Magic is messy—and so is making brooms

We read—and discussed Spell Sweeper—in my creative writing workshop with tweens and teens this weekend, so a natural activity was to imagine our own magical brooms and write about them.

Check out these amazing creations!

As you can see, there is a lot of “hair-cutting” that occurs to get the brooms to the desired length and shape. By the end, it looked like wow had experienced an ill-advised encounter with Rapunzel!

This is a pretty simple activity that involves basic supplies: sticks for handles, twine for the straw, some black thread, and white glue (paint optional). For full instructions, check out the Teacher Resource Guide that is available on my website.

I can’t wait to read the stories that accompany these brooms!

As for the book discussion itself, well I really work hard on my students to be honest in their appraisals of books. It’s especially hard to do when the creator is standing in front of you, so in previous years I never led lit circles on my own books for that reason. But then I decided that it’s a better idea that they read their instructor’s work, so now we tackle it as best we can. We rate our books out of ten, and I’m happy to report that my book received an average score of 8.15/10. (Actually, I’m extremely happy with that because it proves that they were indeed honest).

I will mention that Zuki, the magical fox creature (kitsune) was by far the favourite character.

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Activities for kids: Thinking INSIDE the box

I’m posting my latest activity for all of us kids big and small stuck at home and trying to remain creative! I call this activity Thinking INSIDE the box.

I started delivering this activity to kids in my creative writing workshops after the publication of Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers, one of my most popular books. In that book, a young Een goes in search of a mystical container that holds something all-too precious to her societ

There are many wonderful myths and stories of enchanted vessels. One’s that pop to mind are Pandora’s box, Urashima Tarō’s box, and Aladdin’s lamp all come to mind, and can help provide extra inspiration to the young creators in your house.

What you will need:

• Paper
• Drawing supplies
• The handouts (below)

Bonus:

• Any kind of wooden are cardboard box
• Paint and brushes

There are a few different ways to approach this activity. For younger kids, I like to use this very simple handout, which allows them to take a pre-drawn box and simply concentrate on the design, patterns, and colors.

Here are a few examples of student projects:

 

For older students, I prefer this brainstorming sheet, which allows them to freeform doodles shapes and designs for boxes, and also prompts them to consider more deeply some of the story-telling aspects of their box.

Here are some examples of past boxes designed

Maker-space opportunities

If you have craft containers knocking about your house, wooden or even cardboard, then you can turn your box design into a three-dimensional model. The fun part of this, of course, is that you can FILL the magical container with items!

In my time as a creativity teacher, my students have made quite a few boxes . . .

And here is my model of a box . . . the Box of Whispers. It is pretty big and not only served as a great prop for when I was touring this book, but also as storage for same said books!

Writing prompt

In terms of writing, this project provides the platform for an epic tale—I’ve had many students take this prompt and dive into the telling of a character in search of a mythical box (perhaps after it has been stolen)!

However, I always tell teachers that a good bite-sized project is to have students write the single scene in which a character first discovers the box. This avoids students having to dwell or worry about what I call “plot paralysis”—becoming so consumed with a plot that they forget to think about character development and description. By removing overall story plot as a factor to consider, students can just focus on a character in the magical moment of discovery.

(Also, I’m just a little exhausted of trying to convince my students that they don’t have to start a story with the long boring sequence of invents that involves their characters waking up in the morning to the sun shining through the window, brushing their teeth, running downstairs to eat breakfast, running to the bus, running to school, running home after school . . . and THEN they actually something important to the plot starts! If you’re a teacher, you KNOW what I’m talking about!)

Have fun with this project. Stay safe, stay well, and stay tuned . . .

Activities for kids: Who is this mouse?

I’m posting my latest activity for all of us kids big and small stuck at home and trying to remain creative! I call this activity costume makes the character! Simply print out the handout below and imagine what this little mouse does in its life. Then decorate it accordingly!

Is it a knight?

A princess?

A cat keeper?

The possibilities are endless, of course, and I highly recommend printing out a few of the sheets to make as many jobs as you like! I’ve done this activity several times at schools in Canada, the US, Korea, and Thailand—no matter where I’ve been, kids love this story starter.

And it IS a story starter, because you can write a story about how this mouse achieved its dream job. Or, if you do multiple mice, you can write a story about how this mouse had to change its jobs throughout his life.

Here are some of the mice from the past occasions where I’ve led this activity at schools.

By the way, the one above is one of my all-time favorite mice: COFFEE MOUSE!

Have fun and, in the meantime, stay safe, stay well, and stay tuned . . .

Activities for kids: What will hatch out of these eggs?

I’m posting my latest activity for all of us kids big and small sticking around the house this weekend. Around here, we are busy painting eggs for our annual dragon egg hunt (and you can, too—see my post here), but this activity is a simple one to fill in some time!

It’s pretty self-explanatory! Just download the sheet here:

Stay safe, stay well, and stay tuned for more activities!

