Mystery Story Writing Prompts and Horror Fiction Story Starters for creative writing lesson plans

 "It was a dark and stormy night..."--remember Snoopy's famous one-liner that was going to begin his epic, but ever-elusive mystery story? Perhaps you know how Snoopy feels, perched atop his doghouse, typewriter silent, creative juices dried up. You've got that mystery story brewing in your brain. But where to begin? Well, my friends of the Omschool, here are mystery story writing prompts and suspense and horror fiction story starters to get you out of the doghouse and writing those mystery stories. 

Teachers and homeschool parents, use these for creative writing lessons for Writers Workshop activities, National Reading Month (March) and NaNoWriMo (November). Write out mystery story writing prompts on the board and let students go writing their works of horror fiction. And now for the mystery and horror fiction creative writing lesson plans. 

Horror Fiction Writing Prompt: What was in the Wishing Well "I hated drawing water from the dank, bug-infested well house to begin with. When the bucket came up heavier and more slowly than usual, I sensed that something was wrong. But I was totally unprepared for what followed...

Mystery story writing prompts: The Curio Shop Enigma "I hadn't remembered seeing the old curio shop on that street before, but the elderly gent was outside to peddle his wares and beckoned me in. When I returned the next day with my brother, shop and shopkeeper had gone. We asked an old-timer passing by where it was. 'That shop?' he declared, "why it ain't been around for 50 years!" 

Mystery story starters: The Smell in the Attic "We always kept the attic trap door locked and no one ever went up there. One day as I passed, I smelled an oddly familiar smell, that I hadn't smelled since I was little. The odor got stronger, until finally I opened the door. As I went up the rickety steps, I got the shock of my life. 

Mystery story starters: The Missing Picture Puzzle "I loved to look through our old family photos. One day, I noticed that a certain picture had been removed, no, not just removed, but viciously hacked out of the album. I asked the whole family and no one seemed to have taken it. Was someone hiding something?" 

Horror fiction scary story starters: The Walled-Up Room "Tearing down a wall to build an addition to our home, I discovered a small narrow room hidden between the walls. It appeared to have been boarded up decades ago and what was in it gave me the fright of my life."

Horror genre creative writing lessons: The Thing in the Pond "For years, I've visited a pond in the woods near our house. Recently I saw something in the bottom. And it was more than sand, rocks and a few fish and turtles. Something much, much more..." 

Mystery story starters and writing prompts: The Not-So- Prank Caller "We thought the odd phone calls were just pranks by some local kids. Until the caller asked me something really creepy. 'Did anybody ever find where you buried the body?"

Mystery story starters: The Letter from Yesterday "The envelope that came in the mail looked really elegant and I was hoping that it was an invitation to a party. It was an invitation...for a party dated, July 30, 1927." 

Mystery story writing prompts for creative writing lessons: The Long-Gone Boy "We were all playing in our fort by the creek. A tall thin boy with dark eyes and long hair appeared silently from the woods. He came out every day for two weeks but he never said a word. Then he disappeared again, but returned with something terrifying..." 

Horror genre scary story starters: What the Cat Brought Home "My cat likes to bring home an odd assortment of creatures. Not that he kills them. I think they are his friends. One day the cat brought home a "friend" the likes of which I've never seen before in my life and I doubt that I ever will again." 

You can take these mystery story starters in any direction you want. It might be that what appears so creepy turns out to have a logical if strange explanation. The thing in the pond, for example might look like a dead body but turn out to be a statue thrown there because it showed signs of being alive. Or, what seems harmless, might be extremely terrifying and dangerous. It might be supernatural or natural. The thing in the well might be a ghostly specter or an unusual species, never seen in that area. 

The important thing is to avoid overused themes and to be as creative as possible. The Book Seller's Enigma is not an unusual plot device. But you might use it to write a story in the style of Three Investigators or M.R. James in which the shop had been entirely recreated for the character to see and then torn down the next day. The "old-timer" doesn't just happen to be there. He's planted to confuse, to cover up an illegal operation in stolen artifacts. Or, like an M.R. James story, it has a sinister and ghostly explanation. 

It's okay to emulate other authors, especially older ones, but don't plagiarize. And don't just change names and a few detail. That's plagiarizing too in that you're stealing intellectual property rights to the idea. To emulate is the write in the style of, not the content of an author. 

Picture is our cat Mordecai who would bring home friends if he was allowed outside. 

Mystery writing prompts: detective fiction story starters and writer tips

 March is National Reading Month. Mystery readers, are you tired of cracker-bland mysteries you put down in sheer boredom? Mystery writers, are you sick of writing dull-as-plain-toast plots that readers barely nibble at? Here are mystery story starters for tales readers will gulp down whole and beg for more before the first even digests. Use these writing prompts and mystery story starters to write can't-put-down stories. This article covers detective stories and mystery story starters for crime fiction, affectionately called the whodunit. 

Basics of mystery story starters. Every mystery story needs an introduction, characters, plot, climax, denouement and conclusion. Detective stories are all about detail and sequence. But crime fiction doesn't necessarily need resolution and closure--a very effective literary device is to leave mystery unsolved. Charles Dickens was known for writing several endings and letting the readers choose. Ending on a cliff-hanger has the advantage of paving the way for sequels and more sequels. 

Plot development for detective stories. There are different school of thought on whether mystery fiction writing prompts should start with character or setting creation. Settings seem the best as they give a framework to place other elements in. Regardless, always write what you know. If you grew up in Michigan in the 1940's or Mozambique in the 1990's, write to that specific knowledge. Use your cultural or religious background or family history. Don't try to write about what you don't know unless you plan to do a barge-load of research. 

Choose a known time period and locale. You can set your story in any time period or place, as long as you know enough about it to make your mystery story credible. If your idea of medieval life is Game of Thrones, probs best to avoid the middle ages. This author once tried to write a 1930s English country house murder mystery like her hero Ngaio Marsh. Without having lived then and lacking enough research, the result was a schmaltzy pastiche. Mystery story starters require a specific setting. Where did the whodunit take place? 

Write mystery stories outside the hackneyed setting. So having said know the terroir, don't use overused places. Thinking of Scooby-Doo here--an abandoned mental hospital, a disused school, onboard a ship, country mansion are common (dead common) places. Try to get away from stereotypical mystery settings if possible. Tie it to your own locale so you can envision the details better (the disused factory on Third St that you drive by every day, the historic St. Adalbert's Catholic Church you attend, for example). Be precise but not trite in description--setting drives mystery stories more than any other genre. 

To detect or not, your choice. Mystery fiction stories may or may not include a detective character. Agatha Christie's best-loved mystery story "And Then There Were None" is crime fiction with no solver of the crime. Whodunit detective stories obviously require a detective-type main character. But it may or may not be a police officer or private eye. Start thinking characters, beginning with the investigator if there is one.. Match an appropriate person to setting. Your detective can be of any age, strata of society, occupation or nationality as long as you can write with some authority.  

Mystery Writing prompts for detective stories main character. How will your detective interact with official authorities? Is he a policeman or a PI? Is she an amateur crime-solver like Miss Marple? Does she solve mysteries as a hobby, but assist with investigations? Maybe he hasn't always been on the side of justice., such as Father Brown's friend Flambeau once the greatest jewel thief in Europe, turned detective. Perhaps your detective operates separately from public investigators or is too young to work professionally (like the Three Investigators, Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys). Your detective may have a different occupation altogether: librarian, cleric, rabbi, pharmacist, garbage man (trash collectors see lots of dirty secrets). Lillian Jackson Braun's series "The Cat Who..."features a cat detective! 

Plot writing prompts for detective mystery stories: Frame the crime. It may involve a celebrated murder, international heist or art theft or it may be a local incident that affects only certain people. Maybe it's just an odd occurrence that unravels a larger problem. It could be a victimless crime fiction but victims make it more interesting. Details about what happened should come out little by little. The detective should be lead on a few wild goose chases by "red herrings" finding out whodunit. 

Outline and sequence the problem. Create a timetable for personal reference and draw a map of the crime scene and environs. These become the plot, but you can also add your map to the book. This mystery reader loves it when authors provide maps. Even if it's just a map of the study showing doors, furniture etc. I have trouble visualizing from verbal directions so this really helps me "see" the scenario. 

