Write a Poem About a Library

Not only is this National Poetry Month. It's also National Library Week.

Put the two together, and what do you get? No, not a mixed-up calendar. You get a poem about a library!

Do you have a library at school or in your town? What do you love about it? Is it the big windows? The shelves of books? The rows of computers? The helpful library workers? The storytimes? 

We can celebrate our library with an acrostic poem. That's a poem in which the letters of a word (like "library") give us the first line.

Here's my library acrostic. Have fun creating your own!

Lots and lots and lots of 
Interesting 
Books.
Real stories and made-up stories
About animals, action, and adventure. 
Read! 
Your library has the perfect book to carry you away. 

Write a Poem About an Imaginary Pet

Happy National Poetry Month! All month long, we'll celebrate poems. 

Even if you think you're not a poet, join in and try writing one. 

Reading and writing poems lets us play with language. 

We'll start out with imaginary pets. Do you have a real pet? Chances are it's a dog, cat, goldfish, or gerbil. 

It's probably not a Nightlight Bird, like on the cover of this wonderful book by Richard Michelson. 

Here's one of his imaginary pets: 

Nightlight Bird

I used to need a nightlight
when it was time for bed
until we got a red-eyed
Nightlight Bird instead.

I don't need any batteries
or bulbs or plugs or sockets.
I just keep Nightlight Bird seed
in my pajama pockets.

My bird won't scare a burglar.
She's slow and pigeon-toed,
but if she senses danger
Bird blinks and sends Morse Code.

But best of all, when Nightlight
starts her late-night stare
the shadows in my room run
away and disappear. 

Some other poems in this fun book are the Buscatcher, the Leftover Eater, and the Talkback Bat. 

Your turn! What kind of imaginary pet would YOU love to have? Write a poem about it. It doesn't need to rhyme. 

When you're done, add a drawing. The illustrations in Animals That Ought To Be are by the wonderful Leonard Baskin. 

I bet your illustration will be just as wonderful. 

Have fun creating and drawing your imaginary pet! 

Writing with Pencils!

Our blog is called Yellow Pencils, so shouldn't we write about…pencils???

Even with computers, smartphones, tablets, and all the other devices out there, the humble pencil is an incredible writing tool. 

Think about it.

• It's portable.

• It's cheap. 

• There's always one handy.

• It doesn't need a battery or electricity.

• It never crashes.

• If someone takes yours, you can always find another one. 

• Best of all, it usually comes with an eraser at the end, perfect for us writers to make changes or revisions.

So let's pay tribute to the humble pencil.

Write a poem about your favorite pencil. Or create a story about a talking pencil. Or rewrite a folktale with pencils in the starring roles. Cinderpencil? Hansel and Pencil? Goldilocks and the Three Pencils? 

Use your imagination! And of course, write your story with a pencil. I'm biased toward yellow, but any color will do! 

Description and Setting

Description and setting. 

Boring, right? The parts we skip over?

Wrong! At least, not if description and setting are written in an interesting way. 

So, how to do that? 

Here's an exercise:

Pick a character from this list:

• a homeless person who carries a pet tarantula
• a waitress who's a millionaire
• a hippie who joins the army
• a guitar-playing banana
• a reporter for a vegetarian magazine 

Then pick a setting from this list:

• a suburb in the clouds
• a water theme park 
• a shopping mall in the middle of the night
• an underground hideout
• a coffee shop that used to be a firehouse

Let's say we pick the guitar-playing banana and an underground hideout. 

How can we describe both with some revealing details? Don't worry what the story's "about." Just a little description about the character and setting. 

Bob the Banana strummed his guitar. It was way too big for him, since he was only seven inches tall. Plus it was hard to hold the guitar with no hands. He couldn't play loudly because the underground hideout had flimsy walls. They were damp, too. Bob had lived here for 5 years, which is a very long time for a banana. He had to admit, he was starting to smell. 

What do we know about guitar-playing Bob? He's seven inches tall, he has no hands, and he smells. What do we know about the underground hideout? The walls are damp and flimsy, not soundproof. 

Now, with these revealing details about character and setting, we can go on to ask questions.  

Why does Bob love to play the guitar?
Why has he been living in an underground hideout for 5 years?
Who is he hiding from?

We're on our way to a story! All because we explored description and setting. Try it. And don't forget to eat your bananas. 

Writing a Spring Story!

Winter ends this Thursday, March 20th. Happy Spring!

Nature's waiting to burst out with new sounds and smells. Grass is growing. Buds are budding. Leaves are leafing. 

All sorts of living creatures are happy spring has finally arrived. 

I think this caterpillar is.

And so is this tree frog. 

To celebrate spring, write a story about these two friends. Or maybe they're not friends. 

Stories need conflict, right? What could be the problem between these two? How will they solve their problem or conflict? 

Write "The Caterpillar and the Tree Frog," or give your story its own, unique title. Don't forget to include sounds, smells, and "feels." 

Spring is about being alive, so bring your story to life!

A Silly Story

Don't you love silly stories? I do. The only thing better than reading a silly story is writing one.

Try finishing this silly story. Let your imaginations go wild. Exaggeration is a big part of what makes humor funny. 

While you're writing, don't forget to eat some pretzels! 

The Giant Pretzels

It all started when I took my pet iguana for a walk. His name is ___________________________________.  I was hungry, so we stopped at the ______________________________________________________________________ for a banana and ____________________________________________________________.

When we left, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Two giant pretzels were  _______________________________________________________ing down the sidewalk! They were the size of a __________________________________________________________________ and wore  polka-dotted ________________________________________________________________________________.

            I jumped. My iguana hissed. To my surprise, the two pretzels suddenly __________________________________________________________________________all over the _______________________________________________________________________!

Then it got even worse….

           

Spotlight on Prepositions

Prepo-what? 

They're those small words that appear before a noun or pronoun to express a relationship with another word. 

Huh?

Better to show examples:

• the alligator from the lagoon

• the ghost in the dungeon 

• the sprinkles on the ice cream 

• the sign behind the pit

• the vampires at the beach

• the girl with the pet gorilla 

• the dagger above him 

We don't often think about prepositions when we write. They're those "filler" words that we use automatically.

Poor prepositions! They don't get any respect. It's time to put the spotlight on these little words that work so hard. 

Choose 5 prepositions from this list:

• from, in, on, behind, at, with, above, toward, without, to, beyond, into, under, about, around, over, across, between, against, during, after, before  

Here's your challenge: to use those 5 prepositions in a paragraph. 

Here's mine:

The alligator from the lagoon was unhappy. All day, he lay on a rock without sunscreen. Now he was horribly sunburned. He crawled into the water to get some relief. Ahhhh! The alligator closed his eyes and dreamed about Antarctica. 

Your turn to write with prepositions. Have fun thinking about these important words!