Max Tell / Writing Prompt / If Dad Was A?

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Prompt: If your dad, mom, sister, brother, or friend was a giraffe, an octopus, a dolphin, a star in the sky, even an insect, or whatever you choose, what would you write about him or her?

Note: From now on, once a week, I will include a full write-up for a prompt. The rest of the week, I will only include the writing prompt.

Max Tell / Writing Prompt / I Am Afraid

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What I'm Afraid Of

Writing Prompt: November 20th, 2014

I’m afraid of . . . an insect, an animal, lightning, thunder, or whatever makes you cringe. Write in the voice of a child you have in mind.

* Note: From now on, once a week, I will include a full write-up for a prompt. The rest of the week, I will only include the prompt.

Max Tell / Writing Prompt / Cute Pet Pictures

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Show-and-Tell Cute Pet Pictures

Invite the children in your class to bring in a show-and-tell picture of their kitten, puppy, cat, dog or any other pet. If a child does not have a pet of their own, invite them to bring in a picture of the pet they would like to have. 

Keep a file of pictures that children may choose from if they forget.

SUGGESTIONS:

Max Tell / Ten Minute Object Writing From A Photograph

Spring-boarding from an image is a great way to get the creative juices flowing. Ten minutes of object writing per day, no more (5-6 minutes for younger children) will build a strong foundation for later writing whether creative or academic. 

TO THE TEACHER: 

1) Invite each of your students to bring a clipping of a picture to school to write about. Have a few extra clipping available incase some of the children forget.

2) Set an alarm for 10 minute, no longer.

Max Tell / Halloween Prompt Three

Roast the Ghost Three

Set a timer for six minutes.

In six minutes write everything that, given the chance to live a better life, you would do differently.

After the six minutes are up, highlight all the good stuff, and then write a poem, song, or story (picture book or YA novel chapter or part of) based on your notes.

Make us laugh.  

Inspired by a writing prompt on a Berklee Online Songwriting Webinar.

Max Tell / Halloween / Writing Prompt Two

Roast the Ghost Two

Set a timer for six minutes.

Write everything that is lousy about being a ghost and being stuck on earth for an eternity as nothing but a shapeless shadow. Write about your senses, and the lingering bad taste in her mouth, what things look like now in comparison to what they had looked like back when she was alive. Think about the awful sounds that haunt her every waking moment and the icky feeling of everything she touches. And finally, how it feels to live the dead life of a ghost whose only experience is one  endless, sleepless, and nightmarish night.

After the six minutes are up, highlight all the good stuff, and then write a poem, song, or story (picture book or YA novel chapter or part of) based on your notes.

Spook us out.  

Inspired by a writing prompt on Berklee College of Music's Online Songwriting Webinar.

© Robert ‘Max Tell’ Stelmach 2014

Spook us out.

Inspired by a writing prompt on Berklee College of Music's Online Songwriting Webinar.

Each week, Max Tell features a few inspirational articles about poetry writing for kids

as well as his own blog posts.

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To read a few of Max's poems, check out The Land of Graws.

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For more poems by Max Tell visit The Land of Graws

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More From Max:

The Knight, The Dragon, and the Librarian
12 Songs by Max Tell
10 Poems by Max Tell

www.maxtell.ca

Max on Facebook

Resources:

Rhyme Scheme
RhymeZone: A Rhyming Dictionary
A Wealth of Poetry Games for Grades K-5
Sheree Fitch

Writing Stories in Rhythm & Rhyme

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Next topic: 

TBA

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What poetry question would you like answered? Point of View? Rhyme? Something of your choice? Student questions are also welcome. Your comments below would be greatly appreciated.

Bye for now and see you soon.

Have a great writing day.

Max

Love writing, but love editing more.

Halloween / Writing Prompt One

Roast the Ghost One

Grade 5 and up.

Set a timer for six minutes.

Write everything a ghost did in its living life to cause it to be punished with an existence of floating aimlessly for an eternity with no friends and with nothing to do, but to mourn its many bad deeds.

Concentrate on actions, the bad things it did while alive to its enemies and friends. Try to write constantly, never lifting your pen or pencil from the page.

After the six minutes are up, highlight all the good stuff, and then write a poem, song, or story (picture book or part of a YA novel chapter) based on your notes.

Spook us out.

Hannah Lowe's Top Poetry Writing Tips

Forward prize-shortlisted poet Hannah Lowe, who will be judging this year's Foyle Young Poets of the Year competition, offers her top tips to young poetry writers

Hannah Lowe

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 July 2013 12.25 BST

Hannah Lowe, shortlisted for the prestigious Forward prize for poetry for her anthology Chick, will be judging the Foyles Young Poets competition. There's still time to enter!

1. Read!

Read lots of different poems, from books at school, home, the library, bookshops, or poems you find online. The Poetry Library in London and the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh are great places to start. Look at their websites if you can't visit them. Read poems for adults as well as for children. What do you like? What makes a good poem in your opinion? Read poems aloud so you can hear their sound effects and music. Learn a poem off by heart and see how you find reciting it from memory. More . . .

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Now it's your turn. Write your own poem. Have fun, I always do.

Creativity: Writing and Rewriting / Jon Ims

Creativity

Writing and Rewriting "She's In Love With The Boy"

Courtesy of taxi.com

Jon Ims is a superb craftsman and a wonderful teacher. His song, "She's in Love With the Boy" was the breakout hit single for a Nashville demo singer named Trisha Yearwood. It introduced her to the world and established her career. Breakout singles are the hardest to select. There's a lot of promotion money riding on them and the choice has to be a good one. The industry is littered with the broken bones of careers that, once hopeful, simply died when the first single tanked and the record company decided maybe the artist wasn't as exciting to the public as the company thought. The combination of the song and artist was inspired. More . . .

For a video introduction to the article, watch How to Write Better Songs with John Braheny. 

Laura Packer / True Stories Honest Lies

True Stories Honest Lies 

Laura Packer

This goes for poetry too: 

Do you remember, in maybe fifth grade writing class, when your teacher told you that all essays needed to answer six crucial questions? Storytelling is no different. The six crucial questions, five w’s plus one h, give you and your listeners the basic information required by most stories. Bear in mind, simply answering these questions will not make the story a great one, but it will give you a foundation to build on. 

Read more . . . 

Teen Poetry Revolution

Photo: Courtesy of www.luminari.org 

Sites such as Movellas and Wattpd are seeing huge numbers of tees writing, reading, and sharing poetry. Alison Flood investigates the phenomenon and talks to some of the teens publishing their poetry on line. 

More . . .