Summers mean sparklers! A spark doesn’t last; its impression – the color, the singe, the crackle – does. Join us this week and bring that impression to others when you try your hand at sparkler sensory poetry.
Onomatopoeia Firework Poems
Feeling a word before we actually know its definition is like a firework. Join Callie Feyen and write some “firework” words with us.
Teach It: How to Avoid the Tragedy of Becoming “Only One Thing”
Let’s play The Excuse Me Game to avoid the tragedy of becoming “only one thing” and losing ourselves and our possibilities due to a failure of imagination.
Teach It: How Do They Tell a Story? First, You Listen
Literacy specialist Callie Feyen says the best way to help children write is first to listen.
Write the Moon: A No-Write Poetry Prompt
With a little help from a possum, pumpkin spice, and a classroom of kindergartners, Callie Feyen has a no-write poetry prompt for fall.
Life Notes: Superbuns!
What happens when Callie Feyen goes shopping for bras? With a five-year-old? Only one word for it: Superbuns!
The Wild 100 Summer Book Challenge
What do you think is beautiful? What is wild about the color yellow? Join Callie Feyen and her kids in a summer challenge to read 100 books and find out.
How to Read a Picture Book—With a Pirate as Your Guide
At-risk literacy specialist Callie Feyen shows us how to read and enjoy a picture book—with a pirate as our guide—from pre-reading to post-reading! And our hearts are touched along the way.
How To Dress Like a Reading Diva—And Read ‘The Sleepy Little Alphabet’
Some self-doubt in the shoe department leads to a surprising reflection on how to teach reading with The Sleepy Little Alphabet—and love it.
Reckless in the Library With Sight Word Baseball
Reading teacher Callie Feyen has been curious if recklessness can be used to learn, or, perhaps more radically, if recklessness is in fact needed to learn. Watch out, then, for baseball in the library!
On Finding Stories—And Maybe Myself
Callie Feyen invites readers to consider not just what is in a picture, but what’s not in the picture, when finding the story to tell.
Poets and Writers Toolkit: Play-Doh Creative Nonfiction
Teacher and writer Callie Feyen has been there—not knowing how to resolve a story, not knowing what to write and how. Her advice is to get some Play-Doh.
Romeo and Juliet: Kissing a Fair Dragon in His Cave
When Callie Feyen teaches Romeo and Juliet, she uses the Oxford Press edition, and it is this one-sentence paragraph she makes sure the students discuss: “And then she meets Romeo.”
Teach It: Mixed Emotions in Civil Rights
To teach civil rights is partly to teach how to deal with mixed emotions. Callie Feyen uses a striking picture book to help you teach with depth & clarity.
Make It: Poetry Hearts at the Table
A lovely glass milk jug becomes the inspiration for a beautiful poetry hearts activity. Join Callie Feyen and make a few thoughtful hearts for Valentines or just for fun.
What Willie Nelson Taught Me about Storytelling – Night of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, Washington, D.C.
Callie Feyen learned a lot about storytelling from Willie Nelson when he was awarded the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in Washington, D.C.
Take Your Poet to Work Day: Poet Treasure Hunt in the Library (Callie’s Story)
How did you spend Take Your Poet to Work Day? We want to know. Like this, from Callie Feyen. What a marvelous, ticklish, soul-jazz way to spend the day!