Detective story characters writing prompts: People the story. Who are the dramatis personae? Flesh out characters. Determines criminals, witnesses, suspects, accessories and assistants. Perhaps it's passengers and airplane crew, or members of a club or secret society in which the whodunit occurs. That narrows the field. Again, describe with accuracy and details but avoid stereotypes and tropes: beautiful, curvy blonde, hard-bitten detective, frail old man. Also keep the cast of suspects down to about 8-10 max. It's too difficult to keep plot lines clear otherwise. 

Writing prompts to add detail. Scatter some clues. Toss in subtle details that a witness may notice and mention to the detective, but not understand. Don't have the detective pick up on it right away. Readers love to catch things the detective originally misses but don't make it obvious. General clues are okay but try to spice them up. Tire marks could be from certain vehicle. Character clues--unique buttons from uniforms, grandfather's cuff links, Mrs. Highbrow's jewelry, a girl's personal perfume--could lead in one direction but be left by someone else. A smell of curry might have been planted to frame the Indian gentleman. These are called a red herrings and are useful if not too obvious. Also, don't make clues so complicated that only an expert would understand them. Don't dumb down or get too rarefied. 

Identify the MMO: Every crime is based motive, method and opportunity. The motive is the reason a character might have for committing a crime (money, jealousy). The method is how the crime committed (think Clue here--in the garage with a tire iron). The opportunity means who was available to have committed the crime. 

Identify the alibis (or lack thereof) for characters. According to the timetable, decide who was where and when at the time the problem occurred or crime was committed. The detective may remove someone from the suspects list and then re-add them as she finds new information. It really does work to make the criminal the least likely person, perhaps someone hovering in the background or someone who isn't who she claims to be. 

Write a climax. Generally, something intense happens which brings all the events together. It's usually an event of some drama, seemingly unrelated, with some element of surprise. You might include death, danger or disaster. It is this event that ultimately explains the mystery. There should be an explanation for why she did it, but it doesn't have to make sense. Grudges, scores settled, paybacks usually have deep roots. As the saying goes "old sins cast long shadows." 

Allude to solution, earlier on. Once you have your conclusion, be sure you hinted at it previously, but in a not obvious way, such as by something a character said or let slip. It's not fair to the reader, who is trying to solve the puzzle themselves, to have something completely unforeseen resolve the issue. It's cheating. My favorite plot devices are when children or previously discounted people (visually impaired teen, "senile" elderly person,, developmentally disabled man, "hysterical" woman) have said something that the detective overlooks (Miss Marple wouldn't) which come back to be helpful. 

Write your denouement: This is the resolution of the mystery. This is when secrets come out and loose ends are wrapped up. Some details will reveal themselves in the plot and your detective can articulate the rest: the what, who, when, where, how and why. Or, as was discussed before, you can leave some loose ends hanging, some questions unanswered. If the crime is wrapped up, summarize with a short conclusion on the outcome. As readers part company with the detective, you might even give a few hints about her next adventures, Be sure to read a few detective stories for inspiration

Helping children cope with family trauma, stress and chaos

Hello my friends of the Omschool. Today I'm exploring a very sensitive subject that comes up more in the classroom than we would like to admit. And that is childhood trauma, family stress and parental chaos and abuse. I don't pretend to have all the answers and I don't even fully understand the questions. But one thing I do know, from experience, is that we MUST do something to help children navigate these overwhelming situations. So I'm going to attempt to share, what would have helped me cope with all the trauma and abuse I dealt with as a child and teen. 

1) See us. Notice our withdrawn behavior, our exhaustion where there should be energy. Be concerned that we are falling asleep in class, wearing shabby or dirty clothing, that we don't smell clean. That we look sad or hungry. Notice the bruises or how we flinch. That we are sick all the time. Take note. 

2) Hear the strange things we let slip. How we walked to school alone at age 5. How we played in the park alone blocks from home. How mom and dad are no where to be found. How we go home alone to empty houses. We will not tell you this outright but you will hear if you are listening. Take note of that too. 

3) Elicit feedback. Ask around if anyone else has noticed problems. A recent episode of "Call the Midwife" showed Sister Veronica and Cyril doing their homework with a family of neglected children and uncovering terrible abuse. Abuse that was continuing because up till then no one had wanted to "interfere." Even when one child died. 

4) Interfere. I'm not saying take the law into your own hands. I mean don't just walk by on the other side and hope someone else will reach out. From experience, I can tell you, no one else ever does. Some of us went our whole lives shouldering it alone, with no one interfering. I can also tell you that if one person had it would have made so much difference. 

5) Do not judge. Neither the parents and especially not the child. No good comes from a holier-than-thou crusader, sticking her nose in. Get the facts and forget your opinions. You don't walk in their shoes and you certainly won't help the child. If anything, she'll just protect them more. 

6) Get trauma informed. This should be mandated in all education curricula. Learn to recognize signs. Factor childhood trauma and family chaos into the curriculum down to the lesson plan level. What I mean is, know who these kids are and tailor expectations to meet their needs. Try to mitigate by being sensitized around difficult issues. This can help compensate for the added burdens these children carry. I'm not saying make excuses for or dumb down lessons. Actually, challenging content was a form of therapy for me. I just mean to take into consideration that these children don't have what other kids  have. 

7) Acknowledge the child. Reach out in friendship. Encourage the child to share without leading the witness. Keep your door open. Hear what she isn't saying. Hold space for her. Let her feel her feelings without trying to redirect, talk down and certainly not minimize. 

8) Use child-led CBT. Cognitive-behavioral therapy isn't just for kids with behavior problems. It can help guide children struggling to cope with family problems too. Ask what she is experiencing, what she is doing about it, how that is working and what might work better. 

9) Be on the child's side. Too often, traumatized children bear the brunt of responsibility, shame, guilt and consequence for dysfunctional parent behavior. They are scapegoated and made to feel always in the wrong. Take their part. Be the change they need. You don't have to and shouldn't trash talk their parents. But you also shouldn't excuse, defend bad behavior. Either will just confuse the child. But you can empathize with how difficult it must be for them. You can say you are sorry they are dealing with it. You can affirm them and remind them that family chaos isn't their fault. They are not the problem. That a child doesn't cause an adult's behavior. 

10) Observe objectively. Ask the child if she would like some ideas. Suggest don't direct. Lose any agenda or bias. Now's not the time for religious proselytizing. If asked, be honest but in a calm, rational way. Also, avoid creating unhealthy attachments with the child that you can't follow through on. Bottom line is, you are not the parent. 

11) The dilemma. Okay here's where push comes to shove. Here's where we must differentiate when things are bad enough to intervene between child and parents. Sometimes it's impossible to stand up for the child without standing against the parents. We don't want to bash the parents' behavior. But if it's neglectful or abusive, we can't ignore it either. But the child still has to live with these people. So discretion is always in order. But the child must come first. And there's no cut and dried, one size fits all solution. 

12) Form a care team. Don't confront parents alone or randomly. Compile evidence and approach with open-minded caution. Sometimes what looks like neglect or abuse turns out to be overwhelming family struggle with poverty, disabled parents. In that case, helping them connect with resources can bring about positive impacts. But also recognize system limitations. 

13) Foster autonomy and independence. All this is complicated in a formal school setting where children move through a system. Fact is you can't be there for them always and must be careful not to make them dependent on you. Usually, the best thing you can do is be supportive but help them find and use their wings. Make sure to pass along what you've done and observe to the next teacher.  

14) Don't make it about you. This should have been said further up. I kind of alluded to it but it needs more discussion. Sadly, as with other helping professions, there are people who become teachers to get their own needs met. To have a captive audience to unload on. This kind of teacher is prussic acid to a traumatized child who is already being forced to make everything about her parents and nothing about herself. A child's trauma should not be leveraged for self-promotion.  You know the kind I mean. The "see how great I am, I help so many students. When I hear that I want to run screaming. I had a supervising teacher paragon like this. She was toxic, arrogant and narcissistic as could be. She's now branded herself a "life coach." God help her coach-ees. 

15) Do the best you can. You can't and don't have to fix all our problems.  Ultimately, it's up to us to get the help we need as soon as we know we need it. It shouldn't have to be like this. Our parents should care and support us. But if they don't, we have to. But again from experience, something is better than nothing. It's enough to know someone cares.. If just one teacher had noticed and reached out, had told me that I was not the awful person my parents said I was, I could have shaved decades off the healing process. 

Thank you to all you good teachers out there who care, who try, who show up, as best you can. 

