Category: children’s writers
Emoji Story Starter September 10
Use these for a little boost to your story writing toolbox.
Writing Warmup for July 28–Alien eggs
I could give you a prompt here,
but I think the photo does enough
to get your imagination going…
Feel free to download more prompts from here.
Happy writing!
A fun writing prompt tool
From byrdseed.com called Emoji Prompts.
The site starts a visitor with an emoji. As I’m writing this, the opening emoji is a beaming face with hearts as eyes.
Ideally, the visitor writes or speaks the beginning of a story based on that emoji.
With a click of the ‘AND THEN’ button, another emoji pops up [in this case, a face with a disapproving tongue-sticking-out expression] and the ad libbed story continues…
Check out the short demo.
Free Packet of 50 Writing Prompts
Hoping you get a few useful, fun ideas.
Enjoy!
More story starters for writers–May 4
It was as if the artist had read my mind…
Little did the neighbors suspect it would soon come to life…
Buddy had big plans for an appetizer before dinner…
The Next Page Entry 38: iPads? Really?
iPad distribution day…
I gave out index cards [I now have controlling interest in the Dollar Tree simply based on my unlimited purchases of index cards.]
I had them write their name on the card.
Pretty straightforward.
And I called out seven names.
And I asked them to stand up.
And I didn’t say anything…kind of fun to have them puzzle over whether they were caught snacking during read aloud or cutting in the cafeteria line or slipping an overdue book under the library door.
And then they started crossing their arms [Well, Beth Carson did. No surprise there. And no surprise that her name was chosen—I think she rigged my own deck of name cards—I don’t know how she would do it, or, not knowing my reason for calling names—why she would do it, but hey, that’s Beth! And that’s me…being paranoid.]
Anyway, I picked up the box of iPads and gave one to each of the students standing.
I gave them a handout with the following info:
“You are the iPad team captains for the next week. You will receive a list of your team members in the next five minutes. In the meantime, come up with a list of ways you and your team might use the iPad for the purpose of learning or for creating something.”
After that five minutes, the new teams met for five more minutes of brainstorming other ways to use the iPad.
I can tell you this…we’re going to get a lot of footage of our field trip to Buy Mart.
More story starters for writers
The visitor’s arrival was minutes away…
He was seconds from revealing the secret…
Beth decided weightlessness *was* possible…
The Next Page Entry 37: Message from unknown sender
Got this in my mailbox a day after my traffic cop performance in the parking lot.
I prefer to think it’s from a friend…
The Next PageYet Another Chat with Mrs. Nix
Mrs. Nix: So you’ve been busy.
Joanna Page: We’ve all been busy, right? Kind of comes with the job.
Mrs. Nix: Even after school.
Joanna Page: Yeah, I’ve met with a few kids about photography.
Mrs. Nix: In the parking lot.
Joanna Page: Oh, that.
Mrs. Nix: What got into you?
Joanna Page: I’d just seen one too many close calls and I just kind of snapped.
Mrs. Nix: Any way you could have handled it differently?
Joanna Page: You, and probably the parents, wouldn’t have appreciated my other ideas.
Mrs. Nix: Which were?
Joanna Page: Let’s just go with ‘more extreme’ and leave it at that.
Mrs. Nix: So, are you done with your little venture into law enforcement?
Joanna Page: Yes.
Mrs. Nix: So on to other things…how’s the instructional schedule going in your room?
Joanna Page: From my viewpoint, it’s going fine.
Mrs. Nix: What exactly is your viewpoint?
Joanna Page: I would think we are meeting instructional minute expectations.
Mrs. Nix: You would think?
Joanna Page: I don’t watch them too closely, but I feel there is plenty of learning and skill practice going on and throw in a little creative and divergent thinking.
Mrs. Nix: That all sounds nice, but is it fitting in with the Common Core?
Joanna Page: Well, I haven’t exactly checked it word-for-word, but I think there is a standard or two that applies.
Mrs. Nix: How about posting your daily learning targets?
Joanna Page: Not exactly every day.
Mrs. Nix: Hardly ever, from what I can see. Remember that term we talked about as a staff–‘laser-focused’?
Joanna Page: Okay, I guess I could use a little work on that…
Mrs. Nix: Do you even want to be at this school?
Joanna Page: Whoa! Where did that come from?
Mrs. Nix: Well…
Joanna Page: No need to answer that. But yes, I love my kids and so, yes, I want to be here.
Mrs. Nix: There seem to be more times than not that you seem to be paving your own way.
Joanna Page: Which means?
Mrs. Nix: You’re hardly following our routines.
Joanna Page: Routines…
Mrs. Nix: I have another meeting, but think about my concerns and check in with Mrs. O’ Brien to schedule a short meeting for tomorrow.
Joanna Page: It will have to be after school. We have a field trip to Safeway tomorrow.
Mrs. Nix: Safeway…
Joanna Page: Yep, a little ‘math and writing in the real world’ activity. You should come.
Mrs. Nix: Thanks, but I’ll stay where I belong.
Joanna Page: Okay…anything I can pick up for you at Safeway?
Ed Notions 