Laura Purdie Salas

Writing the World for Kids

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Poetry Contest for 3rd-8th Grade

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Pets Add Life, a non-profit awareness campaign about the joys of pets, is sponsoring a poetry contest for 3rd-8th graders. This is the eighth year for the contest, and teachers, if your student wins for his or her grade level, you win a $1,000 grant for either pet-related education or a classroom pet. Cool! I […]

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Oh, Did You Need That Homework? [poetry friday]

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Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I hope you had an awesome Poetry Month. I did. It was super busy with lots of visits to schools and libraries. However, I’m way behind on blog reading, and I especially am a bit sad that I missed out on so many terrific online […]

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Tip #14: Riddle Me This [Poetry Tips for Teachers]

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Welcome to today’s tip in my month-long Poetry Tips for Teachers series. Tip #14: Make it a riddle. Turn a poem into a riddle. Kids love riddle poems, and they are super fun to both read and write. (I had a blast with riddleku in National Poetry Month of 2014 and even turned them into […]

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Tip #1: Twice Is Nice [Poetry Tips for Teachers]

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Tip #1: Twice Is Nice When you introduce a poem, read it twice. Poems are dense with language and images, and they often hold way too much info to absorb in a single hearing. Generally, read the poem through one time without any direction to your students. THEN, if you like, you can give them […]

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[poem starter audio] You’d Better Be Scared (by me)

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I’m trying something new today, inspired by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s post at Author Amok during Laura Shovan’s Techno-Verse celebration.?I recorded a poem starter audio using SoundCloud, which I’d never tried before. Thanks, Amy and Laura, for showing me this tool. It took me a while to figure out some tech details, and I’m not sure […]

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[poetry friday] “Shades of Red” – a Poem Starter

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1) Monday will begin National Poetry Month, and there will be all sorts on kidlitosphere poetry fun! I hope to feature a Poem Starter daily, with poems by lots of my favorite poets! . .2222)?? 2) This week, my poem is “Shades of Red,” from my book? Flashy, Clashy, and Oh-So Splashy: Poems about Color […]

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[poetry friday] “I Am Fog” — a Poem Starter

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1) If you’re a published poet with an in-print children’s poetry collection available in a printed version, and you’re interested in having a poem used in my Poem Starter series, please see my post from Tuesday! . 2) March Madness Poetry continues, and today, voting is live on the Sweet Sixteen matchups. Only eight pairs […]

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[poetry friday] “Ordinary” — a Poem Starter

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This week, my poem is “Ordinary,” a cinquain from my book?Do Buses Eat Kids? Poems About School?(Capstone, 2008). . Ordinary Pencil Black tube hiding Inside yellow wrapping Leaves grey trail of letters, stories, Magic –by Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved Teachers, if you’re looking for a poetry idea and?want to share a reading of […]

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Great News on Eight Great Planets!

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I received the very fun news last week that one of my books, Eight Great Planets (Picture Window Books, 2010), won the 2010 Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award – Children's Category. This is one of my Science Songs books, which each cover a curriculum area via a song written to the tune of an […]

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Poetry Friday: Jumping for Joy (by me)

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 For the first April in several years, I’m not traveling doing school visits for 3/4 of the month! So you’d think I’d have some cool, special project for National Poetry Month here on my blog. I am embarrassed to say I do not. However, I do plan to highlight the wonderful offerings of other bloggers who are […]

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