Activities for kids: make a moto

I’m posting my latest activity for all of us kids big and small who are stuck at home. Today’s activity: making a moto!

What’s a moto, you ask? It’s a type of robot that wreaks havoc upon Ozzie and friends in my latest middle-grade book, The Guardians of Zoone.

The motos didn’t make it to the cover, but rest assured they play a big part, as their world, Moton, is one where our characters spend a lot of time. Here’s a look at some motos, as depicted on the vintage-style travel sticker that I created for that treacherous realm:

What you will need:

• Paper to print out the template below.
• Pencils and coloring supplies.
• Scissors
• Glue

Just download the template sheet and follow the instructions. Of course, I always encourage my students to make their own creations from scratch—but sometimes a little inspiration can go a long way, and maybe this sheet will help!

These are pretty much the same pieces that I used to design the travel sticker above!

There is also a maker-space opportunity here. I love building things, so if you’re like me, and keep every lid and cap from your household products, then you will have a big store of switches and buttons. I recently used a lot of these to build my own moto probe. Admittedly, I also had to draw on some more specialized supplies from the craft store, such as brads, gears, clock hands—but otherwise, a lot of the pieces are just “junk” or bits and bobs such as thumbtacks, paperclips, and plastic lids. The “body” is just a styrofoam ball painted with metallic paint.

Have fun imagining and stay safe, stay well, and stay tuned . . .

Activities for kids: Design your own travel sticker

I’m posting my latest activity for all of us kids big and small who are stuck at home. Today’s activity: creating vintage-style travel stickers for imagined fantasy worlds!

In a recent post, I uploaded the activity to make a travel brochure. The activity I’m posting today is less ambitious, but just as fun (and, in fact, I used many of my own travel sticker designs to populate my travel brochure example).

What you will need:

• Paper to print out the template below.
• Pencils and coloring supplies.

Just download the template sheets, which are filled with various frames and shapes. This project is a great way to brainstorm ideas for different worlds, and distill a setting to its most important feature or essence.

Also, for those young writers who have already created a setting, this is a fun way to celebrate it!

You can download the template sheets here:

And here are some examples of vintage-style travel stickers that I designed for the worlds in my middle-grade books, The Secret of Zoone and The Guardians of Zoone.

 

There’s an add-on project here, of course. You can cut out your ideas and glue them to your own storage boxes or luggage. (It’s probably no surprise to people that I have Zoone stickers on my actual suitcase that I travel with.)

Stay safe, stay well, and stay tuned . . .

Activities for kids: Monster advertisement

I’m posting my latest activity for all of us kids big and small who are stuck at home. Today’s activity: Creating an advertisement for a monstrous product that can appear in a monster newspaper or magazine. What sort of thing does a monster horde want to hoard? This is your chance to imagine it!

I’ve done this activity many times with my creative writing students——it’s so much fun to see their imaginative ideas spring to life, not only in terms of the types of products and services they imagine that monsters need, but their slogans and pitches!

What you will need:

• Paper to print out the template below.
• Pencils and coloring supplies.

Just download the template and start imagining (of course, you can just draw your own frame)!

This project also provides a fun story prompt. What if the monster sees this ad, then goes to the story, only to find its favorite product out of stock? What will it do?

Have fun and, as always, stay safe, stay well, and stay tuned . . .

Activities for kids: the MONSTER fridge

I’m posting my latest activity for all of us kids big and small who are stuck at home. Today’s activity: Stocking a monster’s fridge!

We’ve all found some pretty scary things in the back of the fridge! Well, time to embrace all the grime and gruesome grub and imagine the contents of a monster’s fridge.

I’ve done this activity many times with my creative writing students—I usually post photos of past projects, but I’ve decided NOT to post any of the monstrous fridges I’ve seen over the years because I think, in this case, it’s better not to provide any further influence or inspiration. (Just let me say, I’ve seen some pretty grim  fridges over the years!)

What you will need:

• Paper to print out the template below.
• Pencils and coloring supplies.
• A strong stomach as you imagine all the gruesome grub!

Just download the template and start imagining (of course, you can just draw your own fridge)! By the way, I can easily start imagining what a human would think would be gross in a monster’s fridge. But what would be the grossest thing a monster would find in its fridge? Fresh produce? Hmm . . . .

This project also serves as a great story prompt. What if the monster looks in its fridge and can’t find its favorite food? What happens next? Does it throw a tantrum? Eat the fridge? Decide to just go visit its favorite restaurant, like Burger Thing or Dairy Scream?

Have fun with this one! Stay safe, stay well, and stay tuned . . .

Activities for kids: Let’s get out of this place

I’m posting my latest activity for all of us kids big and small who are stuck at home. Today’s activity: Designing a brochure for an imagined world.

The truth is that when I was a kid, we didn’t go on a lot of vacations. A big reason for this is that I grew up on a family farm and the summer—when most people go on vacation—was the time for us to work really hard and earn the income that would sustain us for the rest of the year.