Free printable St. Patrick's Day coloring pages, lesson plans and activities

Hello my friends of the Omschool! Today we're exploring things Irish. St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on

on March 17. Many people think the holiday is about green beer,

shamrocks and leprechauns. But that 's just commercial hype. The real Saint Patrick was a Catholic

Roman Britain taken as a slave by Irish raiders. Patrick later returned as a missionary to convert

Druidic Ireland. Here are St. Patrick's Day lesson plans, crafts and activities to explore the saint behind

the legend and the religious beyond the secular. Read the story of Saint Patrick on Britannica. And 

here's more information I just learned today on the history of St. Patrick. Then

scroll down for free printable St. Patrick's Day activities. 

Here's a video story of St. Patrick on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjUSWTT3UMQ

Coloring has loads of free printable Saint Patrick's Day coloring pages. DL-TK

has many free printable St. Patrick's Day games, puzzles, dot to dot, crossword and crafts. A-Z Teacher 

has free printable math and reading and writing lesson plans based on Saint Patrick's Day.

ABC Teach has some Catholic Christian Saint Patrick activities and some secular ones with

leprechauns, etc. Education has free printable St. Patrick's Day lesson plans. They're secular but at

least educational--with shamrock math, etc. First-School has mostly secular St. Patrick's Day

printables, but a few religious activities. And to round it out, Marilyn the Toymaker has beautiful 

vintage-y free printable St. Patrick activities. Slainte mhath! 

Learning decision-making and problem-solving skills with cognitive-behavioral therapy

 Hello my friends of the Omschool! Teacher Omi here with some thoughts on how children can develop decision-making and problem-solving skills using CBT and what we used to call RT (reality therapy) and RET (rational emotive therapy). Originally I was going to gear this toward teachers but then I realized that cognitive behavioral therapy is about active client (student) participation. So I'm writing this to you, children. 

Think about situations you are in or you might be in (hypothetical). Or difficulties you may be having. Then look at what choices you are making. Often these are choices that aren't working well for you or others. For example, taking what  isn't yours. That probably makes the person you took it from angry. BUT you should also consider choices you make that work out well for everyone. Like sharing with siblings. 

Identify how your choices are working out for you and others. If you took a toy or hit someone, it probably won't make either of you feel very good. Which doesn't work for anyone. Now contrast this with times you did things that made everyone happy, like sharing your toys or helping them when they needed help. I'm guessing you all felt pretty good about that, as well you should. 

Contrast and compare what was different. What changed when you did things no one liked and when you did things everyone likes? You can make a chart if you want listing the positive and negative outcomes. Omi (and CBT) aren't really into calling behavior good or bad. It's about what works and what doesn't. Usually, kindness, patience, generosity, helpfulness, agreeableness, cooperation, cheerfulness work better than rude or unkind words, selfishness, refusing to do our part which don't work too well for anyone. 

Think really hard about what it is you need or want. Say you got angry because you wanted to play with someone and they did not.  Or you took something of theirs. Did you really want their toy or did you want one of your own? If you wanted your own and you took theirs do you feel any better? Probably neither of you will.  

Think about how the other person is feeling. If it's hard to do that, think how you would feel if your toy was stolen. Or someone yelled at you.  Regular CBT doesn't  address this much but I think it should. Because feeling with and for another person, empathy, is a crucial skill to learn. We have to know that we aren't not the only person with needs, wants and feelings. Everyone has them. 

Consider who owns the feelings, needs and wants. Problem-solving requires us to look at what we bring to the situation. If you got angry with someone for not doing what you wanted, was that her fault for or might you have been expecting her to something that wasn't her responsibility? Remember, you can choose how you act and she can choose how she acts. If you wanted her to play with you and she didn't want to, it's okay. It doesn't mean you are a bad person. It just means she wanted to do something else. 

Talk to someone you trust about how you feel. While it's okay she didn't want to play with you, it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. Tell a loved one, like sibling, mom or dad, a friend or your Omi or Opi, how you feel. 

Look at what you are doing.  If she doesn't want to play with you, it doesn't mean no one wants to play with you. Unless you find no one does. Then think about why. Are you kind and friendly or bossy and pushy? You might have to make some different choices so they will want to include you. 

Be will to admit to making choices that didn't work out. The worst thing we can do and adults do it too is something called DARVO. That means that instead of  owning up to problem choices we've made, we Deny and Attack (blame) an innocent person. Then Reverse Victim and Offender. That means we don't take responsibility for our choices that hurt someone (the victim). And we make it look like the other person was at fault, not us. Trust Teacher Omi, this only leads to problems. But happily, admitting our hurtful choices can make everyone happier. If it was your fault, say so and say what you will do differently. But first you have to...

Explore your options. Part of good decision making and problem solving includes thinking about things you could do in situations. Depending on age, you can list choices you could make. Younger ones can talk to an adult about options. Some scenarios might be hypothetical (could be) and some are real things that are happening now. Think about ways to fix the things you broke and improve friendships so problems don't occur in future.  Think about the choices you make that help everyone, like helping your  sister. 

Make changes. It's not just about saying sorry. Those are just words and they don't mean anything unless we show people we are sorry by not doing what hurts them. And doing kinder more caring things. Sometimes we do kind things even if the other person doesn't. That's called "being the change we want to see in others.) If someone is consistently not kind, it is okay for you to choose not to be around them. 

Teacher Omi trusts and believes  in you to make your life and your world the best it can be. Picture is our cats Moishe and Mordecai. Sometimes they play nice and share the bed. Sometimes they fight and b beat each other up. Then no one gets to enjoy the bed. I think they have learned that sharing is nicer for both of them. 

Poetry writing party lesson plans : Creative writing poetry prompts, poem templates, poetry frames with free printables

Hello my friends of the Omschool! Teacher Omi here and I'm soooo ready for warm spring vs. cold toesies! So I'm looking ahead to April which is Earth Month and National Poetry Writing Month in th US. So, here are free printable poetry writing lesson plans. poem templates, poetry frames, poetry prompts and poetry slam activities that you could use for tween or teen poetry party activities. These  creative writing prompts are easily adaptable to homeschool or classroom or even teen birthday parties. 

I've been lucky enough to call probably thousands of kids friends, in my decades of teaching. And one thing I've found is that young people love expressing themselves in poems. Those who say they don't like poetry or creative writing activities are often simply afraid that their poems won't be good enough. And you know what Teacher Omi is going to say. All your poetry is good enough because you wrote it! In fact, I'm always wowed at how REALLY good it is! So with that in mind, here are creative writing prompts and poetry writing activities to help access your inner poet laureate! . 

* Call it a poetry party not a teen poetry writing contest. Take it from a teacher of Montessori, adult education and special education--competition in academics doesn't work. Even the most confident creative writing students begin to feel shy about it around age 11 or so, even if they loved it when they were little. They fear sounding silly (more often boys). They're daunted by what they perceive as superiority of others peoples' poems. So nix competitive poetry writing contest. Please. Poetry writing is too intimate to do for a prize and contests inhibit creativity.

* Journal. Assign teen poetry writing activities in journals. This gives kids a voice without the awkwardness of everyone reading or hearing their poems. Pass out 10-cent notebooks (bought cheap at back-to school sales). 

*Let kids decorate journals with drawings, stickers and other crafty stuff. Pass out colored  calligraphy pens so authors can write in vintagy-looking font. These make great poetry party crafts.

* Provide for privacy. Students might want to design a cool steampunk-esque "lock" from paper or recycled stuff. Other kids should respect this, Give kids the option of bookmarking personal journal pages. Teachers, check to make sure creative writing activities are done, but don't read pages marked private. This protects the integrity of writing and the bond of trust without making students feel too vulnerable. And sometimes, kids need to share really raw or uncomfortable things which are for their journal's ears only. I wish I'd been able to do this when I was young. It would have saved me a lot in therapy. 

* Host Writers Workshop activities. Fridays, sub teacher days and movie days make good teen poetry writing days. Students should respect personal writing space. No talking.

* Go on nature poetry walks to the park, lake or woods, whatever you have nearby. A zoo would be great too, so kids could write poems about the animals. My grandkids favorite "Brown bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" is essentially a simple animal poem and would make a great poetry frame. 

* Use teen poetry writing prompts in Writers Workshop. Here are free printable poetry writing prompts and poem frames from past winners of National Poetry Competition in the UK. I know I said no contests but that doesn't mean we can't use their ideas if they are willing to share. Use these to jumpstart writer's block. 

