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By now, most of you have at least inhaled spring. Even if the weather hasn't been good enough for you to go outside, your mind has been working and your senses have been ignited...right?
Use your senses to paint a spring picture with blossoming words...words that shout like art from a springtime canvas.
Here's an example of what I mean. I could say: I love to smell sweet spring air. That paints a little picture, but not one that's worth remembering.
Now I'll use my words to paint on a canvas for you: Delicate spring air tickled the buds on the tulips as they poked through the soft damp ground. See what I mean? Can you smell the tulips in the air?
Writers: Chose one spring idea from your list (last activity). Write a short sentence from that idea...plain and simple. You will probably have a telling sentence, much like the first one in the example above.
Now close your eyes and use your senses as a catalyst to ignite your creativity. Rewrite your original sentence. This time paint a lovely spring picture with your words.
Teachers and Parents: Do the same activity as above, but talk it though first.
Ask your children to change the telling sentences below to ones that burst with the flavor of spring.
Here are your telling sentences:
I like spring.
It is warm outside today.
I can hear birds sing.
Don't forget to add your two cents worth! When you're involved, your kids will want to paint with words. After you're through talking, ask your kids to write a sentence using the same two step process in the example above.
As usual, please share!
I smell spring. It's coming through the open window in my office. There's no doubt about it...I smell freshly mowed grass, crocuses, and the first charcoal grill of the season. Yep...spring is here! Let's write about it.
Usually I say, "Write as fast as you can!" but that's how we'll end this writing exercise, not how we'll start it...okay?
Writers: Today (or the next weather permitting day this week) go outside. You can lounge in a chair or lay flat on your backs and look at the sky. Breathe the air. Taste the wind. Take of your shoes and feel new dirt and grass. Inspect...really inspect delecate buds. Pick up a bug. Watch an ant. Feel the bark of a tree. Listen to the flutter of bird wings.
Your senses should be on overload. Creative overload!
Go inside or stay outside. Write the word SPRING at the top of your paper. As fast as you can, without lifting your pencil for spaces, write every thought, word, or idea that falls out of your mind and makes you think of spring. This is braindropping at its finest! Time yourselves for one minute.
When you're ready, use your list and your imagination to write a paragraph, poem, or memory of a spring past or present.
Teachers and parents: Do the same activity. The only change is this: Take a piece of posterboard outside with you. Braindrop your list of spring sounds, sights, smells, and tastes (after you've had five minutes of silence). I know getting kids to be quiet and just soak in the gifts of the new season seems like it might be hard, but it's not. Why? Because first you're going to share your memories of spring when you were a child. Nothing gets a child engaged faster than letting them into your lives. It makes their writing relavant to what you both know.
PLEASE SHARE!
My mother-in-law died on Monday. She had been in the hospital since February (after a complicated surgery that resulted from a twisted bowel and stomach). For most of her eighty years, she had been healthy. We're grateful for that.
Her death followed almost two months of horrible suffering, so we've all had a chance to witness her strength in sickness and readiness to move on to eternal life.
Since my blog is about writing exercises, today will be no different. Please tell me the first thought that comes to your mind when you think about death. I'm sure there will be comfort, strength, and creativity in your thoughts. That's why I love writing with you so much.
Jan
Believe it or not, I use the same writing exercises with adults that I use with kids. Creativity is creativity and writing is just an extension of that. It doesn't make a difference whether I'm presenting at a writing conference for published or aspiring authors, doing author-in-school visits, or sharing my ideas at an teacher in-service...the same activities ignite sparks of creativity.
I think every now and then, weekends would be a good time to share. Sometimes it's easier to share in the form of an answer, so I'll ask questions.
1. Is there any special writing exercise that really makes you more creative?
2. Does paying attention to your five senses help you to write?
3. Do my activities help you?
4. Would you like to see different kinds of activities? If so, what kind?
5. Do you have an activity that you'd be willing to let me share here on my blog?
6? What did you write last week?
Feel free to answer any or all of my questions!
Take a minute to think about the most courageous person you know. Braindrop what you think it is that makes that person courageous. In case you haven't braindropped with us before, write the name of the courageous person that you are thinking of at the top of your paper.
Then, without stopping to lift your pencil between words, write every thought, word, or phrase that falls out of your mind that reminds you of your courageous person (write as fast as you can possibly write). Time yourself for two minutes, then stop. You should have a list full of ideas about courage.
Now, define courage. That's it. Let's see how our thoughts are alike and how they are different. Please share.
Movement is art. It allows us to really show what is happening by creating pictures with our words. Today's writing activity was inspired by the howling, swirling wind that almost toppled the trees in my backyard.
