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- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the author
- Reviews
Creative writing encourages imaginations to take flight, and when adults use the right approach, building literacy skills becomes a form of play that gets kids excited to create their own stories. Packed with ready-to-use lesson plans designed for kindergarten- and early elementary-aged children, this book will help librarians add creative writing activities to more traditional storytime initiatives and school librarians enrich English Language Arts lessons. Hurtado’s resource provides
- an entire year’s worth of weekly lesson plans, adaptable as needed, that include instructions, handouts, and everything needed to plan and prepare;
- recommended read-alouds for each lesson plan;
- ideas and activities scaffolded for different ability levels;
- tips for using humor and silliness to grab kids’ attention and keep them engaged;
- information on how creative writing dovetails with Common Core standards, emphasizing skills and critical thinking over rote learning; and
- additional quality read-aloud picture books that can be used as inspiration to create new lessons.
This book will serve as a handy lesson/program planning tool for any children’s or school librarian interested in exploring new ideas to teach creative writing and higher literacy.
Acknowledgments
Chapter One Writing in the Library: A Radical Idea
Chapter Two All You Need Is a Good TERRIBLE Idea
- Lesson 1 A Panda Parade Is a Terrible Idea
- Lesson 2 If You Ever Want to Bring a Shark to the Park, DON’T
- Lesson 3 Revising and Illustrating: Smartphones Are Definitely Not for Animals
- Lesson 4 Don’t Let the Alien Play in the Toilet!
- Lesson 5 Teach Your Zebra to Ride a Bike
Chapter Three Fractured Fairy Tales
- Lesson 6 The Very Old Bad Wolf
- Lesson 7 Fairy-Tale Characters on Vacation
- Lesson 8 Double Trouble
- Lesson 9 Trickster Tales
- Lesson 10 Small Actors Folktale Theater
Chapter Four: Animal Muses
- Lesson 11 If I Had a Dinosaur
- Lesson 12 How to Throw a Unicorn Party
- Lesson 13 My Puppy Brother
- Lesson 14 Take Your Poem for a Walk
- Lesson 15 Don’t Sweat the Snow Stuff: Self-Help for Stressed Penguins
- Lesson 16 Public Service Announcement: Beware the Giant Humans
- Lesson 17 Diary of a T. Rex
Chapter Five The Plot Thickens
- Lesson 18 Chickens Can’t Sing
- Lesson 19 Pirate Puppy
- Lesson 20 Maybe It’ll Work This Time
- Lesson 21 Every Hero Needs a Villain
- Lesson 22 Meanwhile
Chapter Six Playing with Words
- Lesson 23 Go on a Word Hunt
- Lesson 24 Insect Linguistics
- Lesson 25 How to Make a Bear Burrito
- Lesson 26 Riddle Me This
- Lesson 27 Silly Split-Panels
- Lesson 28 Scrambled Animals
- Lesson 29 Bring a New Animal to Dr. Seuss’s Zoo
Chapter Seven Advertising and Other Forms
- Lesson 30 Grand Opening for a Literary Diner
- Lesson 31 Write a Circus Poster for the Most Horrible Monster on Earth
- Lesson 32 Make a Menu for an Ice Cream Truck Shop
- Lesson 33 Make a Campaign Video for President Squid
- Lesson 34 Propaganda: The Truth about Flowers
- Lesson 35 What Will You Do with Your Idea?
- Lesson 36 Make Your Own Jar of Happiness
Chapter Eight Books to Feed the Young Author’s Spirit
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Bibliography
- Index
"Making a convincing case for including writing in children’s programing, this well-organized work covers all the necessary components to implement these lessons ... Highly recommended for public and school librarians, who will confidently be able to infuse writing into children’s programs.”
— School Library Journal