Poetry Box bubble time: my final bubble time challenge

 

 

 

Bethells Beach Te Henga

 

 

Dawn

 

Four house lights sparking in the valley dark.

Who will walk up their long rural driveways to stand

in silence for ANZAC Day?

 

In bubble time I wake up in the night

and I imagine the whole world is awake

wondering what night it is

 

but it is just me and I am figuring out

a story about a cat who lives on the moon

and I wondering how to make cheese

and how to make pasta parcels

or pasta butterflies

 

and how to plant seeds in the cold

and how to feel sad and glad

and how to thank all the kind people

and how to ignore all the mean people

 

and how to hug everyone who has lost a loved one

and how to thank Jacinda for listening

and how to write a poem

that is both sad and glad.

 

Paula Green

 

 

Today we move to Level 2 and next week schools will be opening on a wider scale so Poetry Box will also move to a new level.

Today I am offering a final bubble challenge.

Tomorrow I will posting some favourite mahi from you from the past week.

On Monday I will post a new Poetry Box schedule.

 

A FINAL BUBBLE CHALLENGE

People are going to write about BUBBLE TIME and LOCKDOWN for a long time. We are always part of history because history is about ordinary lives as much it is about the lives and actions of important people like Prime Ministers and scientists and explorers.

Reports will be written. Questions will be asked. Art will be made. Music created. Stories and poems written. We have been part of a significant world event.

Today I invite you to write or create something as a RECORD of your BUBBLE time.

 

You could write a poem or a suite of poems.

Think about where you were. Imagine you are describing the time to someone in the future.

What were the best things you did?

What were the worst things?

Write a poem about one particular thing or loads of things.

What were the worst thing?

Did you do anything you don’t usually do?

You could do a series of drawings or paintings.

You could make up a song and record yourself singing it

You could make a little video.

You could write a letter to the future or to someone who wasn’t in you bubble/

You could show someone in the future what it was like for you to be in your bubble.

What did you find hard?

What did you find fun?

What did you miss?

What did you gain from your experience?

 

I will post mahi from this challenge on Friday  22nd May.

I will have some books to give away.

 

send to  paulajoygreen@gmail.com

please include your name age and name of school

don’t forget to put NAME OF challenge in subject line so I don’t miss it

don’t put your surname on drawings or paintings or collages (Poetry Box policy)

 

This is the last week for Bubble time – see what happens next week!

 

You can still try these Poetry Box activities. Click on links below:

 

Watch my picture poems and try some.

Watch my moon poems and try some yourself.

Watch my ocean video and try my two-poem sea challenge!

Read Richard Langston’s lighthouse and tree poems and write as though you are something /someone else.

Listen to Paula read her cats poems and offer cat and things-that-wake-you-in-night activities

Listen to Elena de Roo’s BIRD poems and try my Bird challenge

Tell about a book you have loved in bubble time.

Richard Langston reads his red poem with colour activities

Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan’s magnificent videos and The Bomb activities

write or draw something for your favourite library or bookshop

Listen to Ashley (8) read: try my dinosaur, pets and swip swap challenges

Have fun with SOUNDS, muck around with WORDS

Listen to Amelia (8) read 3 poems from The Treasury and try my activities

Listen to Philippa Werry read her poem and try her simile challenge

Make a memory album or page

Try my lost-wonder challenges and listen Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders!

Loads of MAKING ideas inside and outside

Do something rainy or snowy! Watch me read my rain and cold poems from The Letterbox Cat

Listen to Melinda Szymanik read her alien mother story and try your own

Send me pictures, photos or poems of curious things you see on your walks

Listen to Maisie and I read fish poems and invite you to do fishy things

Listen to my unpublished very very very strange tail story and do some illustrations for it or invent your own strange tail!

Try writing a postcard poem from where you’d like to be!

Mixed up animals and hear Paula read ‘Anifables’ poem

Sally Sutton’s magic hat challenge

Celebrate your hero and listen to Barbara Else read

Tell me about your favourite bookshop or library

Try my Pass the Poem challenge with friends and family by phone or email

Write draw video comic strip letters poems stories about being in your bubble

My cloudy challenges and hear my cloud poem

My thank our supermarket workers challenge

Listen to me read Aunt Concertina and offer a cool challenge

Listen to me read my poem ‘Lick Lick Riff’ dog poem and offer a doggy cat tiger bat any animal challenge

Check out David Hill’s wonderful photo challenge

Listen to Swapna Haddow read her book and try a rabbit challenge

Try Johanna Aitchison’s hunt the teddy challenges

Ruth Paul reads her muddy poem and I offer muddy challenges

 

 

kia kaha

keep well

keep imagining

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Shelf bubble time: watch my ocean video and try my challenge

 

 

 

This is Bethells Beach, Te Henga, where I can now drive to early in the morning. Usually there are hardly any people at that time, but now there are a few surfers, runners, dog walkers, strollers, daydreamers, super-fast walkers … and loads of shore birds. There is heaps of room. I often get ideas when I am walking. They roll about in my head like little waves.

