Poetry Challenge #193-Happy Paper Airplane Day!
When was the last time you flew? Probably since the first soaring bird-spotting, people have been trying to fly, by fashioning wax-coated wings and turning themselves into birds and building ginormous $23 million dollar quackers like the “Spruce Goose” a troop carrier with a wingspan of 320 feet—longer than a football field—made of wood laminated with plastic and covered in fabric and designed to carry more than 700 soldiers, or in its purest form with a single sheet of paper with imagination folded in!
Poetry Challenge #193
Happy Paper Airplane Day!
Because someone needed a reason, today, May 26th, is National Paper Airplane Day. A day during which we are, each of us, honor-bound to create a paper airplane. Let’s do it!
For this prompt, shove devices aside and take up a sheet of paper. Imagine yourself folding that paper into an airplane—resist the urge to make one (for now). When its finished imagine yourself climbing aboard and soaring away!
What’s your destination? Who’s with you? What’s it feel like to fly?
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Ready! Set! Write!
When your finished, fold your poem into a paper airplane and send it into the world! Double-Dog Dare YOU!
If you need a paper airplane refresher, click on the image for step-by-steps to create the BAT X.3
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Ask Norman T Goldfish: What's Are the Good Parts and Bad Parts?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Hey Kids! Check out Nora’s picture? See that Octopus rocking out on the guitar, flute & xylophone all at the same time! That makes us think of a joke:
Q: What do you call a musical octopus?
A: An orchestra!
Q: What did the squid say to the octopus who practiced toooo tooo toooo much?
A: Be quiet so I can ink.
Q: What do you think Norman will say are the good and bad parts of being a fish?
A: Scroll down to see Norman’s answer…
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter!
Poetry Challenge #192-Mix-Blend-Whirrrr-Slurp!
It’s National Juice Slushie Day! Yes, it really is a thing, celebrated annually on the 3rd Wednesday in May (May 18, 2021). And why not?
What do you get if you put juice and ice in a blender? A Slushie! Orange, cranberry, grape, lemon, lime, the list is open to anything you want to add. Or you could mix them up and see what you get. According to the National Day Calendar, slushies have been around as long as snow!
I hear McDonald’s has teamed up with Minute Maid to introduce a watermelon/strawberry slushie this summer. Can you say Brain Freeze?!!!
Poetry Challenge #`192
Mix-Blend-Whirrrr-Slurp!
Pick two (or three if you dare. Come on! You dare!) poems that are close to the same length. Either your own or other poet(s) poems. Now add them to the poem blender, one line at a time from each.
Read over your new poem.
Add more words (berries) if necessary to make the meaning clear. Cut words that are unnecessary. Turn on the blender and shift lines to make it even better.
Then read and enjoy your Poem Slushie aloud!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Ask Norman T Goldfish: How Can You Write Back?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Hey Kids! Pretty good question eh? Those Kinders at Gainsfield Elementary are super sharp!
Scroll down to see Norman’s answer…
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
Say kids, since you can write, we found a fintastic Fishing for Letters game on First Palette. Give it a try!
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter! Click Here for Details!
Poetry Challenge #191--Sunglasses Mandatory
Audrey Hepburn made shades chic,
Tom Cruise’s Top Gun Ray Bans made them cool,
Grandboy Bennett made them cooler . . .
Tracy Ulman’s cover of the Sunglasses Song made them camp…
Sunglasses/ooh-ooh/to hide behind
Sunglasses/ ooh-ooh /to cry behind
Sunglasses/ ooh-ooh/ die behind
Twelfth Century inventors made sunglasses of smoked glass expressly for Chinese judges to wear so no one could see where they were looking or what they were thinking.
Poetry Challenge #191
Sunglasses Mandatory
Who’s that behind those Foster Grants? asked the iconic ad campaign. Who indeed? Sunglasses—polarized, mirrored, UV protected, rose-tinted—protect us from the harsh glare of the sun, reality…and so much more.
For this prompt write a sunglasses poem riffing off the 1984 Corey Hart hit in which he sang that he wore his
sunglass as night so I can/so I can. . .
Why? When? Where do you wear those sunglasses? What can you do with them on? What happens when you take them off?
For extra credit, write one line with sunglasses on, the next with glasses off, glasses on, glasses off.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Dylan in shades, just for laughs!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Ask Norman T Goldfish: What's Your Favorite Color & Game?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Hey Kids! Can you imagine yourself a goldfish? What would you say is the best thing about being a fish? Is there any not-so-great thing about being a fish?
Scroll down to see Norman’s answer…
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
Say kids, if you’ve read Norman One Amazing Goldfish, then you know that along with playing “School” & “Ring Around the Diver” Norman does lots of tricks. Those tricks are not make-believe, they are tricks humans—like you—can teach your goldfish to do. Here’s a step-by-step instruction for teaching goldfish to eat from your hand, swim through hoops and more from wikihow.com: How To Train Goldfish.
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter!
Poetry Challenge #190-Lift Off!
It’s National Astronaut Day! Why May 5th? On this day in 1961, “Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. became the first American in space aboard the Freedom 7 Space Capsule. Shepard’s “brief suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere,” came in the wake of Cosmonaut Yuri Gargain’s flight orbiting Earth (April 12, 1961). Less than three-weeks later, on May 25th, Pres. JF Kennedy challenged the US to send a man to the moon. The Space Race was on!
Eight years later on July 20th of 1969, only 12 years after Sputnik blasted off, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. And now, more than 50 years later, only 10 other men, from 3 countries, have been to the moon. 65 Women have been sent to space, and we’ve set our sights on Mars…or beyond! The only limits are our imaginations!
At least 10 Astronauts, 2 Cosmonauts & current candidates attended Space Camp as kids. Here’s more!
Poetry Challenge #190
Lift Off!
Imagine yourself an astronaut. With current technology it’s estimated that a trip to Mars would take between 5 and 8 months. What would you do? Think? Feel mid-flight? When you peered out the windows, would you look back? Or forward?
As there’s no gravity in space, it seems fitting to write in free verse. Free Verse poetry does not follow a set rhythm or rhyme scheme, but it does employ literary devices.
Prepare for Lift off!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
3-2-1-BLAST OFF!
National Astronaut Day Playlist:
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Ask Norman T Goldfish: What Do You Like to Eat?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Hey Kids! What do you think Norman likes to eat? If you think he’ll say “worms” guess again! Scroll down to see Norman’s answer…
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
Say kids, when it comes to greens, one of the best foods for your goldfish is duckweed. And you might be able to grow some yourselves. Here’s how from Aquarist Courses!
Here’s a list of the Top Five Foods for Goldfish!
