Junior Writers: Imagination and Setting

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Second week of Junior Writers and we’re talking about setting.

Warm Up

Setting has three different components: place, time, and environment. I brought out the easel again and we brainstormed examples of place, time, and environment. Some examples include:

Place: castle, city, town, province, country, farm, coffee shop

Time: Afternoon, evening, daylight, nighttime, past, colonial times, future

Environment: darkness, lightness, hot, cold, temperature, sunny, rainy

Sharing Activity

Using discarded magazines, I cut out pictures that could be used as a setting. The children then chose a picture, glued it on a piece of paper and then wrote what the place, time, and environment of their setting. This allowed the children to start using their imaginations and write.

Writing Activity

In their notebooks, the kids were asked to draw a picture of their favourite place. This could have been somewhere they liked to go, or a place that they have never been, but loved to visit.

After, they were asked to describe the place in words by using the picture to help them.

I try to do the activities with the kids. This was my interpretation of the activity.

Draw and Write: Your favourite place

Draw and Write: Your favourite place

 

 

Storytime – Fall

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New additions to my storytime songs for Fall!

The Leaves on the Trees (The Wheels on the Bus)

The Leaves on the trees are yellow and brown,
Yellow and brown, yellow and brown.
The leaves on the trees are yellow and brown,
All through the town.

The leaves on the trees are falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
The leaves on the trees are falling down,
All through the town.

The leaves on the trees make a crunching sound,
Crunching sound, crunching sound.
The leaves on the trees make a crunching sound
All through the town.

The children in the town jump up and down,
Up and down, up and down.
The children in the town jump up and down
On the leaves on the ground.

The Leaves on the Ground (Tune: London Bridges Falling Down)

All the leaves are falling down,
Falling down, falling down
All the leaves are falling down, it is fall.

Take the rake and rake them up,
Rake them up, rake them up
Take the rake and rake them up, it is fall.

Make a pile and jump right in
Jump right in, jump right in
Make a pile and jump right in, it is fall.

Storytime – Monkeys

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I run a weekly storytime called “Circle Time” for children between the ages of 0-5. When I plan my storytimes, I plan for toddlers, and have extra rhymes for kids younger and extra “wiggles” songs for the older. This week, I focused my storytime on “Monkeys.”

I introduced the concept of “monkeys” to the kids by asking them what sound a monkey makes. I told them that monkeys have long arms and swing from branch to branch.

Books

Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett
Five Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed by Eileen Christelow
Two Little Monkeys by Mem Fox

Songs

Welcome Song

We Clap and Sing Hello

We clap and sing hello,
We clap and sing hello,
With our friends here at circle time,
We clap and sing hello.

We stomp and sing hello…
We wave and sing hello…

Come Along and Sing With Me (Tune: Farmer in the Dell)

Come along and sing with me,
Sing with me, sing with me,
Come along and sing with me,
Please be my friend.

Come along and clap with me..
Come along and snap with me…
Come along and roll with me…
Come along and snap with me..

Warm Up

Finger on Your Nose

Put your finger on your nose, on your nose,
Put your finger on your nose, on your nose,
Put your finger on you nose, on your nose, on your nose
Put your finger on your nose, on your nose.

Put your finger on your toes…
Put your finger on your ears…
Put your finger on your head…

Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands (Tune: Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Clap, clap, clap your hands
Clap them just like me
Clap them high, clap them low
Clap them just like me

Roll, roll, roll your arms…
Tap, tap, tap your toes..
Stretch, stretch, stretch your arms…

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around
Teddy bear, teddy bear touch the ground.

Teddy bear, teddy bear reach up high
Teddy bear, teddy bear touch the sky.

Teddy bear, teddy bear find your nose
Teddy bear, teddy bear touch your toes.

Teddy bear, teddy bear touch your knees,
Teddy bear, teddy bear sit down please.

Getting the Wiggles Out

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said,
“No more monkeys jumping on the bed!”

Repeat: four, three, two one
Finish: Put those monkeys back to bed

 

Goodbye Songs

 The More We Get Together

 The more we get together, together, together
The more we get together the happier we’ll be
‘Cause your friends are my friends
And my friends are your friends
The more we get together the happier we’ll be

 We Wave Goodbye Like This
We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands for all our friends
We clap our hands like this

We stomp our feet like this…
We wave goodbye like this…

Junior Writers – Imagination and Characters

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The Junior Writers program kicked off on September 10th and I couldn’t be more pleased with the program thus far. My library promoted this program for their “Back to School” lineup.

If you’re going to run this program – MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE YOUR SELF PLENTY OF TIME. The exercises took me FOREVER to come up with. With our busy, busy, busy summer – I found myself working a lot from home to get the booklet completed. Each person who attends the Junior Writers program gets a booklet and an activity guide

Program Outline

Introductions: I made the kids go around in a circle and tell me what they like most about writing. This was a great ice breaker – but the kids were SO SHY.

Lesson: I took out the giant easel pad. I asked the question: “What do you need to write a story?”  I gave the kids markers and away they went. Some of their responses were as follows:

  • Imagination
  • Plot
  • Events
  • Illustrations
  • Characters

Group Activity – Character Development

Their first task as a Junior Writer was to imagine a character who lives far, far, far away. I asked them to fill out some information about the character. What is your character’s name? Where does your character live? How old are they? How did you meet them? Is there anything else we need to know about your character?

After everyone completed the task, I asked them to describe their character in a group.

Writing Activity – A New Pen Pal

Their solo writing activity was to write a letter to their character!

HELP! Fiction vs Non-Fiction

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School is back, and so are class visits. We are book solid for class visits until December. This week, we had a grade 3 class come in for a read-a-loud and a information literacy session.

Some kids knew the difference between fiction and non-fiction, but some still struggled with the concept.  I got this idea from Pinterest (I’m sorry! I forgot where!).

It is really simple to make and doesn’t take long. Give it a try!

Put this up in your library so that the kids know the difference between fiction and non-fiction

Put this up in your library so that the kids know the difference between fiction and non-fiction