There's Nothing Like Buried Treasure

Preschool children: 

Buried treasure:  Print this picture for your child to color and discuss with you.  One sentence lets you record your child’s thoughts at this age and has a line for you to share your own thoughts with your child.

School agers: 

There’s nothing like digging something up!  Print this page and use it to write a story about something you have buried, treasure you would like to hunt, or something you would like to mine.

Teens/Adults:

Essay prompt:  We mine the depths of the earth to retrieve diamonds—treasures formed by heat and pressure.  What types of treasure are built in your own character through adverse conditions?

Poetry prompt:  Using the ideas that structures are necessary for safe mining, write an OULIPO, or mathematically-structured poem.  Common OULIPOs would include poems whose lines are successively longer (The first line is one word long, the next two, the next three, etc.) or shorter (like the previous example in reverse).

Lifestory prompt 1:  (Monday) There’s nothing like digging.  Tell a story about something you literally buried or dug up.

 
If you would like (and if it is okay with your parent or guardian), you can sign a submission form and return the form and your writing to the library.  Stories will be posted together on this blog beginning in November and in a book in the spring of 2014.

There's Nothing Like an Earthworm 2

Bonus Friday Prompt:

There’s nothing like good bait.  We all know that the early bird catches the worm, but a plump worm can catch us a big fish!  Tell a story of a real or metaphorical tidbit that helped you catch the fish you were after.

If you would like (and if it is okay with your parent or guardian), you can sign a submission form and return the form and your writing to the library.  Stories will be posted together on this blog beginning in November and in a book in the spring of 2014. 

 

There's Nothing Like an Earthworm

Preschool children: 

Worms:  Print this picture for your child to color and discuss with you.  One sentence lets you record your child’s thoughts at this age and has a line for you to share your own thoughts with your child.

School agers: 

There’s nothing like worms.  Print this page and use it to write a story describing worms.  Where have you seen them?  How do they feel?  How do they smell?

Teens/Adults:

Essay prompt:  The humble worm is often looked down on (consider the phrase “lowly as a worm”), yet much of our life would be impossible without its role in aerating the soil and helping to decompose waste.  Give an example of a humble, routine activity that you perform in your daily life that enables you to do great things.

Poetry prompt:  Write a snaking tanka (a 31-syllable Japanese poetic which examines an image and then—like the second half of the worm—turns to examine the speaker’s response to the image) to examine your thoughts on a worm or snake.  Examples of tankas may be found at http://www.tankasociety.com/.

Lifestory prompt 1:  (Monday) There’s nothing like the smell of worms.  Living in rainy Western Pennsylvania, there’s no way to avoid the worms on the sidewalk after the rain.  What is your response to them?

If you would like (and if it is okay with your parent or guardian), you can sign a submission form and return the form and your writing to the library.  Stories will be posted together on this blog beginning in November and in a book in the spring of 2014. 

There's Nothing Like a Tunnel 2

Bonus Friday Prompt:

There’s nothing like a little lie.  Tell a story about a white lie you told to tunnel your way around something (or that was told to you in order that someone else could get around you).

If you would like (and if it is okay with your parent or guardian), you can sign a submission form and return the form and your writing to the library.  Stories will be posted together on this blog beginning in November and in a book in the spring of 2014. 

 

There's Nothing Like a Tunnel

Preschool children: 

Tunnels:  Print this picture for your child to color and discuss with you.  One sentence lets you record your child’s thoughts at this age and has a line for you to share your own thoughts with your child.

School agers: 

There’s nothing like a tunnel!  Print this page and use it to write a story about a tunnel you’ve been through.  It could be one you drove through in a car, a tunnel that you saw dug by a mole, or even a tunnel you made under the covers of your bed.

Teens/Adults:

Essay prompt:  Sometimes you need to dig in order to move forward.  Tell about a time that you had to tunnel for information.  Was it worth it?

Poetry prompt:  Use visual poetry to give the effect of moving under and over.

Lifestory prompt 1:  (Monday) There’s nothing like the tunnels.  Come on, guys.  We’re from Pittsburgh.  Give me a tunnel story here—from traffic to construction to simply heading over the wrong bridge and through the wrong tunnels, you must have a story!

If you would like (and if it is okay with your parent or guardian), you can sign a submission form and return the form and your writing to the library.  Stories will be posted together on this blog beginning in November and in a book in the spring of 2014.