Write a Sentence or a Story

 

Flash Fiction
 ©️ Linnea Heaney

Great Adventures Begin in Books

Books throughout time have been the first versions of great adventure stories that are told again and again in movies, on television, and in plays. Characters we all know began on a printed page. Think about your favorite characters or stories. Have you read the book, or all the books in the series? A visit to the library or bookstore may surprise you with more stories to read about your favorite characters.

Examples of Great, Grand Adventure Stories in Books:

HARRY POTTER BOOKS (7)
WIZARD OF OZ BOOKS (14)
WRINKLE IN TIME BOOKS (5 & at least 4 more with related characters)
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA BOOKS (7)
ALICE IN WONDERLAND BOOKS (2)
LORD OF THE RING BOOKS (3 & THE HOBBIT)

Other Great Adventures:

REDWALL SERIES (22)
TOM’S MIDNIGHT GARDEN
BRIAN’S SAGA (5, beginning with HATCHET)
WALK TWO MOONS & THE WANDERER

Test of Time Adventures:

NANCY DREW (56 to 175 & other series with same characters)
TRIXIE BELDON (39)
BOXCAR CHILDREN BOOKS (19 to 149 & other series with same characters)

List your favorite adventures from new books. Examples might include:

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS BOOKS (13)


Resources for Finding Books to Read:

COOPERATIVE CHILDREN’S BOOK COUNCIL

A MIGHTY GIRL

Find Your Park

2016 is a year of celebration in our over 400 national park units. The National Park Service is 100 years old. The NPS takes care of these special places. Some are nature wonderlands and others are about our country's heritage. All tell a story. Fourth graders can visit all of the NPS unit parks free, see Every Kid in a Park. Find your park, whether national, state, or city and tell your own story!

Every Kid in a Park

National Park Service Centennial

Find Your Park

National Park Maps

Canyon Mapping

This is a simple map drawing, which does not show the many trail switchbacks.

Some of the best trails to take for an extremely active adventure are the trails in Grand Canyon National Park. Our pencil journey this month takes us there.

Pencil Journey

Locate a map, picture, or virtual trail (see June 2015) of the Grand Canyon, and imagine the trail adventure you want. Sketch the trail on a big sheet of paper. Draw pictures along the way of things you will see/do and need to take along. Remember the trail goes down a long way, about ten miles. And then, you have to hike back out. Read IN THE CANYON for inspiration.

General information:

Grand Canyon National Park

New book about a Grand Canyon trail adventure:

IN THE CANYON, story by Liz Garton Scanlon, pictures by Ashley Wolff (Beach Lane Books, 2015).

Roll a Book

Many years ago, I took an art class taught by Jacques Rupp, best known as a layout artist for Walt Disney's LADY AND THE TRAMP. This You Tube clip allows us to hear about the "perfect recipe" found in making Disney’s DUMBO. The drawing lessons I learned from Mr. Rupp are always with me.

THE MAKING OF DUMBO

 

Pencil Journey

Cut a strip of paper. Draw a story in a few cartoon squares (frames) on the paper with your own story and characters. Make sure to add a few words with your cartoon drawings. Roll it up, like in this DUMBO You Tube clip, and you have a “Roll a Book.” For a quick design, glue a pencil at the beginning of the rolled paper and another pencil at the end. These fun stories are for you enjoy and share.

 

Live Your Life as Light

October 2 is International Day of Nonviolence, in honor of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. He was born on this day in 1869 in India. Gandhi went to school in London, UK. His legacy is of a leader using nonviolent civil disobedience to create change. 

GRANDFATHER GANDHI is a new picture book for all ages of readers to understand how to live one’s life as light. The book’s website includes the Live Your Life as Light Pledge, activities to help one understand feelings of anger, and a short video. 

The Anger Journal suggestions were written by Gandhi’s grandson, Arun Gandhi. Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus wrote this new book for new generations of people to understand how change can be nonviolent. The book shows how to use anger in a positive way.

 

GRANDFATHER GANDHI's Live Your Life as Light

GRANDFATHER GANDHI by Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus, pictures by Evan Turk (Simon & Schuster, 2014).

Authors at Texas Book Festival copyright Linnea Heaney 2014

 

Pencil Journey

Visit GRANDFATHER GANDHI's website and follow the steps to write about when you had feelings of anger. How could you use your anger in a good way? Take the pledge with your family and/or classroom.