* Create your own poetry writing prompts and poem frames (a basic poem with the details removed, like the old Mad Libs. Here are free printable poetry mad libs to fill in). It's easier than you might think. And really, any poetry can be used as poem patterns. Start with the basic rhythm and personalize. Just make sure student versions are uniquely different. Here's an example of using poetry writing prompts. In 1996 Nobel literature laureate Wislawa Szymborska's poem "Possibilities" the author simply lists preferences. Here's a snippet.

"I prefer the (oaks along the Warta). I prefer (Dickens to Dostoyevsky). I prefer (myself liking people to myself loving mankind) . I prefer (keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case). I prefer the color (green)." 

Now take out the things he liked (the bits in parentheses) and have kids fill in blanks with their own preferences. 

You can also use my poem "A Silly Little Rondo of Song" in which different sounds musical instruments play to each other and pass along the song, in a round. Then end up back at the original. Take out the sounds I used, choose 10 or so of your own and write a line or verse about each passing the song along. Enchanted Learning has free printable poetry writing prompts. 

* Play music in poetry writers workshop. Music stimulates poetry writing synapses. Try Rachmaninoff Concerto #3 (it's a little dark which is great for accessing deep moods). Ravel's Bolero, Mozart Requiem in D Minor, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos or Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" work well, too. Or throw on a little punk or rock, from Jack White or Nick Cave. Kids will resonate with that. Students might turn their poetry into song lyrics and write music to set them to. 

* Illustrate poems. Poetry and art are linked. Teenagers might feel more comfortable expressing feelings in art than words. Have them create pieces to go with teen poetry writing. Provide clay, paint, pastels, paper and drawing pencils in writers workshop. Art-intimidated students like me might prefer creating picture collages or videos to illustrate writing.

* Call it a poetry party (emphasis on party!) Poetry is something to celebrate. After the poetry writers workshop, host recitations. Frame companion art and illustrations and display. Set out plants to decorate. Encourage sharing but don't make it mandatory. Invite guests. Make it a dress-up event. Ask orchestra or bands students to perform background music. Serve dessert and coffee.

How to write poetry: free printable poem template guide

Hello my friends of the Omschool-iverse! Do you like my new title for this space we visit in? Well, funnily enough this post is about versing or, writing poetry. Here's an incomplete, rambling, work-in-progress guide on how to write poetry. I will probably edit many times as I think of more poems starters and tips. We're going to use the poem pattern of tree. This gears us up for April which is National Poetry Month. 

1. Plant your tree. By that I mean, start writing. Just do it.  Grab pen or keyboard and start putting down some thoughts. Look around you and describe what you see. Or write about some feelings, or a situation you are in. 

2. Sprout your poetry tree.  Brainstorm or just let flow. So, brainstorming, or idea gathering is great for prose or non-fiction. But poetry, eh, not so much. Poetry cannot be diagrammed into an outline. Channeling it doesn't really work. I find it works best so sort of riff (free write on a theme). Having said that you could brainstorm on a list of subjects. 

3. Grow your trunk. Identify your theme. Once you've scribbled down some ideas, look for a thread. I know it probably sounds wrong to do it in that order. You should find theme then write. And it's okay to do it that way. Mine tend to be about Lake Michigan or childhood memories. 

4. Branch out. List some phrases What works for me is to begin with a few basic phrases I'd like to build around. Usually they are assonance- alliterative (repetitive first letters) An example from a recent poem was " fine pine time" and "evergreen queen." About 10 should do it. 

5. Add some leaves. From each branch phrase, add a few leaf words and phrases. My examples became "had a fine pine time with the evergreen queen, and the fir campfire, prettiest ever seen." 

6. Let it grow. You may find as I do when I write, that the poem takes on a voice of its own. Suddenly, I'm going it directions I never even thought of. For months now, I've tried to write a poem about dunes on Lake Michigan. And it always goes rogue. Assume that if your poem changes direction it was meant to. 

7. Use the Google thesaurus or keep hard copy on hand. This resources really helps expand vocabulary. Also use Google to find words that rhyme with whatever word you need. 

8. Start a poetry blog. I have one here at The Writer's Garden. 

9. Join a Poetry Slam or writer's group. I'm going to begin reading my poetry aloud on my Youtube channel. Wish me bon chance! 

10. Print your poetry into a binder or book. That's a step I've yet to take but am feeling ready. 

11. Ask to read your poetry aloud, requesting input and really listening to the comments. 

12. Create your writing environment with things that inspire or just make you feel happy. The picture is mine. This probably should go further up, 

Montessori approaches to learning, growth and development

 Hello my friends of the Omschool. As a special needs and Montessori teacher, I learned (yes, adults can learn too) that educating wasn't about force-feeding facts into students to regurgitate. It's about fostering organic learning experiences and facilitating connections among resources. Said simply, I as a teacher don't have to have an answer for every question. I just need to help children learn how and where to look to find them. 

Montessori is very different from traditional models where the teacher dispenses wisdom and the student consumes it. In Montessori (and I believe all education systems done right) the student is as a teacher as the adult standing at the front of the classroom. And having said that, you won't find a Montessori teacher lecturing from a podium. In her role as facilitator, she sitting on the floor at the student's level, quietly observing, perhaps contributing a thought, encouraging and affirming the learning that is happening as the child interacts with materials, examining and exploring. 

And that brings me to a key point about a Montessori-based classroom: it's not rows of desks but a prepared environment with interest centers (called in other disciplines "learning centers."). There are outcomes and objectives but they are somewhat plastic in that each student reaches them at his own pace and timeline. The facilitator doesn't dictate learning (that's actually impossible) so much as provides opportunities for students to experience it. 

She curates spaces that foster independent student-led exploration of specific hands-on materials to achieve certain mastery outcomes. An example is using map puzzles to memorizes countries of Asia. Maps are self-correcting (aka self-checking) with names listed on underside of puzzle piece. Only the student knows which he answered correctly and which  he didn't. And from experience, I can tell you that this one thing is probably the single biggest motivator to do his best. 

Think about it. When we adults feel pressured or monitored or critiqued (a fancy euphemism for criticized, found fault with) we do not do our best. We get nervous and hypervigilant for fear, not only of failure but of having that failure seen, shamed and broadcasted. We live in a climate of competitive one-upmanship, where winning take precedence over learning. We pit students like dogs in a ring fighting over one prize bone. No model could be further from authentic, genuine learning. 

Montessori takes more of a developmental approach, and not the box-ticking kind. Development is best understood as coincident and proximodistal, both physically and metaphorically. The child grows from the inside out, from trunk to extremities AND multiple coincidental growth processes are happening all the same time. She's learning to talk, walk, use a potty, count, read all at once. Some children spend more time in a certain area than another area. It's not right or wrong, it's just individual. And suffice it to say that there's a lot going on inside a child that we know nothing about. 

Several of my children and now grandchildren are considered "on the autism spectrum" and "speech delayed" (so much wrong with that term delayed, as if they were trains on a schedule). However all demonstrate off the charts mathematical and ironically language abilities. Speech and language are NOT the same thing nor are verbal and receptive language. 

One had receptive (meaning can comprehend and understand, also not the same) language skills to rival adults, at two. She could remember complex chains of ideas and had entire stories memorized. Another was reading and spelling words and  rattling off math equations at 3. Still another 3 y/0 could build Legos geared for ages 7 and up. None of them spoke much. They have such a rich interior world that spoken language is superfluous. Another grandchild refused to walk till 18 mo. old but his knowledge of trains and music was encyclopedic. And he walks now. 

They also have good parents who don't insist they do what they aren't ready (or just don't have time) to do. And yet, in parent circles, look how often parents to compete over their child's developmental markers, such as speech or when she walks. As if these are the only skills that matter. They're not They're just the most measurable.  And sadly that's what doctors, educators, child development specialists focus too much on: percentiles, checking boxes and plotting children on graphs. Because we do like our charts. It gives us a false sense of control. 

However, the student's progress is or should be, private. It's no one's business if it took him 2 or 20 times to master the map. Or learn to walk or say words. I believe that, sadly, this  need we have to nose in, can be detrimental to growth. Now, that said, there is some benefit that ASD kids get services through early intervention. But I do wonder how much intervention is interference. I don't have the answers. 

But I will always advocate for student versus teacher-led objective meeting. Because as I said earlier, research and experience bears out untold value to students taking ownership over learning instead of just being herded like sheep through content. And there's never a good reason for competition in the classroom. It is counter-intuitive to post scores on the chart of shame, for all to see. How does it help anyone to know that Briana got a C because she forgot that Azerbaijan is east not west of Armenia? 

