I LOVE heart mapping for Valentine’s Day but I also love it for pushing through a writing block. What to write about is a very common (and frustrating) challenge for young writers (and us old writers, too.) Georgia Heard suggests heart mapping as a way to generate ideas for the challenge of what to write. Once kids create a heart map, they... [read more ]

Rachelle at TinkerLab, challenged bloggers to be creative with paper bags. Of course, I wanted to take a literacy angle and made a paper bag book that you can easily make, too. I found inspiration from That Artist Woman. DIY Paper Bag Book Supplies paper bags (lunch sack size) stapler paints (tempora) paint brushes flower pictures pens drawing... [read more ]

Combining art with writing often motivates children to write. I’ve tried different pop-ups with my classes and found the easiest pop-up technique is criss-crossing strips of paper. How to Make a Pop-Up 1. Cut two long identical strips of paper. Put one end on top of the other end so they make an “L” shape. 2. Fold the bottom strip... [read more ]

Thank you to who?Comics for sponsoring this post and encouraging my child to read biographies in comic book form! Please click here to learn more about the app. And follow who? Comics on Twitter for updates. I love encouraging kids to read biographies in February since it includes President’s Day and is Black History Month. So when offered... [read more ]

Let’s continue education month here on Imagination Soup by looking at best practices for encouraging divergent thinking in children with reading and writing workshop. Linear thinking, or convergent thinking, is about learning facts, follow instructions, and solving problems with one right answer. Divergent thinking is generating unique solutions... [read more ]

Now that you’ve learned or refreshed your memory on the differences between convergent thinking and divergent thinking, let’s look at the application in learning. Can you determine which is which? It’s important that you can because it’s up to you, parent or teacher, to advocate for more divergent learning in the classroom. Linear... [read more ]

Becoming a playwright will get your kids writing, it’s a writing activity that engrosses young writers. Kids get to see what they wrote in a live performance and that in itself is very motivating. Steps to Writing a Play 1. Characters Pick the characters in your story. We used Christmas toys to get started. JJ wrote a play about (see photo... [read more ]

I don’t know about you but I’m always adapting my organizational systems for my kids and their ages. Especially when it comes to writing and art – which go hand in hand, don’t you think? At ages six and nine, I’ve given the girls work spaces and easy access to supplies. Not only that, I try to display as much of their... [read more ]

As we finish 2011, I thought I’d share the most popular posts of the year and chat with you about 2012. Like last year, January will be all about learning and education topics. And, last year was a dozy for me because of what I wrote in January. If you are new here, you can start with this seemingly innocent post which started an avalanche of... [read more ]

Guest post by Susan Getty, mom, librarian, and blogger.  Art Journals With Kids Post #2 (Art Journals With Kids Post #1)  In mid-November, I posted on my blog about the idea of creating artist/writer’s journals as a group project with my girls and some of their friends (Artist/Writer’s Journaling Begins). Completely inspired by Jess... [read more ]

Today I invite you to join me in art journaling — and to include your kids in the experience, too. I began to explore art journaling after realizing how much joy I find in creating. Before kids, I used my music and dance to channel my creativity. Now, I found myself missing that creative part of self different than my writing. Beginnings of... [read more ]

Our word collection started when JJ’s teacher read aloud Donavan’s Word Jar to her class. JJ wanted to start a word collection jar at home. Of course, I was happy to oblige! Then, when Rachelle of TinkerLab challenged me to blog about using old magazines, I thought word collections would be the perfect fit. Here’s how we made word... [read more ]