Writers: Choose one of the groups of words listed below to include in a quick sentence or paragraph. As you work on your own writing this week, think about how these "moving" words awakened your creativity and inspired your ideas.
lumbering, meandering
slinking, slouching
gushing, leaking
sauntering, swaggering
scampering, scurrying
If any of the "moving" words on my list inspire other "moving" words for you, go right ahead and use your own words in a sentence or paragraph.
Please share!
Teachers and Parents: You can do this same activity with your kids, but first you have to arouse their imaginations. Talk to them about how a cat moves. Remind them that cats like to hunt and sleep in the sun. Create a list of some of the movements cats make before, during, and after hunting and sleeping. Hopefully, your list will include things like:
stalk
prowl
slink
pounce
stretch
curl, etc.
One more thing. Before you have your kids write about a cat, ask them to move their own bodies like one of the words on the list. You move too. In fact, show your kids how a cat stretches!
Now your kids should be ready to write with you. You might want to provide a writing prompt to start them off. Something easy like: The lazy cat was curled into a ball on the porch. Then......
Please share your kid's work. It will inspire all of us!
This one is for all of you. It's sure to inspire creativity without time or effort. NO SCIENTIFIC ANSWERS PLEASE. So...without giving it any thought at all, answer this question:
QUICK! Why does grass grow?
I'll go first: So rabbits have something to eat.
Your turn. Please share.
As usual, if you want to continue writing, please do. If not, we've at least got you thinking outside the box!
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Freshly cut grass is definitely the scent of the muses.
Fresh air
tall grass
buds
flowers
blooming
trimming
deck
barefeet
clean up
weeds
yardwaste
fertilizer
weed killer
neighbors
fencerow
walking
tulips
daffodils
iris
leaves
sore muscles
charcoal
picnic
I spent the day trimming the Rose of Sharon, and the Mallow. Pulled the sticks from the hostas, pulled some weeds, filled 2 lawn bags........barely made a dent.
Made a few changes with my adsense ads on, Sandy's Space, Travelingsuitcase, and the Bridge.
You've got the braindropping down, girl!
Agree on the printing and saving, you were in my mind...as always. Hugs
Sandy
Hi Jan,
Thanks for checking out my blog. Yours looks like fun. I hope to participate in some of the exercises you are offering. Thanks, again.
This sounds like great fun. I'll give it a try as soon as I can get outside.
You know, I think I'll make a post linking to yours today! It's a great springtime activity!
Jan, you are so inspiring! Great idea!
Love,
Janet
When I work on my novel I like to work outside the best. I sit listening to the birds sing and watch the ducks fly in for a little swim while the squirrels come to beg peanuts. There's always a story going on in the back yard, you just have to watch for it... and then write about it :)
While gardening I saw an interesting large green bug. I picked it up to examine him closer. He stood for a little while and then he opened his wings, caught a breeze and flew off. Then he landed on a bush about 10 feet away. A sparrow sitting on a bird house saw him fly over and swooped down to gobble him up. I jumped up to scare the bird and it flew away. I walked over to investigate the bug and there he was on the ground, not moving. He was dead. I felt bad. If I didn't pick him up to admire him, he might still be alive wandering around in the wood chips of the garden. I'm sorry bug.
So this isn't from this exercise, but I think you might really enjoy this ...
So, Ayanna is one of my favorites (I know you're not supposed to have them, but I can't help it - she can be so quietly considerate when no one's watching) ... today she added another thing for me to love about her. She wrote me a poem. The students obviously know about Grandma's death and how prolonged this has all been - she was sympathetic this morning, asking me softly how I was and saying very stoically how sorry she was for my loss. Then she asked me if I was sad and I said, 'well yeah, I just need something bright and cheery like the sunshine today to perk me up'. I then forgot the exchange and the day progressed.
We get to the end of the day and as she heads out the door she hands me a small orange piece of paper with these words ...
Orange looks like a tiger lily.
It smells like bonfires blazing.
It sounds like leaves floating to the ground in the fall.
It tastes like a ripe, juicy mango.
It feels like flames of fire.
Orange makes me want to tango.
So points all around to you, to Ayanna, and to Grandma :)
There are so many great things about this activity (I wonder if we - me or my students - will be able to keep ourselves from raising the pencil off the paper), but I especially appreciate its value for urban students, who often don't get exposed to or an appreciation for nature. The city (NYC) is so busy, noisy, and bustling, taking a moment to just be still in quiet is very necessary. I actually think all schools should make some time for activities like this every single school day for grades preK-12. Seriously.
Also, it's poetry month! My drama students are created their own scripts and monologues to perform in a June finale, so this activity might be a timely and constructive way to get their minds cooking.
Thanks, Jan!