So, most of my “vacations” were taken through books—either by reading them or writing them.

Of course, reading or writing are great ways to escape NOW, during our world COVID-19 pandemic, but I want to provide a bit more focus with this activity. Who knows, it might turn into a book—or, if you have already written a book or story, this project can be a fun way to view your “world” from a different perspective.

I’ve delivered this activity several times with students at schools or programs I’ve worked at in Canada and Korea, and it’s proven to be a lot of fun.

The imaginary travel brochure

What you will need:

• Paper — you can use either blank paper or use the template I’ve provided
• Drawing supplies: Pens, pencils, colored pencils, fine-liners, markers—your preference!
• Optional: glue

The goal of this project is to make a three-panel tri-fold brochure, which you can do simply by folding a letter-sized piece of paper into thirds. That gives you three panels on one side of the brochure, and three on the other. You can do your brochure double-sided on a single sheet of paper, or if you are worried about your paper being too thin, and markers bleeding through, then just do this project on two separate pieces of paper, which you could always glue together afterward.

There are no real rules to how to fill out the pages, but I recommend:

SIDE 1

• Panel 1 (the cover): Cover art and title, such as “Come Visit . . .”
• Panel 6 (the back cover): Contact information.
• Panel 5: More information about the world the brochure is advertising—I like doing a “did you know” section here.

SIDE 2

• Panel 2: General information about the world, showcasing key points of interest.
• Panels 3&4: A bigger piece of artwork, such as a landscape of the world, or a map.

Of course, I highly recommend brainstorming the content and working on some rough copies before worrying about the final version. You can use your own blank paper folded into thirds, though if you want some content blocks to work with, then you can download my template HERE. You can also download and print out the template with the instructions, just in case you want something sitting in front of you to look at.

If you do print out my template double-sided, you may have to experiment with how your printer works—certain devices seem to flip the second page the wrong way!

Come visit these imaginary worlds:

I always have this rule in my creativity classes: If I ask YOU to do it, then I’ve also done it. So, here are two brochures that I’ve made! One is for The Land of Een, which is featured in my Kendra Kandlestar book series. The other is for the multiverse that appears in my Zoone series–because Zoone features so many different worlds, I decided to do that brochure a little bit differently!

Finally, here are some brochure examples done by past students.

Foodlandia:

Rainbow Island:

Land of Cute:

Ocean Kingdom:

I’d love to see what kids come up with! If you post them on social media, please hashtag #imaginarytravelbrochure and tag me (I’m @leefodi on Instagram and twitter).

In the meantime, stay safe, stay well, and stay tuned . . .

 

Activities for Kids: The BIG film of tiny things

I’m posting my latest activity for all of us kids big and small stuck who are stuck at home. So far, I’ve posted an activity to build a shrink ray and peg figures, handouts to map a miniature person’s journey across a room in the house, and the idea to survive a critter attack!

I’m going to finish off the theme by introducing one more idea connected to this set of activities: Making a mini-movie!

With all of the activities I’ve introduced, there is the opportunity for writing, but also other kinds of storytelling—because if you have been building and/or collecting all the props (shrink rays, peg figures, miniature tools, plastic critters), then you have pretty much everything to go to film your own miniature movie.

When I was a kid, I LOVED making movies . . . but all those thousands of years ago, we didn’t have the technology we do now! These days, it’s simple to film a few scenes and edit them in a program like iMovie.

However, what I always tell my students, is that filming and editing are the LAST parts of the process. Even though my kids so often want to jump into filming right away, I encourage them to sit down and consider STORY and what they want to tell.

It’s just like writing a book! My students have tons of energy when they sit down to write, but without a plan, they often get stuck and frustrated, then give up. My advice is to do some simple planning!

To be clear, I am NOT a filmmaker. But I have filmmaker friends and I have dabbled with making my own book trailers. Even for a thirty-second trailer, I spend a long time creating scripts and storyboards. So, if you’re going to take on this project, that’s what I really encourage you to do, too!

The Mini-Movie project

What you will need:

• Things to film (like shrink ray guns, peg figures, action figures, plastic bugs, and any number of household items!)
• A script and a storyboard
• A camera to film video
• A program to edit the video (like iMovie—but there are all kinds of apps available).
• One BIG imagination!

Here is the storyboard template that you can download:

And here is an example project! Several years ago, there was the “ice bucket” challenge to promote awareness for ALS. Everyone seemed to be making a movie—and harassing me to make one, too! I did want to support, but I am always loathe to just follow the crowd, so I decided to make a different sort of movie using the peg-figure version of myself and the various action figures in my studio.

Here is the storyboard I created first. This was helpful, because in some cases, I needed my wife to help with the filming. By looking at the storyboard, she knew what I wanted to achieve.

 

And here is the video itself . . . All the effects were practical—just tricks of perspective and angle to achieve the desired shot.

Have fun, everyone. I’ll post some other activities in the coming days. Stay safe, stay well, and stay tuned . . .