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A Morning of Cinquain Poems

How to Write Cinquain Poems

Dear Julie,

This morning we had a wonderful time writing cinquain poems.* I thought I’d share some of our’ poems with you so you can see first hand what you’re inspiring.

By Fallon (10 yrs):

Sloane
Cute, cuddly
Running, hugging, kissing
I love Sloane
Sister

Dragons
Big, friendly
Flying, eating, sleeping
He burns my hand
Friends

Describing her drawing of a robot couple!

Robot
Metal, electric
Loving, scanning, talking
He loves his wife
Husband

By Eamonn (8 yrs):

Sword
Thin, diamond
Slicing, dicing, ricing
My sword is my hoard
Dagger

By Mama:

Mountains
Majestic, miraculous
Moving, morphing, mourning
Marking many millennia
Monumental

Thanks for all the work you do to inspire and cheer us all on. We appreciate it so much!

Warmly,
Melanie

*How to Write a Cinquain Poem

A cinquain is a five-lined poem and can be written various ways (some cinquains use different numbers of syllables for each line). For young writers and beginners we recommend:

  1. One word (a noun, the subject of the poem)
  2. Two words (adjectives that describe the subject in line 1)
  3. Three words (-ing action verbs (participles) that relate to the subject in line 1)
  4. Four words (a phrase or sentence that relates feelings about the subject in line 1)
  5. One word (a synonym for the subject in line 1 or a word that sums it up)
Poetry Teatime

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Professor Lena’s Guide to Modern Celery

Celery fight!

Julie, I have been using your…writing activities in my school and the kids loved the drawing activity. Last week we did the senses activity using celery and I was surprised by the change in my 12 year old’s descriptions and her excitement to get started. She got her creative juices flowing and really stopped listening to the instruction but I consider what she wrote a success because she was engaged and interested. She was so proud of herself that she asked me to share it with you after typing it up herself. So here it is. Thank you.

Professor Lena’s Guide to Modern Celery

By Lena Kerley

I am studying celery, and someone else might say green, but I say it looks like layers of white with thin layers of sheer green leaf piled neatly together. On the inside it is bowled up like an Indians canoe, and paler than the outside where the sun reaches. On that side (the outside) the celery has small ridges that go down the stalk long ways. The leaves look like cilantro leaves, the way they appear old and wrinkled but also fresh and new. The smell is not my favorite, it reminds me of freshly cut grass and sweat. Currently beside me my seven year old brother is dissecting celery and showing some of the more hidden features, like if you cut the whole bunch at the base you will see a yellow flowery like piece. That is actually the leaves that have not yet emerged into view. He also describes the celery as feeling like a rubber hose. I have tried celery and don’t like the flavor so to learn about how celery tastes read Katie Kerley’s The Celery on the Table (not published) or Celery Puzzle by Pam Kerley (not published). I am honored that you (the reader) have made it to this sentence.

P.S. Celery is a good tool for annoying big sisters. (I am writing that as a big sister).

Growing Brave Writers

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Capitals, periods, and commas, oh my!

punctuation_capitalization

 

Hello Julie.
Any way to get my 11 y.o. to remember capitals and periods? He can remember when we do dictation (because that and neatness are my main emphasis with dictation) but when he is doing his own writing he can’t seem to remember, and when I ask him to go back over his writing he gets stressed. Oddly enough he sometimes throws commas in, often in the right place; and will sometimes use commas where there should be a period. Any ideas?

I love all the writing tips and I have learned from you not to nit-pick when he does his own free writing–right now he is into writing music reviews!

~Holly

—–

Hi Holly.

Maybe take the pressure off and tell him you know he knows how to use them because he does them well in dictation. Tell him that you won’t notice whether he remembers them in original writing for the next 4 months. He can think about for himself how to remember but you won’t ask him or correct him. You’ll just leave things be for a semester or so and then you can meet back up and look at all his work from that time and see if there was any improvement or not and if he found any way to help remind himself in that time.

If he wants some ideas for how to remind himself, you can tell him a couple of these to consider:

  1. Keep a notecard of “stuff to remember” for him to look at ahead of writing so it will be uppermost in his mind when he starts.
  2. He can get someone else to correct his work (not him, since that stresses him out) for him until he remembers on his own.
  3. He can wait a week or more to make the corrections so he isn’t faced with them too quickly.
  4. He can use his own original writing as copywork/dictation later in the week/month to practice with.

But only offer these suggestions if he wants them. Don’t help him decide.

I promise, his understanding is there and that knowledge will transfer. Try not to worry about it. He’s only 11.  🙂

Julie

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