The Caldecott Medal

CR Questions:

1. Who was The Caldecott Medal named after?

            A. Miss Potter

            B. Miss Greenaway

            C. Mr. Caldecott 

2. What is on The Caldecott Medal?

A.   A galloping horse

B.    Hunting dogs

C.    A crouching cat

 

Answers:

1.     The correct answer is Mr. Caldecott. After reading about Mr. Caldecott, try to find out what Miss Potter and Miss Greenaway did.

2.    The correct answer is a galloping horse from The Diverting History of John Gilpin, published in 1878. After reading more, how did Mr. Caldecott learn to draw a galloping horse?

Read all about Mr. Caldecott:

RANDOLPH CALDECOTT: THE MAN WHO COULD NOT STOP DRAWING by Leonard S. Marcus with drawings by Randolph Caldecott (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2013). 

The Caldecott Medal book for 2014:

LOCOMOTIVE by Brian Floca (Atheneum Books, 2013).

Pencil Journey: It's time to find color pencils and start drawing!

 

Words Found

Caro and Rust looked in Nanna’s trash to find words for list poems—homework done!

 

Nanna’s Grocery Receipt

By Rust 

Blueberries,

Raspberries,

Pineapple juice,

Sweet cherries,

Strawberries,

Cranberries,

Cane sugar,

Crinkle cut carrots,

Red bell peppers,

Green peas petite,

String cheese,

Garlic,

Sliced zucchini,

Sauerkraut,

1000 sheets bath,

Toothpaste.

 

Jump Up Seeds

By Caro 

Seeds guaranteed

To grow,

Partial sun,

Warm soil,

Johnny Jump Ups

Or

Tricolor violas

Jump up

In gardens

Everywhere!

 

Pencil Journey

Write a list poem from words you find.
 

 

April is Poetry Month

HANGING UP WORDS

by Linnea Heaney
 

A poem is

words on lines—

turned inside

out, dry and short.

 

Pencil Journey

Draw/write a few lines of words that turn around in a funny way.

 

CLOUD KEY

How Do We Get There?
copyright 2008 Linnea Heaney

Click label on each post to see archive.


Around the Home: activities for fun 

Book Questions: interesting questions

Book Journey: books to read 

Linnea's Stories: about Linnea’s stories

Pencil Journey: art and writing activities 

Picture Book Shelf: picture books to read aloud 

Road Journey: on the road ideas 

Trail Journey: on the trail ideas


Linnea's Website 

http://www.linneaheaney.com/

Linnea's Illuminated Notes 

https://linneaheaney.blogspot.com/

Linnea's Illustrated Stories 

https://writerlinnea.blogspot.com/

It’s Picture Book Month!

It’s Picture Book Month!

http://picturebookmonth.com/

A unique book is A VISIT TO WILLIAM BLAKE’S INN. This book is a Caldecott Honor book and a Newbery Medal book. It is an imaginative tale about William Blake who wrote poetry and illuminated books a long time ago. 

A VISIT TO WILLIAM BLAKE’S INN, story by Nancy Willard, pictures by Alice and Martin Provensen (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981).

 

Pencil Journey

Illuminate a poem that you find or write yourself.

Page Turned: Sendak

Artist and writer Maurice Sendak died this year. His art and papers are in the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There are always some of his pictures and books on exhibit at the museum for people on a road journey to see. 

Here is a short list of his books to find at a library or bookstore:

THE SIGN ON ROSIE’S DOOR, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1960). 

NUTSHELL LIBRARY, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1962). 

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1963). 

HIGGLETY PIGGLETY POP! OR THERE MUST BE MORE TO LIFE, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1967). 

IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1970). 

SOME SWELL PUP OR ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT A DOG? story by Maurice Sendak and Matthew Margolis, pictures by Maurice Sendak (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1976).

 

Pencil Journey

Read the book, The Sign on Rosie’s Door. Find markers or crayons. And construction paper plus string and tape. Make a sign for a door using words and drawings. When friends come over, dress-up and put together a musical show. Invite an audience to enter the door with the sign to see the musical show. 

Where did the raggedy boy go?

Out of the box,

it's the raggedy boy . . .

 

coming home . . .

after so long,

but where was he . . .

and what happened?

Pencil Journey

Grab a pencil and write or draw his story.

Copyright 2012 Linnea Heaney