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Actress, Kathy Kinney, and her Hollywood friends, Clay Graham and Dana Plautz, want kids to love reading and
writing. They created a free audio and video library of stories on Mrs. P.’s Magic Library.
Be a Famous Writer Contest
They also started a writing contest for kid. This year is the third year of the Be a Famous Writer contest and I hope you’ll consider participating with your own children or children in your classroom.
AGES: 4 to 13
TOPIC: Your choice; fiction or non-fiction
LENGTH: 250 – 1,000 words
PRIZE: fame and glory of course, hardbound copy of story, story on Mrs. P. website, pries from Powells and Sakura of America.
DATE FOR ENTRY: September 1 – October 15, 2011
JUDGES: Bonny Becker best-selling author of the Bear and Mouse picture books, David L. Ulin book critic of the Los Angeles Times and author, most recently, of “The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time”; and Renèe Watson author, educator and poet.
Mrs. P. Says
How did you get the idea for Mrs. P?
Mrs. P: Clay Graham came to me and said I want to do a character that promotes reading for children. I’m afraid that is going to be lost, that parents won’t have time to read to the kids anymore.
It was exactly what I wanted because I think that children are the abolulutely the most important thing. I think I have the best job in the world, I have a great job. Just to be able to give back to the people who can’t protect themselves, children, makes us all extremely happy.
We started forward with creating Mrs. P. I had a dress. Then I tried hair, accents, I tried on red wig and glasses and it went click. We wanted someone who is completely human but the idea that magic could exist – the exercising of your imagination!
Why did you start the writing contest?
Mrs. P: American Idol is all about singing. We thought –what could we do for writing? Be a famous writer contest with celebrity judges.
What are your goals for the writing contest this year?
Mrs. P: We want to have as many teachers have their classes enter from every state in the union. We want to the entire country represented, we want to get it out there to every teacher that we can.
Start Writing and Good Luck!
Comment below if you’d like a chance to have Mrs. P. Skype with your classroom and why. I think I might be able to convince her to pick a few Imagination Soup reader classrooms . . . 
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Melissa Taylor is a mom and educator from Denver who is passionate about playful learning. Thanks for visiting the site!
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I’m not a teacher, but I would love to have her skype with one of my kids’ classes! They start back 8/22 – so not sure who their teachers are yet.
What a great contest!
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I would love to have Mrs. P. Skype with our remote Alaskan fourth grade classroom! Living on an island in Alaska does not allow many field trips to see other communities. In fact, we only have the one town we can visit. We rely on Skype to keep us connected to other cultures. Please choose us!
The email we received from Melissa to contact you did not work. It bounced back. We would love to skype with your classroom. Please send dana@mrsp.com your info this week.
thank you
I’m working on a Skype a month with different people from around the nation, I would love to have Mrs. P skype with my students about writing and how much fun it is. With the new common core really pushing writing in every aspect, I fear those who don’t think they can write will just hate it even more. Having Mrs. P skype with my class would help my students become more excited about writing and reading.
As a 2nd grade teacher, I often have students come to my class believing that they are not writers. Well, some of us are better at it, I tell them, like some of us are better at art, music, reading, math, and/or sports. That usually catches their attention. I truly believe there is a great writer in all of us; we all have a story to share. During our Writer’s Workshop, all students are referred to as ‘authors’. This makes them feel that they have ownership in learning the art of writing. Mrs. P. would be a great inspiration to my class as she was once a speck in someone’s imagination that happened to come to life!
Hi Robin,
We tried to contact you via the email that was provided by this blog and it bounced back. Can you please contact us at dana@mrsp.com so we can set up the call with you? thank you
Hello Teachers! It’s Mrs. P. I am doing a Skype day Sept 7th. I would love to connect with your classrooms and send you bookmarks too. Please email my partner and co-creator to set it up. Her name is Dana. Contact her at Dana@Mrsp.com please. If you can do it this week so she can get the bookmarks sent in advance of the calls too, that would be great. Thank you for expressing your interest in participating in this opportunity. I so appreciate all that you do for learning.
Thanks, Mrs. P. I will forward all comments and info to Dana.
Hugs!!
[...] Be a Famous Writer – Writing Contest for Kids! [...]
[...] Be a Famous Writer – Writing Contest for Kids! [...]
I just introduced my class to the Mrs. P website and they already love it! I announced we would be entering the writing contest and they literally cheered. How often do 2nd graders cheer when you assign a big writing project?
oh you made my day! Would like me to Skype with your class? Dana is sending you a note about it.
Thank you for sharing this.