With no one hovering over him, advising and measuring his progress, the student is empowered (in a system which has generally de-powered) and feels a cogent reason to do his personal best. I've watched that happen time and again in my career. And it is beautiful. 

 

A Liberal library refugee's response to LGBTQIA+ (and all) book banning

 Hello my friends of the Omschool. Time for a walk down censorship lane. So this one is just for my adult friends. Or maybe not. I guess, now I think of it, that's censorship, too, pre-ordaining what a young person should or shouldn't read. Dang, it's so easy to fall into the bubble-wrapping trap. It's about their civil liberties so, why shouldn't kids be part of the conversation?  I don't know, you choose. But be warned, I'm not going to filter, sanitize or dumb down my opinions on censorship, no sirree. 

So, it seems not a day goes by that another piece of quality literature falls under the God Squad's torch. While inane rubbish like Kirk Cameron's "Brave books" remains, just because it sits on the "Christian" shelf.  Well, they do have a history of tossing the pepper and leaving the fly crap. Brave, SMH, what a crock. With the sales pitch of "countering mainstream views with Pro-God stories and American values." Christianity and nationalism ARE the mainstream view. It's anything else that the extreme right bullies. So how is it "courageous" and "truth-telling" to say what everyone else in your echo chamber is saying while muzzling what you deem contrary? Why can't we all have our say? Seems the PUBLIC library isn't for the public anymore. 

Remember when Cameron's bunch staged a hostile takeover of their local PUBLIC libraries? In a bid to "Take Back the Library for God."  Take it back from what? Books? Study? Research? What are they so afraid? Where's their "faith over fear" trope now? And take it back to do what? Host a Tin Foil Hat craft club? My goodness, hysterical and paranoid, much? But no, they didn't want to take it back, they wanted to take it OVER. To push their agenda. Which was supposed to be the reason they were taking it over in the first place. To prevent others "pushing their agenda." Confused? It gets worse. 

The "others" weren't pushing anything. The Drag Queen Story Hours were held in private meeting rooms where you could listen in or not. BUT, a private room, like the ones used by DQSH weren't good enough for the rioters (I'm just gonna call 'em what they are). Oh no, they had to read their tripe out loud, in the main area, forcing everyone to listen. Which actually is a violation of civil liberties, library protocol, common sense, etc. AND one which, if perpetrated on them, they would be screaming down the place. But that's just it. They AREN'T being made to read or listen to anything. They can stupid their minds with whatever schmaltz they want. All these books they hate are just sitting quietly on the shelf minding their own business. Kirk Cameron's lot could take a leaf from those books. 

The zealots' current pearl-clutching is over LGBTQIA+ books like "All Boys Aren't Blue" because they explore sexuality and gender identity. These books are clearly YA. They are shelved in the LGBTQ section. Yet they're deemed vulgar. Despite shelves over-flowing with books about straight sex.  Because the book might, I don't know, accidentally fall off the shelf and a kid might accidentally open it and accidentally become gay ?? Seriously, teacher here, with everything digital, just getting kids into the library to read is the challenge.  

Oh and by the way, Harry Potter is deemed by the militant Christian right (cough, Fourth Reich) as offensive too. And many of  my right-wing readers think he's the shiznit. And yet no one questions their gun nut mentality. Which sounds irrelevant but is not. So Harry is vilified for wizardry and magic (it's fantasy, FFS) and, what, owl employment with union representation? hell IDK, they make this up as they go. As if books are the threat? I've never heard of a book opening fire in a church and killing off a bunch of people. 

And yet, AND YET! This self-same "moral majority" of gunslingers, have actually protested not being able to open carry IN THE LIBRARY. A place of safety. Of refuge.  While also (and I have to stop myself shrieking) claiming to speak on morality and purity (gag) and "protecting children" as the voice of the people. (He ain't my king! I didn't vote for him!) At least Hogwarts had a wand-carry protocol in place.  And now the lunatics feel entitled to carry in church too! Won't wear a mask, will wear a gun?  Our church had to hire armed guards to protect us from shit like this. Whatever happened to sanctuary?

So can we just agree,  people like Kirk Cameron needs to get permanent laryngitis, now. We the sentient left need to gag and flag him! Because, again I ask, what are these book banners so godalmighty afraid of? And why are they so all over the place about what to ban? How about this? Ban nothing! Let it all read as written and let each person choose for themselves what to read. No one turns gay by reading a book. Just like I didn't become Uzbeki just by reading about Samarkand at 5. Wish I had,. More's the pity. 

If these good "Christians" (they've absolutely tainted that word) are so worried, maybe they should look at how they're parenting their kids, yeah? History has taught us you can't beat or shame the gay out of the kid anymore than you can beat the black or the woman or the blue eyes out. My cousin knew he was gay before there was a word for it. And conversely, a straight kid can't be "converted" to the gay side. It doesn't work that way, duh. But two  things you can beat out are the child's spirit and light. Raising hand here.  

As a child who knows what it's like to have her identity fractured and her light doused, just for being, For merely existing. The girl who's the thorn in THEIR side.  I've got a lot add to this conversation. I read every book on the shelf. Some that I shouldn't have like Go Ask Alice (Beatrice Sparks)  a fraud, Jay's Journal (Beatrice Sparks) a travesty and Forever (Judy Blume) soft porn. Beatrice Sparks is the one who should be banned just for ruining our childhood with her monetized scams. I fell for her stories! As so many like me, have confessed, as if it's a crime to be duped at age 11 into believing her pastiche!!  While she profiteered off the poor family of Alden Barrett, god. As their son's grave was wrongly desecrated (as if there's a right reason to desecrate)  by her fabricated lies of Satanism??

And here it goes again. Me, haunted by dreams AGAIN! Of a mother just trying to grieve her son, only to be exploited by some cash-grabbing bored RICH housewife confidence trickster! If  Sparks' did indeed publish her patients' journals, wasn't she busted on HIPPA breach of patient confidentiality. And still her lies fill library shelves. Remember  Charles Berlitz and his "Bermuda Triangle"  hoax? Back when we still called them hoaxes. I don't even know if that's even a word anymore. But it should be and HOAXES are what should be banned. 

Why are Beatrice Sparks books still being sold?? Why are people still reading and praising fakes. I just checked Amazon and her books sell like cyanide laced anthracite! You can smoke it, eat it, burn it in yo damn coal stove! Hallelujah! An opiate for the masses, fake news. Cue sexy soviet riff by MY boy Yevgeny Balyaev and his charming rendition of "Kalinka! Note those Capitalist white teeth! No matter, I'm a lifelong dues-paying charter member of the Red Army Choir fan club. За здоровье! 

Sorry for the ramble, but sorry, not sorry for the cynical vein. Some issues are worth getting uppity about. History only remembers the uppity ones. Emily Davison. Evaline Hilda Burkitt. Dolours Price.  Your little sister salutes you. Comrades! Tovarisch! Book banning, hostile takeovers, Guns?? In MY SANCTUARY. I recall queuing for the spanking new 1974 Norton Shores branch library. That smelt of gas fire. MY escape from parent shit, from sexual ick, from him and them. And they want to take that refuge and turn it into a McChurch. Oh hell no we won't go. Upon this hill I shall play my "Last Post" with bloody bagpipes, low and loud! 

Free printable Catholic Christian and Bible coloring pages for Ash Wednesday and Lent

Hello my friends of the Omschool, My family is Catholic and follows Catholic Christian teachings in what we call the liturgical calendar.  Today is Fat Tuesday (where we use up all sweets in the house) Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday when we enter into a time called Lent. Lent is the 40-day countdown to Holy Week (Palm Sunday through Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter). During this time we "follow Jesus" through the desert where he was tempted by the Devil. We practice fasting (giving up certain treats to get closer to God), almsgiving (sharing with those in need) and prayer (talking to God). Here are some free printable Catholic activities based on stories from the Bible to help your family follow Jesus in the Lenten journey. 

Let's start with free printable Catholic coloring pages featuring Bible stories. prayer, sacraments, mass, Gospel, saints, Lent, Advent, holidays and holy days, life of Jesus, Catholic saints' feast days, rosary and stations of the cross. Whew! That's a lot! And The Catholic Kid has free printable Catholic coloring pages galore. 

