Fun Ideas from Edufest

I worked most of Edufest, but I was able to sneak away for Dr. Susannah Richards nonfiction workshop.  (I've been thinking about her a lot this week since she lived in Storrs, CT.  Hoping her house and thousands of pounds of books are safe and dry.) She of course was FULL of great books and ideas.  Here are just a few I thought you might enjoy.  Let me know if you want to try one.  I'd love to support you and see the results.

1. Spine Poetry - This is about manipulating words and phrases.  You give a student or group of students a small stack of books.  They line them up spine out and move them around to make a spine poem.  It made me wonder what a poem created from my bookshelves would say.  :-)

2. The Quiet Book and The Loud Book by Deborah Underwood are simple picture books, but they hold such a great idea for writing poetry.  The book is organized through a child's day with illustrations and text like: Alarm clock loud, Last slurp loud, Dropping your lunch tray loud.  These would make great anchor texts for a poem or descriptive writing activity.

3.  Voki.com - This was new to me.  What a fun way to have kids share a book sell.  Check out the website for more information.

4.  Bibme.com - I also didn't know about this spot where you can create and save all kinds of bibliographies.  A new place for my book lists!  I've already started a list of books, recommended by kids who have accomplished a Classic Reader goal, that I can easily download and share with a child or parent since these books seem so elusive to younger kids trying for this goal.

5.  Reversible Poems - Never heard of a reversible poem?  Check this one out on Youtube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA Now check out the book Mirror, Mirror by M. Singer and J. Masse.  This picture book is full of poems bases on fairytale characters.  Also a great example of perspective.