In September, I visited Scotland with my husband, sister, and brother-in-law—and our daughter Maddie joined us for a couple of days in Edinburgh. I’m so grateful to have had this trip. Whenever I’m lucky enough to travel, I think about what people all over the world have both in common
Fall is my favorite season, when I get to enjoy cooler weather and gorgeous leaves here in Minnesota. For my book A Leaf Can Be…, I have a gazillion (well, not a gazillion, but 30+) downloadable reading and writing sheets tied into common core ELA standards for grades K‑2. Here’s
[Still off the grid, but I’ll be back next week!] Wow, did I have a loony summer. That’s because Yvonne Pearson (author of Little Loon Finds His Voice) and I teamed up for 14 Minnesota storytimes about loons. FOURTEEN! Whee! Here’s a quick photo gallery, and I want to give
I am SO delighted to be featured on children’s author Judy Bradbury’s blog today! She’s featuring We Belong and focusing on some ideas to support social-emotional learning. I hope you’ll visit! [My Classroom Connections posts share a way to connect one of my books or poems to a classroom topic–often
I love seeing student equation poems—they always make me smile when I see them on social media. Unfortunately, after I reply with enthusiasm, I usually just move on. What I should be doing is sharing them here, so that other educators can see how to use Snowman-Cold=Puddle as a mentor
Today, for Classroom Connections, I decided to use my Lion of the Sky poetry collection as a starting point for my sticky note poem. I picked a riddle-ku and used the N+7 exercise to swap out the nouns. (I used this online children’s dictionary, since I don’t have a print
On Wednesdays (when I share tips for educators related to my books) for Poetry Month, I’m planning to share poetryactions–that’s what I’ve called poems that use some book as a starting point for my inspiration. Usually I write these poems inspired by other people’s books, but this month, I’ll do
I’m so excited to share the lovely news that Secrets of the Loon is a winner for the 2021 Riverby Award for exceptional nature books for young readers! Whee! I am hugely honored. This picture book launched right as the pandemic hit, all in-person events were canceled, and, like many
Happy World Water Day, friends, as we celebrate this essential part of our world! I donate 10% of my royalties from Water Can Be… to WaterAid. Thanks so much for supporting this book, and you can find all sorts of classroom materials (inc activity sheets, resources, and videos) here! Thank
My biggest hopes for We Belong are that it gets used to spark good discussions and to create community. So I’ve created a template for you to use with your students to write a classroom or family poem. I used this template at the book launch and on some recent
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Go to my Poetry page for:
National Poetry Month projects through the years
Small Reads Roundups (poems
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