Catholic Sprouts (love the name) has free printable Catholic activities, Bible coloring pages and Christian crafts. It looks like they are all free to print from a download or PDF. Isn't it amazing how generous people are? There are so many to love but my favorites are printable Catholic ABCs in Spanish and Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious and Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary coloring book to print free. 

Use these free printable Bible coloring pages to make a Lenten Walk with Jesus countdown calendar. Color one picture a day, to celebrate Jesus and all he did on earth: miracles of Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, baptism, holy communion (or Eucharist) and more. Put them in order in a booklet to read to younger siblings. 

Paper Dali has free printable Catholic and Bible story coloring pages and paper dolls to cut, color and assemble. I'm linking you to her home page because I want you to see  how big her collection is. Also, I want to honor her request not to use for anything but personal use. So I'm not sharing any here but linking back.  

St. Anne's Helper has many free Catholic, Christian and Bible coloring pages and activities for Lent and throughout the liturgical calendar. Some are for purchase and some are free. 

Catholic Icing has been one of  my go-to resources for years. I linked to the homepage so you can click around and find what you need. Here is the Lent page with all kinds of Catholic activities. 

Catholic Playground has some of the loveliest vintage Catholic coloring pages to print that I have ever seen. I think they must come from children's books or CCD materials. I think Our Lady of Lourdes is my favorite. 

Karen's Whimsy has been one of my favorite vintage coloring pages sites since I began writing online in 2006 😲(has it been 20 YEARS!?) On her page called "Christianity" you'll find dozens of gorgeous images created from old manuscripts, Bibles, prayer books, etc. Have children color these and make a living stations of the cross. 

And last but not least, is my friend Marilyn The Toymaker, with free printable vintage toy crafts to color, cut and paste. All made by the toymaker herself and free to print. I've linked to the Easter pages but there's so much more and that's  just the holidays. Check out her vintage animal paper crafts. Some are religious and some are just adorable.  Children could make these paper toys as acts of Lenten service and donate to children's missions, senior homes and more. Moses, I think you direct your siblings to make very nice Sun Boxes.

May all your Lenten journeys be all you need them to be. Love, Teacher Omi

How to help children deal with sadness, jealousy and anger

Hello my dear friends of the Omschool! I'm Teacher Omi, as grandson Silas dubbed me years ago. I'm not sure if I've ever addressed this but I want to now. Around here, we welcome everyone of any background or identity. It's not about how you do or don't worship, where you live, what you look like. You matter to me. There is not one person to whom the door is closed. I'm not so blessed with friends that I can afford to lose a single one. In fact, the more varied the tapestry of friends, the richer we all are for it. I'm excited to hear about what you like and think. 

As Mister Rogers sang (and I'm probably going to cry here but in a good way) "It's you I like. It's not the things you wear. Not the way you do your hair. It's you I like. That's what I'm aiming to keep alive was his huge, loving heart, the size of the ocean with room for all. If you are sad, I'm sad too. Trouble shared is trouble halved. And if you're glad, then by golly let's be glad together! There's so much to be glad about on this beautiful big blue marble we call home. And there are some sad things too, like wars and people not getting enough to eat. I care about that too. 

And sometimes people we love aren't happy for whatever reason. That's hard. But right here and now, I want to tell you that it is okay for you to be happy, even if they can't be. You're not happy because they are sad. I've said this before. You are happy because you're having chicken nuggets (right, Emmett?) or you found the moon for us (thank you, Flora). Maybe it's because you configured a Po Teletubby  hat from coat hanger (clever you, Lucian) and now you've shared it with little brother Max. Or because you mastered that song on the piano (Milo) or skied down the hill just like an Olympian (Juno).

So much to be happy about. But when you're not, it's okay too. No one is happy all the time. How would we know what joy is unless we know what sadness is? Mr. Kahlil Gibran taught us that in his poem On Joy and Sorrow. That's another one that makes me cry but also in a good way. He says that our joy and sorrow are not enemies, but actually kind of friends. 

It's even okay to be angry. We can probably agree it's best for everyone if we don't hurt anyone while we are angry. But if you do (and most of us have, even Teacher Omi, old as she is) you can try to fix it. Start by feeling sorry, then tell the person you hurt that you are sorry. Let them tell you how they feel about it. Then say what you are going to try to do differently so you don't do it again. Last, try really hard to do just that. And it doesn't hurt to do an extra kind deed for them. 

We all do things it would be better if we didn't. Like yell at someone or hit them or take or break something of theirs. And sometimes we don't do things it would be better to do. Such as help mom or dad or fold the clothes without fussing. I find it helps to try and find out why I did or didn't do those things. Sometimes I'm surprised at what I find. Perhaps I'm a little jealous or mad that someone has something I don't. Or I'm sad that my picture doesn't look as nice as theirs. 

But the more I think about it, the more I see that I don't want their toys. I might just like one of  my own. So I can ask my Omi if she could get it for my birthday. (Lola, are you still loving your Evie doll? It made Omi happy to send it because it made you happy and it reminds me of my Chrissy doll) And Ezra and Remus, I want you to know that your Opi (grampa) took a long time choosing your excavators because you are so important to him.

So that's one thing I could do. Or I could do extra chores to earn the money. And as for the picture, I can ask sister to show me how she made it. Or I can explore new ways to draw things. Or I could look at my picture and see the nice things about it. I could brainstorm about ways I could solve this problem. 

You can also ask God (however you understand him/her/them) for help. I think God loves it when we reach out for help. At least that's what the Bible I read says. We are told God is waiting with open arms for us to run into them. Like dad or mom. Or grandma and grampa. I hope that you all have people in your lives whom you love and who love you. 

So drop me a comment-- what do you do when you are sad or lonely? We can help each other find ways to feel better. Picture is me smiling at you! 

Love always, Teacher Omi

Food Sustainability science lesson plans to reduce food waste and understand poverty and world hunger

Hello my friends of the Omschool. Teacher Omi here with some sad science facts about food waste. Did you know that 31% of food in restaurants, grocery stores and households gets thrown out? That's one of every three pounds of food, $283 billion worth and 1 billion meals a day thrown into landfills. What is supposed to nourish us now kills us in greenhouse gasses. Here are sustainability lesson plans to reduce food waste by focusing on reduce, reuse, renew, repurpose and recycle. Just in time for Catholic Lent in which we practice abstaining, fasting and living simpler. 

Teach food waste statistics by show and tell. Have students analyze contents of trash in school cafeteria or classroom or at  home for homeschooled kids. Assign them to watch for signs of food waste. Alas it won't be difficult. At a baseball game, I saw a four member family each get hot dogs and nachos and throw half away, then popcorn and finally sodas and  ice creams, leaving behind half-full cartons littering the stands. Have students calculate the cost of such food waste. 

Keep a food scraps jar. It's not just peelings that get binned. It's actual meals. Have kids start taking notes on food waste by noting how many plates of food go down the disposal. Reducing food waste begins one mouthful at a time. For one week, add all discarded food (scraped from plates, from sink trap) to a clear jar so kids can see (and smell) results. Next week, discuss and practice ways to reduce food waste by taking only what we can eat and saving leftovers for another meal. 

Visit a landfill. 40% of what's meant to keep us alive goes into garbage dumps. And you won't need to actually go in. Driving by, you'll know from the greenhouse gasses from the methane stench. It's so explosive that communities are powered by it. So a kind of good thing but not at the expense of people going hungry. And on that note...

Get to know the faces of famine, world hunger and poverty. Because while those in wealthier countries are throwing away a meal a day of food, one in 11 people is starving to death. 10,000 children die each day from hunger and malnutrition. Look beyond the numbers to the people. When I was young, we were shown images of starving children and it was appalling. But children do need to see these little ones. Here's a link to AP with information and heartbreaking images of children starving in war-ravage Gaza. 

Quit decorating with food. Food is to eat, not play with. It's not a toy or a decoration. Teach kids to value the food they eat, by discontinuing practices such carving Halloween pumpkins only to throw them away. Cease putting "decorative" gourds and squash out in fall. I had to laugh at a customer complaining at the plastic waste from grocery bags only to find she had a porch decked out with 20 edible but now rotting squash. 1.3 BILLION pounds of pumpkins go into landfills just in the US, each year. If you  must carve a pumpkin, recycle it as animal food or donate it to a local farm. Don't plant decorative vegetables in the front yard. Plant a garden instead. 