 

Today I invite you to watch the video (under 2 minutes!). I have at least one book to give away.

 

Jot down everything that pops into your head as you watch the ocean.

Use your eyes and ears!

Choose one thing you have written down as a SPRINGBOARD to a poem.

Play with how the words RIPPLE on the line.

Play with how the lines LOOK on the page.

Say your poem out loud and listen to the movement of the words.

 

LEAVE YOUR POEM FOR AT LEAST ONE DAY. This is poem 1.

 

After a few days (or one day) write a new version of the poem. Add something new into the poem.

It might be from the list of things you jotted down.

It might be something surprising!

It might be your own beach memory.

It might be someone doing something.

It might be a bird doing something.

You might hear something different.

It might be something surprising you spot in the sand.

YOU CHOOSE!

This is poem 2

 

Make sure you give the poems titles. You can illustrate them. You could use coloured pencils, crayons, felt pens, paint.

 

 

send to  paulajoygreen@gmail.com

please include your name age and name of school

don’t forget to put NAME OF challenge in subject line so I don’t miss it

don’t put your surname on drawings or paintings or collages (Poetry Box policy)

 

There is no deadline while we are living in our bubbles! Every Friday I will post some work by children.

I will always answer your emails but not straightaway. If I haven’t replied after 3 or 4 days nudge me as I may have missed it.

I will have at least one book to give away each Friday.

 

 

You can also try these Poetry Box activities. Click on links below:

 

Read Richard Langston’s lighthouse and tree poems and write as though you are something /someone else.

Listen to Paula read her cats poems and offer cat and things-that-wake-you-in-night activities

Listen to Elena de Roo’s BIRD poems and try my Bird challenge

Tell about a book you have loved in bubble time.

Richard Langston reads his red poem with colour activities

Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan’s magnificent videos and The Bomb activities

write or draw something for your favourite library or bookshop

Listen to Ashley (8) read: try my dinosaur, pets and swip swap challenges

Have fun with SOUNDS, muck around with WORDS

Listen to Amelia (8) read 3 poems from The Treasury and try my activities

Listen to Philippa Werry read her poem and try her simile challenge

Make a memory album or page

Try my lost-wonder challenges and listen Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders!

Loads of MAKING ideas inside and outside

Do something rainy or snowy! Watch me read my rain and cold poems from The Letterbox Cat

Listen to Melinda Szymanik read her alien mother story and try your own

Send me pictures, photos or poems of curious things you see on your walks

Listen to Maisie and I read fish poems and invite you to do fishy things

Listen to my unpublished very very very strange tail story and do some illustrations for it or invent your own strange tail!

Try writing a postcard poem from where you’d like to be!

Mixed up animals and hear Paula read ‘Anifables’ poem

Sally Sutton’s magic hat challenge

Celebrate your hero and listen to Barbara Else read

Tell me about your favourite bookshop or library

Try my Pass the Poem challenge with friends and family by phone or email

Write draw video comic strip letters poems stories about being in your bubble

My cloudy challenges and hear my cloud poem

My thank our supermarket workers challenge

Listen to me read Aunt Concertina and offer a cool challenge

Listen to me read my poem ‘Lick Lick Riff’ dog poem and offer a doggy cat tiger bat any animal challenge

Check out David Hill’s wonderful photo challenge

Listen to Swapna Haddow read her book and try a rabbit challenge

Try Johanna Aitchison’s hunt the teddy challenges

Ruth Paul reads her muddy poem and I offer muddy challenges

 

kia kaha

keep well

keep imagining

 

Poetry Box bubble time: Two sublime Richard Langston poems and an invitation to write as though you are a lighthouse or a tree or a …

 

 

Lighthouse

I stand on rock.

I am the lighthouse.

I shine & turn

In the dark.

I talk to the moon

stars & sea.

I stand in spray,

flying rain, crying wind.

The crash of waves.

I am all weathers

I am the world.

I turn & turn

I watch you pass,

Sailor, dolphin, bird,

There you go,

in my flashing eye.

Richard Langston

I am a Tree

 

I am a tree today,

I must be.

The sun glows

in me.

I feel myself rise,

My skin is leaf.

I lift my arms

& grow & rise

& bud.

I am seven,

It is Spring

& I am a tree.

Richard Langston

 

I really love these two poems by Richard Langston and thought it would be cool

to write a poem as though you are something else.

