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Hallway Beacon [15 words or less]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Surprising nature images are my favorite poetry prompt, but?everyday stuff works, too! Here’s?our upstairs hall light.?The image makes me think of: 1)?an invisible creature watching (one eye is the light; the other eye is the reflection of the light on the hall wall)
Tree Eyes [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Purdie Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! OK, I’m aware I have done too many tree pictures for 15 Words or Less, and I’ve sworn off them. But…but I had to share this! I went for a walk Sunday morning with my daughter and came across
Lichen [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! I had such a great time at the Bemidji Library Book Festival! I led a two-hour nature-poetry writing workshop and did a storytime presentation. At the nature-poetry session, we took yarn circles and spread them around outside and carefully observed
Turtle [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Look at what Patty,?my sister visiting from Fla., spotted as we walked Captain Jack (who totally ignored it). Here’s what this turtle makes me think of: 1)?moving boxes (which they don’t have to go get from grocery stores) 2)?room cleaning
Grassy [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! I took this picture at drum corps rehearsal last week. The little medians inside a parking lot had this tall grass that made it look like a miniature meadow! 1)?ocean waves (of course) 2)?tiny snow-covered evergreens 3) archery at camp
Library Storytime!
I had a blast recently doing an evening storytime at the Mounds View Public Library here in Minnesota.?A group of kids ages 2–6 and I?whirled like a tornado, swung like monkeys, buzzed like bees, measured out wingspans and other animal size-related things, read Water Can Be…, and generally just made lots of noise and had
When Pencils Get Emotional [Writing a Mask Poem with Emotion]
Last week,?I did?Young Authors Conferences all week with 4th-8th graders. I’ll be doing a poetry workshop I tried out in March, and the kids and I had lots of fun with it. The theme of the conference is making unforgettable characters, so we wrote mask poems as everyday objects. But then we rewrote them from
Prickly [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Here are some Velcro?balls we’re throwing at targets all this week at a Young Authors Conference. I’m sharing the poetry activity here next week, so if you’re curious, stay tuned. Meanwhile, here are three things this picture reminds of: 1)
New Ways to Perform Poetry
I had a lovely surprise when the presenters at an IRA session performed one of my poems! The session was The Power of Poetry to Provide Teachable Moments, and the presenters had no idea I was in the audience (until my friend Janet Fagal told them afterward). Here they are: Diane Bottomley, Ph.D,? plays the
IRA Sunday — Presentations and a Party
Sunday was super busy. I went to the Children’s Literature Assembly board meeting first thing in the morning. CLA (you should join!) is part of the National Council of Teachers of English. I’m not on the board, but I’m organizing the Master Class (poetry, of course!) at the NCTE conference this fall. I left a
IRA — Saturday night — Dinner with Lerner folks and the Poetry Olio
I shared some highlights of my Friday night and Saturday day at the IRA Conference recently in New Orleans. By late afternoon Saturday, I was pretty exhausted. And a little bit nervous. I was going to dinner with some Lerner folks, who had hosted my signing that afternoon and helped support my trip to IRA.
Can Top [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! I just realized I still had this?pic from Vegas. It is just a little thingamajig that was on the floor of the High Roller observation wheel we rode in. I was intrigued by it. Here are?3 things this photo makes
IRA — Saturday
[See yesterday’s post for my Friday at IRA.] Saturday at IRA, I went to a fantastic session called The Power of Poetry to Provide Teachable Moments (I’m going to do a separate post on that soon). I was with Janet Fagal, and we had a blast–and the presenters performed “The Middle’s Lament,” from BookSpeak! I
IRA — Friday
I was in New Orleans for the International Reading Association recently and thought I’d share some pictures and thoughts over this week and next. After a fun Friday day, including lunch at NOLA and a ride on the paddleboat Natchez,?I went to a get-together hosted by April Whatley Bedford, a fabulous teacher educator in New
Tree [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! One last pic from Vegas! Here are?3 things this photo makes me think of: 1)?the evil trees in various tales, like Wizard of Oz 2)?bonsai trees 3) blown glass–I love individual pieces, but when I go in a tourist store
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Are You Looking For?
Go to my Poetry page for:
- National Poetry Month projects through the years
- Small Reads Roundups (poems grouped by topic)
- Introductions to several favorite poetry forms