Encourage mindful eating with portion control. Teach students that during world wars, when there were food shortages and rationing, people had to control portions because it was all they had. Now, we have so much that we freely dispose of it. We all need to be reminded that starvation is terrifyingly painful process that we who are fortunate enough not to feel should not take for granted. As kids we were taught "take all you want and eat all you take." Thankfully, many kids can now eat all they want. Now it's the eat all you take part we have to work on. 

Start a clean plate club. So there's good and bad in this. Part of how I lost 100 pounds was not to feel I had to clean my plate BUT to practice portion control so I could eat all I took. For children, cleaning their plates means that they determine how much food to take by assessing how much they'll eat. Help children understand that they can have seconds AFTER first serving is eaten. I call this the pancake principle. When I made pancakes, the kids would gobble up the first and ask for seconds which they would eat but more slowly. They say they wanted a third when they were still eating the second. So I'd wait till they were actually done before making round three. If they were full, I'd make and freeze the pancakes. 

Lose the "it's cool to waste food" mentality. I'm going to rant a moment. Since when did it become somehow posh to leave half a plate of perfectly good food untouched? That asking for a go box (doggy bag) was tacky and uncultured?? It's not. Leaving half your dinner is what's ;ow class ignorant arrogance. It shows poor breeding quicker than anything. I didn't live through a depression but my grandparents did. And even they who liked their elegance, thought wasting food was a mortal sin. I do know what it's like to go hungry when there is plenty. Food waste is  immoral, unethical and deadly to us and our planet. So ask for doggy bags, don't order so much or take smaller portions. Or do what a vegan restaurant we once frequented did and give leftovers out to homeless shelters at the end of the night. 

Garden. It's not about feeling sad or ashamed of our wealth. Lesson plans about world hunger should focus on what to do, not just what not to do. Starting a garden, even a humble patio bucket of herbs or tomatoes is a tangible way to repurpose, recycle and reduce food waste. 

Eat your scraps. We do not peel carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, grapes or potatoes or seed vegetables because that's where the protein, fiber and vitamins are. We scrub them and cook them skin and all. We eat our seeds too. If you must peel, scrape with a sharp peeler instead of a knife which wastes half the apple. Then save your scraps. 

Reuse food waste by composting. Take that scraps jar and add it to the composter. Then use it to fertilize garden. 

Repurpose food scraps for wildlife. Save toast scraps, orange peelings, seeds and cores for the bird feeder. 

Learn resourcefulness from native American indigenous cultures. When I was 11, we watched a documentary on plains tribes showing how they reused everything and nothing went waste. I couldn't find that one but I did find one on the Netsilik Inuit people of Alaska and Canada from the same time. I'd lived with Tlingit tribe in Haines and seen many of these waste reduction practices in action. A favorite dish was fish head soup made from salmon fish heads. It was delicious. Have students create a chart of ways to reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle. Each day, they can list practices they did to accomplish this. 

Explore and imitate indigenous habits.  I've learned that throughout the world and history, native peoples have had this self-reliant waste-not-want-not mentality and it has made them flourish. Whereas feudal cultures that relied upon slaves and practiced gluttony and over consumerism, fell. All natives no matter where they lived, survived because of their frugality and resourcefulness. 

Practice sustainability with poverty cooking and wartime meals. Famines are caused by natural events like volcanic eruptions but recently they're manmade. The US and European was a direct result of capitalism from war, Dust Bowl (tenant farmers made to practice strip farming and deforestation), farmers leaving to work in factories and then bankruptcy and plant closures, all preventable. But we learned from those times, to eat like our ancestors had eaten: practically and sustainably. Here's a collection of videos and recipes for Wartime meals. The motto was "use it up, make it last, wear it out, make do or do without" is a good one to live by. 

Try rationing role play. Pretend  you are a child during war time or a depression. No one had to tell you to eat your dinner then. You were vegan by force, not by choice, milk, eggs, cheese and meat being strictly rationed. My father-in-law tells stories of eating whatever he could scrounge and things that would make us gag now. Like head cheese and brains in the US, In Britain, they didn't even have the actual sheep's brains and made mock brains.  They also ate tripe (cow stomach lining).  But they were hungry and it filled them and they were glad for it. During those hungry times, food shortages caused rationing. It didn't matter if you could afford it,  if you didn't have the coupons, you didn't eat it. So have students invent recipes using rationed amounts of food and food swaps (such as fruits for sugar). Here are ration book recipes from the 1940s Experiment.  

Make up mock recipes. In wartime US and England mock recipes feature versions of foods made from alternative ingredients. Like lentils instead of meat. Now it would be called vegan gastronomy and served in posh gastro-pubs.  Sadly the things that were abundant and not rationed are now so expensive THEY are the posh people foods. Turnips that you couldn't give away are now $2.79 a pound. Here's a recipe for Thanksgiving Murkey (mock turkey). I love the little parsnip legs! Have students invent their own mock recipes for favorite foods like hot dogs, pizza and chicken nuggets. Picture is my War Cake recipe. 

We can't single-handedly stop food waste and end world hunger but we can be the change and as Mother Theresa said, "live simply that others might simply live." 

Free printable pizza recipes for kids for Pi Day: nutrition and cooking science lesson plans

Hello my friends of the Omschool! Teacher Omi wishing you Happy National Pizza Day with some kid-friendly pizza recipes and cooking lesson plans! Pi Day is coming up on March 14, and pizza making is a perfect Pi Day activity. Pizza making lesson plans are adaptable to most all ages so are great for homeschool families as well as traditional school classrooms. I've included literature-based connections. 

Pizza potluck. Ask each family to send in their favorite pizza ingredients or send home a note having them list them, then purchase. Make sure the usual toppings are covered:  Pepperoni, sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic, olives, bacon, ham, cheese, mozzarella cheese and pineapple. Add in some oddballs, too, like figs and goat cheese. Give each student a personal size crust to decorate as she wished. Make sure to have gluten-free pizza crust if you have any kids with gluten intolerance. Cooking lesson plans include having students prep the toppings by dicing peppers, slicing mushrooms and baking pizza. You can use a toaster oven for pizza making lesson plans. Read Stone Soup to show how sharing simple ingredients makes a feast. 

Pizza Math connections. Preschool pizza lesson plans include exploration of shape and color. Discuss cube shaped peppers, circle pepperoni. Cut cheese slices into triangles, rectangles and squares. Show students how to make fractions with a cheese slice by cutting it diagonally in two, then diagonally again in quarters and so one. Demonstrate fraction pie by cutting pizza in half, quarters and eighths. Or make square pizzas cut into 12 or 16 pizzas. Teach Pi Day lesson plans on geometry by reading Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immiter and Sir Cumference as the Dragon of Pi (by Cindy Neuschwander) All the books in the Sir Cumference series make great math lesson plans with their visuals and hands-on activities. 

Pizza clocks. Teach telling time by making analog clocks from pizza. Cut numbers out of any topping you wish or write numbers in food grade marker on pepperoni and arrange in clock face. Use pepper strips for short and long hand. Ask students to show different times on their pizza clocks and then have a "good time" eating! 

Rainbow Pizza. Make vegetable or fruit pizzas (with shortbread crust and cream cheese). Encourage kids to make a rainbow arranging various colored fruits and vegetables in a spectrum band. Use apples, strawberries, raspberries or watermelon, mandarin oranges, peaches or cantaloupe, pineapple or banana slices, kiwi or green grape slices, blueberries, purple grapes or blackberries. Read 
What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Schwartz. 

Pizza Cooking Challenge. Assign students to create their most awesome pizza recipes and have a classroom tasting. Award points based on artistic creativity, taste, frugality and resourcefulness. Do it like a mystery ingredient cooking challenge where each student must incorporate one surprise food item into his pizza. Or encourage students to experiment with unusual ingredients or pizza shapes. My favorite is a cooking challenge for using up as many leftovers as possible and repurposing them into a delicious recipe. Read the Amazon (free download) ebook Scraps to Snacks: A Cookbook for Kids by Kids to Reduce, Reuse and Re-eat. 

Free printable animal alphabet recipes and animal themed snacks from A-Z

Hello my friends of the Omschool! Teacher Omi here with a fresh batch of kids cooking lesson plans. And just in time for March National Reading Month, I've added lots of children's literature connections.  Here's a A-Z animal alphabet themed recipes and snacks to make with kids. Eat your way through the alphabet from aardvark to zebra with these healthy school snacks recipes. 