 

The possibilities are endless:

a train, plane, ant, tiger, cat, cup, crayon, the sun, the moon, stars, clouds, a puddle, traffic lights, a tree, a flower, the wind, a mountain, a river, the ocean, a monster, a zebrodile, a letterbox  .. you choose!

 

You can play with how your poem sits on the page.

Will you use dialogue?

Will there be another character?

You will have to wonder what it is like to be something  else!

You can include a drawing or painting if you like! Or do a comic strip.

 

send to  paulajoygreen@gmail.com

please include your name age and name of school

don’t forget to put NAME OF challenge in subject line so I don’t miss it

don’t put your surname on drawings or paintings or collages (Poetry Box policy)

 

There is no deadline while we are living in our bubbles! Every Friday I will post some work by children.

I will always answer your emails but not straightaway. If I haven’t replied after 3 or 4 days nudge me as I may have missed it.

I will have at least one book to give away each Friday.

 

 

You can also try these Poetry Box activities. Click on links below:

 

Listen to Paula read her cats poems and offer cat and things-that-wake-you-in-night activities

Listen to Elena de Roo’s BIRD poems and try my Bird challenge

Tell about a book you have loved in bubble time.

Richard Langston reads his red poem with colour activities

Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan’s magnificent videos and The Bomb activities

write or draw something for your favourite library or bookshop

Listen to Ashley (8) read: try my dinosaur, pets and swip swap challenges

Have fun with SOUNDS, muck around with WORDS

Listen to Amelia (8) read 3 poems from The Treasury and try my activities

Listen to Philippa Werry read her poem and try her simile challenge

Make a memory album or page

Try my lost-wonder challenges and listen Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders!

Loads of MAKING ideas inside and outside

Do something rainy or snowy! Watch me read my rain and cold poems from The Letterbox Cat

Listen to Melinda Szymanik read her alien mother story and try your own

Send me pictures, photos or poems of curious things you see on your walks

Listen to Maisie and I read fish poems and invite you to do fishy things

Listen to my unpublished very very very strange tail story and do some illustrations for it or invent your own strange tail!

Try writing a postcard poem from where you’d like to be!

Mixed up animals and hear Paula read ‘Anifables’ poem

Sally Sutton’s magic hat challenge

Celebrate your hero and listen to Barbara Else read

Tell me about your favourite bookshop or library

Try my Pass the Poem challenge with friends and family by phone or email

Write draw video comic strip letters poems stories about being in your bubble

My cloudy challenges and hear my cloud poem

My thank our supermarket workers challenge

Listen to me read Aunt Concertina and offer a cool challenge

Listen to me read my poem ‘Lick Lick Riff’ dog poem and offer a doggy cat tiger bat any animal challenge

Check out David Hill’s wonderful photo challenge

Listen to Swapna Haddow read her book and try a rabbit challenge

Try Johanna Aitchison’s hunt the teddy challenges

Ruth Paul reads her muddy poem and I offer muddy challenges

 

kia kaha

keep well

keep imagining

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Box bubble time: Cat poems and things that wake you in the NIGHT

 

Agile hiding in the bush

 

Charlie on the deck watching me garden

 

 

 

Last night at about 2 am our cat Agile started howling in the hallway so our other cat Charlie joined in. I don’t know know what they wanted but they wouldn’t stop. They hailed and wailed until about 4.30 am and I just couldn’t get to sleep. Now those two ragamuffin cats are fast asleep. Charlie is on his bubble wrap under the kitchen table (listen to the poem!) and Agile is asleep on a chair.

Not me! I can’t go to sleep now. I decided the ragamuffin cats were cold and hated the stormy night because when I turned the heater on they were happy.

The other night an army of mozzies kept me awake from about 2 until 5! Buzzing around my face and dive bombing me.

One night it was the RAIN thumping on the roof that woke me up.

This has been my week of not very much sleep at all. I am imagining there is a big bucket on the deck full of sleep. You can reach in and pull out a sleep cloak and hey presto you have a good night’s sleep before you can say SLEEPADOODLEDO!

 

 

 

So I am going to read you a few of my CAT poems because I LOVE writing cat poems. They are out of my book The Letterbox Cat (I have a copy to give at least one child who tries a challenge below).

 

Paula reads ‘Cat Naps’, ‘The Letterbox Cat’ and ‘Night Cat’

 

 

 

Paula reads ‘The Greedy Cat’

 

 

 

 

Two activities for you

 

Cat things

write a poem about your pet cat

write a poem about your pet cat doing something they have never done before

write a poem about an imaginary pet cat

write a poem about cat for someone who has never seen a cat

write a poem about a pet cat and their best friend

write a poem about a pet cat who gets lots (our one did!)

or any cat poem you like!

draw or paint your cat or do a comic strip

 

 

Things that wake you in the night

write a poem about something that wakes in the night

write a poem about something invented that wakes you in the night

write a poem about the stormiest night ever

write a poem about a cat that wakes you in the night

 

h a v e    f u n  !!!!

