m standing in check out lines? What do I do when I don’t know exactly what to do? Or how to do it? Or just plain don’t want to do it?
What Inspires Me #7
Pinterest is my Go-to Scroll-to for Inspiration, Recreation & . . . Procrastination.
With the holidays over, the temps in the teens and a list of to-dos, what do I do? (Ghostbusters!)
I click over to Pinterest, click on the magnifying glass search button. Input: “vacation with tiny umbrellas” (caps or no caps, spelled correctly or not) and PRESTO! I’m here: Thank you Still Playing School!
When I’m looking for recipes, especially when I have limited ingredients I search: broccoli recipes kids and Presto: It takes me to pins like this from Super Healthy Kids:
When it’s freeeeeeeeezing outside and I’m laminting our should-be-cozy home’s lack of a fireplace I search: Fireplace ideas . . . Presto!
When I’m looking for books to read, share, gift, study (and maybe, just maybe needing affirmation) I go to Pinterest, input Books about fish, don’t find what I need so begin a new search “Books about Pets” and am rewarded with pins like this Vanessa Pre-K Pages
Instagram is inspiring but it goes away or gets buried in new posts. As Deb Gonzales: author, teacher, coach and Pinterest Master says, “Pinterest is evergreen” once a pin is posted, it stays posted. Save it and it stays saved. And dang, Pinterest creators spend zillions of hours creating these inspiring, helpful posts—I know because I try! Here’s my Pinterest page. Go-To Scroll-To!
Fin Pals ask Norman: What If You Can't Sleep?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Say Kids: When you get tired, do your eyelids ever feel heavy? Do you rub your eyes when you’re sleepy?
Norman gets tired, too. But he doesn’t rub his eyes because he can’t. His fins are not long enough to reach his eyes.
Norman can’t close his eyes when he’s tired, either, because goldfish don’t have eyelids.
If you were a tired goldfish what would you do when you were tired? Hmmmmm….
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
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To learn more about how goldfish sleep, click over to this article by aquagoodness.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!
Poetry Challenge #230-Pizza Party
Here’s all the excuse you need. . .
Give me a P!
Give me an I!
Give me a Z!
Give me another Z!
Give me an A!
What are we talking about? PIZZA!
Yep, February 9th is officially National Pizza Day. A day set aside specifically to honor-eat-make-eat-celebrate-eat-read about pizza. Let’s start with these fun pizza facts from Giovanni:
Every second, Americans order 350 slices of pizza.
Every day, Americans eat about 100 acres of pizza.
On average, each American eats 23 pounds of pizza every year. (and puts on 23#…)
The most popular pizza topping is pepperoni.
The world’s first pizza, largest pizza, longest pizza were all made in Italy. *
But, the real question and inspiration this prompt is: Who Wants Pizza???
Poetry Challenge #230
Pizza Party
Ding-Dong! Surprise! It’s a pizza party and you’re invited.
Begin by writing a shopping list of pizza toppings—at least 10!
Cut the list into bits—one word per bit.
Stir the bits, toss them into the air as one would a pizza crust, and then scoop them up and arrange them into a tasty pizza of a poem.
Feel free to add more or delete some, after all you’re the pizza chef!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Let’s get this Pizza Party started!
*The world’s record for the largest round pizza ever made was set in Rome, Italy on Dec 13, 2012. How big was it? The pizza was so big, they named it Octavio! Octavio stretched more than 130 feet across, bigger than 1 ½ baseball fields and weighed 51, 257 pounds! It took 19,000 pounds of flour, 10,000 pounds of tomato sauce, 8800 pounds of mozzarella cheese, 1488 pounds of margarine, 551 pounds of rock salt, 220 pounds of lettuce, 55 pounds of vinegar and two full days to bake it. “The dough had to be baked in more than 5000 batches over a 48-hour period.”
The longest pizza ever made looked like a pizza sidewalk and was more than a mile long! In 2016, 250 pizza chefs from around the world gathered in Naples, Italy to construct a margherita pizza that stretched “1853.88 meters, which is approximately 6082.28 feet, or 1.15 miles.” It took more than 4400 pounds of flour, 3500 pounds of tomatoes, 4400 pounds of mozzarella, 200 liters of oil, and 66 pounds of basil to make the pizza.
Hungry for more? Here’s a round-up of pizza picture books from pocketofpreschool.com.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000+ days 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
What Inspires Me? #6 Paper Sculpting
Calvin Nicholls is an artist, a sculpture. His medium of choice: paper.
Paper is my medium of choice, too. I click away on a computer, sure, but as a substitute for paper (and slave to technology) not by choice. Paper is my happy place. I scribble on it, print on it, stack it, cut it, tear it, crumple it—toss it into the recycle bin, too (rarely score a 3-pointer), and while sometimes my paper scribbles inspire art. My paper is not art.
Calvin Nicholls shapes, molds, cuts, transforms paper into art. Just look:
Here’s a cardinal.
Here’s Calvin Nicoll’s cardinal.
What’s so appealing about creating paper sculpture? Here’s a snippet from Calvin Nicholls:
I still recall working on my first bird sculpture and marveled at how my interest in drawing, model making, sculpting and photography blended so beautifully with my life long interest in wildlife and the natural world…Every piece is a discovery of sorts too. I’m always learning with each
new sculpture.
To see more about Calvin Nicolls and read about his process—and see more of his paper sculptures, click over to his website: Calvin Nicolls
Fin Pal asks Norman: "How Did You Draw That?"
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
This is a question lots of kids at school visits ask.
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
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Here’s a photograph of illustrator Noah Z. Jones with Kelly at a school visit. Read more about Noah and how he created Norman in this interview “About that Sweatband!”