First some general tips for animal alphabet recipes. Use Alpha-Bits cereal, letter pretzels, cookies for letter shapes. Make animal character sandwiches using any spread and leave open face. Use pretzels or matchstick carrots for whiskers. For eyes, use Cheerios, spray cheese, raisins, olives, banana or kiwi slices. Make ears, nose and mouth from apple bits, pimentos, pepper pieces, triangle chips or crackers. Use pretzel sticks for legs. For animal cookie recipes, frost cookies with vanilla yogurt (healthier than frosting) and use candy or fruit to make faces. Here are animals to make. 

A animal alphabet preschool snacks -- (read Awkward Aardvark and I Can't Said the Ant)

--aardvark apples and almond butter. Cut apple wedges and frost with almond butter. Add mini chocolate chip eyes and tiny lettuce leaf ears. Pretzels bits make the legs. 

--ants on a log (celery spread with cream cheese or nut butter and raisins)

B animal alphabet school snacks (read Noah's Ark by Peter Spier)

--banana animal boat: Peel banana. Cut a slit; add animal crackers. 

--bunny bites (baby carrots, broccoli) 

--blue tongued skink blaster (blueberry or blackberry yogurt)

C animal alphabet school snacks (read, of course The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

--camel cheese and crackers (saltines with spray cheese faces)

--Caribou crudités (celery, cauliflower, cucumber carrots with cream cheeses) 

--Cheery cherry cat cookies (frosted cookies with maraschino cherry eyes and nose)

--caterpillar (line up colored melon balls or cubes. Or make  a pattern of cheese, cherry tomato, cucumber slices and baby carrots. Add raisin eyes to the first one. 

D animal alphabet school snacks

--donkey chips (tortilla chips)

--dingo dill pickles (just dill pickles with fancy name or make cheese face on dill pickle chips).

--dolphin crackers (like the goldfish kind)

--dog chow (square and round breakfast cereals--Life, Cheerios, Kix) 

--duck duck goose (marshmallow Peeps, animal crackers)

E animal alphabet school snacks 

--elephant eggs (deviled eggs) 

--eggplant echidna (place cheese cubes on pretzels and poke into eggplant base and Spanish olive slice eyes)

F school snacks to learn ABCs 

--monkey finger foods (fresh fruits)

--fish crackers 

--fiddler crab or field mouse figs (for crabs, poke 8 curly chow mien noodles into sides)

G healthy snack recipes to learn ABCs 

--gorilla cookies (big cookies with banana slices)

-- goofy giraffe: Poke raisin eye in Swiss cheese cube head. Place cheese cube on pretzel rod, celery or carrot stick neck. Poke in apple body. Add pretzel legs.

H healthy snack recipes to learn ABCs 

--healthy hot dogs (cheese stick on whole grain bun with sliced veggies) --ham witches (ham sandwiches, blue corn tortilla witch hat, olive eyes, pumpkin seed teeth) 

--horse haystacks: Mix melted butterscotch chips, chow mein noodles and coconut.

--hedgehog. Bake a potato and stick carrot slices or pretzels into it to look like quills. Top with cheese or pineapple cubes. Add olive eyes. 

I healthy snack recipes to learn ABCs 

--ice cream iguana clowns: (scoop of ice cream for head, ice cream cone hat, candy eyes and mouth). --I

--Impala cupcakes. Make cupcakes and top with M&M eyes and Mini Waffle Cone or Muddy Bites cookies for horns.  

J healthy snack recipes to learn ABCs 

--Jackal Jamberry Jam-witches (PBJ sandwiches) (read Jamberry Jam)

--Jaguars: (cat face sandwiches)

K healthy snack recipes for kids 

--King Kong cookies (like gorilla cookies) 

--Kangaroo pockets (pita pocket bread with favorite fillings)

L preschool snacks 

--lambkins (hard boiled eggs, pretzel legs, eyes) 

--llama lemonade with lime slices (read Llama, Llama, Red Pajamas) 

--Lemur lettuce pinwheels (tortilla spread with cream cheese, ham slices, lettuce, rolled up, sliced)

--Lynx or leopard lunchmeat sandwiches. Make cat face from matchstick carrots, green grape eyes and red pepper nose. 

--Lion. Fill a bowl with hummus, add sliced black olive eyes and radish stick fangs and then arrange multicolored pepper strips around it. 

M snack recipes for kids 

-- mushroom mice. (whole mushrooms with spray cheese eyes and matchstick carrot tail) 

--meow munch mix (like Dog Chow) 

--Moose tracks ice cream

N snack recipes for kids

--narwal nectarines or navel oranges (with peppermint stick or striped straw for horn) 

--nightcrawler noodles (chow men or cooked spaghetti or elbow mac and cheese)

--Nutria rat nutty nibbles (peanut butter cookies or sandwiches)

O alphabet animal snack recipes for kids ( read book Odder)

--otter pops: (decorated frosted sugar cookie face) 

--ostrich or owl omelets (favorite omelet recipe with olives)

P snack recipes for kids  (read Come Again, Pelican and Tacky the Penguin)

--pink piggies (pink frosted animal crackers) 

--Panda Bears (gummybears)

--Porpoise's pretzels, popcorn and peanut butter 

--Peacock pizza with pepperoni, peppers and pineapple pizza

--Penguin snacks (sushi with tuna)

--Pelican pouches (like kangaroo pouch snack)

Q alphabet preschool snacks 

--Quail's favorite quiche tarts: Place pie crust circles in muffin tin. Mix eggs, milk, cheese, pepper, garlic, salt and favorite add-ins. Bake. 

--Nestle Quick bunny (tell students to drink it “quietly.”)

R animal alphabet preschool snacks 

--Rat's ratatouille: (vegetable soup) Read Wind in the Willows

--Rabbit-wiches (oval carrot slices for ears)

S alphabet preschool snacks (read Squirrel Nutkin and The Very Busy Spider)

--summer squash or succotash slices (read story of Gopher from Winnie-the-Pooh)

--squirrely sunflower sandwiches: Cut bread round. Frost with cream cheese. Arrange yellow apple slices in flower. Make a squirrel face in center. 

--sloth's silly soup: Warm fruit juice; add fruit pieces.

--snakes and salamanders. Various colors of rope licorice. 

--spider cookies. (like haystacks recipe, mix melted chocolate chips and chow mien noodles)

T alphabet snacks (read Zoo Animals or Baby Zoo Animals) 

--scarlet tanager tangerine T (iced tea with tangerine slices or orange juice)) 

--tapir's tiny tacos (round tortilla chips with meat, cheese, tomatoes) 

-- turkey taters: Poke carrot, celery sticks in baked potato for feathers. Add spray cheese eyes, pimento wattle.

U animal alphabet snacks (read The Umbrella by Jan Brett or Umbrella by Taro Yashimo)

--umbrella bird cookies: Poke candy cane or pretzel stick into marshmallow pinwheel cookie. 

V letter snacks 

--Viper's very vanilla valentines (frosted cookies decorated with V shaped snacks)  Read Crictor the Boa Constrictor) 

--vampire bat's veggies and dip Read Mystery in the Night Woods and Stellaluna

W animal alphabet letter snacks (read The Big Bad Pig and the Three Little Wolves)

--wolfwiches (enormous submarine sandwiches) 

--Walrus wands (tusks) (pretzels rods dipped in frosting and sprinkles) 

--wallaby weather vanes: Poke pretzel sticks in cheese chunk to make X. Attach letters N, W, S, E to appropriate points on X.

--wasp-wiches. Almond butter and honey sandwiches. 

X animal themed letter snacks 

--xerus (small squirrel)  cut a small cooked sweet potato or banana flat on one end. Make ears from small folded bits of cheese slices. Add raisin eyes and fringed carrot tail. (to fringe carrot, use narrow slicer to make slices that end just short of bottom of carrot). 

Y animal themed snacks (read Dr. Seuss One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish)

--yak milk (plain milk) 

-- Dr. Seuss Pink Yink Ink Drink (milk colored pink with blueberry juice or strawberries) 

--yellowjacket lemon yogurt 

--yellowfin tuna cut fish shapes from yellow cheese slices 

Z animal alphabet themed letter snacks (read On Beyond Zebra and Put Me in the Zoo) 

--zoo mobile (animals crackers lined up like a train) --

--Zebra zippers (Fruit by the Foot)

--zebra cookies (horse shaped cookies frosted with white frosting and black stripes of licorice or decorator icing).