Downloadables & Resources
Parents and educators, I’m gathering my downloadables here for you–though you’ll also find them on individual book pages. As a former teacher, I thought it might be helpful to have them all in one spot :>)
Children’s writers, scroll down to find some resources for you!
Hope you find something useful!
Educators or Parents
Color and Draw
Crafts
- Make a Puddle Flower Bloom (see video on the Puddle Song page, too)
- Puppet Playtime
- Give Sheep Some Wool!
Mazes and Word Finds
Writing and Content-Related Activities and Games (best used with the book)
- Thunderstorm Life Cycle
- Weekly Weather Journal
- Compare and Contrast with a Venn Diagram
- We Belong Poem
- My Loon Story
- Informational Writing Based on Secrets of the Loon
- Narrative Writing Inspired by Secrets of the Loon
- Ready for School?
- Countdown to School
- Rhyme Time
- How-to or Procedural Writing
- Do You Know That Saying? (Idioms)
- Measuring with Yarn (See the If You Want to Knit Some Mittens book page for the lesson plan.)
- Parts of a Book
- Winter Survival Memory Game
- Decode the Winter Message
- Write a Zoo-ku
- Write a Night Poem
- Write an Equation Poem
- Make Can Be… books with your students! (Multi-step project–this link leads to the basic lesson plan, which also has links inside it to all the book templates.)
- The Water Cycle
- Write a Snowman List Poem
- Have Fun with a Wordle of Water Words
- 43 K‑2 ELA sheets to go with A Leaf Can Be…
Teaching Guides
- Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons
- Clover Kitty Goes to Kittygarten
- If You Want to Knit Some Mittens
- BookSpeak! Poems About Books
- Snowman-Cold=Puddle
- Meet My Family
- If You Were the Moon (thorough)
- If You Were the Moon (2 pages)
- A Rock Can Be…
- Water Can Be…
- Water Can Be… (CCSS aligned)
- A Leaf Can Be…
Digital Graphics
Poetry Exercises for the Classroom
Children’s Writers
Getting Started in Children’s Writing
Here are some of my best tips for people interested in writing books for kids!
How Much Money Does a Children’s Writer Make?
I can’t tell you how much money you’ll make, but here I share how much money I make each year. I share it all, the numbers, the tears, and the successes.
My Process for Writing a Nonfiction Picture Book
Nonfiction picture books are one of my favorite things to write. Everyone has a different process, but here I break down my typical approach, step by step.
How I Research Publishers to Submit to
I don’t currently work with an agent. Although I was agented for 7 or 8 years, I still ended up selling most of my own manuscripts. Here, I break down my process for learning about publishing houses and specific editors. If you choose not to work with an agent or just haven’t found one yet, this might help you market your own work meanwhile.