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Archive for October 23rd, 2012

National Day of Writing

Posted in Poetry, Teaching, Writing, tagged , , on October 23, 2012| 5 Comments »

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October 20th has been dedicated by the National Council of Teachers of English as the National Day of Writing. This year, the date fell on a Saturday, so my students and I celebrated on Friday, Oct. 19th. One of my favorite writing activities evolved from a workshop originated by artist Paul Schexnayder entitled, “Dancing with a Paintbrush.” Paul’s idea was to free up creativity by playing different selections of wordless music and having students paint whatever colors, lines, and shapes that come to mind. I borrowed this idea and added a writing element.

Dancing with a paintbrush

I selected some musical pieces. There is no magic in the selections I made, but basically I was looking for pieces that evoked different emotions. The ones I used were “Silent Moon” by Jia Peng, “A Day Without Rain” by Enya, “Tarantelle Styrienne” by Debussy, and “The Girl I Left Behind,” a Celtic selection.

With watercolor paints and drawing paper, the students and I painted while the music played. Then at the end of each piece, I asked them to write 4 words and a title for their painting. After all selections were played and they had a collection of 3 paintings with words and titles, I asked them to select one to write about. Make the title of the painting your title and use the 4 words in some way within the poem. The results were all different and creative.

Focused and listening leads to creative expression.

Here are some sample poems from this exercise:

Beauty
it comes with amazing colors
of red,
green,
blue,
and even yellow too
All the colors
could be a rainbow
just waiting for you
for beauty is true
telling of mood,
majesty,
and imagery.
Pure beauty comes from heart,
The Rightful Beauty.

by Kendall, 5th grade


The Chinese Gates
I am a girl
I live In China
Every day I paint swirls
Ah,so beautiful
I paint the sun and water
I paint the moon and rivers
Even some Chinese words
I learn new paintings every day
And maybe some day you could visit me in China by the Chinese Gates.

by Emily, 2nd grade

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