 

 

send to  paulajoygreen@gmail.com

please include your name age and name of school

don’t forget to put NAME OF challenge in subject line so I don’t miss it

don’t put your surname on drawings or paintings or collages (Poetry Box policy)

 

There is no deadline while we are living in our bubbles! Every Friday I will post some work by children.

I will always answer your emails but not straightaway. If I haven’t replied after 3 or 4 days nudge me as I may have missed it.

I will have at least one book to give away each Friday.

 

 

You can also try these Poetry Box activities. Click on links below:

Listen to Elena de Roo’s BIRD poems and try my Bird challenge

Tell about a book you have loved in bubble time.

Richard Langston reads his red poem with colour activities

Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan’s magnificent videos and The Bomb activities

write or draw something for your favourite library or bookshop

Listen to Ashley (8) read: try my dinosaur, pets and swip swap challenges

Have fun with SOUNDS, muck around with WORDS

Listen to Amelia (8) read 3 poems from The Treasury and try my activities

Listen to Philippa Werry read her poem and try her simile challenge

Make a memory album or page

Try my lost-wonder challenges and listen Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders!

Loads of MAKING ideas inside and outside

Do something rainy or snowy! Watch me read my rain and cold poems from The Letterbox Cat

Listen to Melinda Szymanik read her alien mother story and try your own

Send me pictures, photos or poems of curious things you see on your walks

Listen to Maisie and I read fish poems and invite you to do fishy things

Listen to my unpublished very very very strange tail story and do some illustrations for it or invent your own strange tail!

Try writing a postcard poem from where you’d like to be!

Mixed up animals and hear Paula read ‘Anifables’ poem

Sally Sutton’s magic hat challenge

Celebrate your hero and listen to Barbara Else read

Tell me about your favourite bookshop or library

Try my Pass the Poem challenge with friends and family by phone or email

Write draw video comic strip letters poems stories about being in your bubble

My cloudy challenges and hear my cloud poem

My thank our supermarket workers challenge

Listen to me read Aunt Concertina and offer a cool challenge

Listen to me read my poem ‘Lick Lick Riff’ dog poem and offer a doggy cat tiger bat any animal challenge

Check out David Hill’s wonderful photo challenge

Listen to Swapna Haddow read her book and try a rabbit challenge

Try Johanna Aitchison’s hunt the teddy challenges

Ruth Paul reads her muddy poem and I offer muddy challenges

 

kia kaha

keep well

keep imagining

 

Poetry Box bubble time: Elena de Roo’s bird slide show, bird poems and my bird challenges

Elena de Roo is one of my favourite New Zealand children’s poets. You can find some of her poems in A Treasury of NZ Poems for Children (Random House). She writes poems with a listening ear and a zesty imagination. There is always a sprinkling of heart, surprise and music. I love the way the real world comes alive as much as imagined things. I just love love her poems!

Elena has picked some of her bird poems to share with you. You can watch the bird slide show and listen to her two poems and then try my BIRD activities.

I will have a copy of A Treasury of NZ Poems for Children to give to one child who sends me something from one of my bird activities below.

 

Listen to Elena read ‘Pīwakawaka’ while you watch the slides:

 

 

 

 

Listen to Elena reading ‘Hunting the Dawn’

 

 

 

Listen to Elena read ‘Pīwakawaka’ without the slide show!

 

 

 

 

Some BIRD ACTIVITIES for you

 

1       Bird sounds  LISTEN to your poem as you write it!

I was inspired by Elena’s morepork poem. Make a list of bird sound words. Start with tweet and cheep and then use your ears to make up words for the sounds different birds make. Try morepork / ruru  or a chook or a duck or a hawk or a kiwi or a dotterel or a starling. Choose any bird you like!

Can you find bird sounds online and listen to then? Can you listen to bird sounds outside?

Pick one bird and use the sounds you gathered for it and make a poem. Do an illustration to go with it if you like. You may even want to record yourself reading the poem.

Or write a poem full of different sounds and bird activities. Do an illustration to go with it if you like. You may even want to record yourself reading the poem.

 

2       Bird patterns  LISTEN to your poem as you write it!

I love the way words make patterns in Elena’s pīwakawaka poem.

Pick one of your favourite birds. Draw a circle (or a bird) and fill it with as many words as you can that show the bird (you choose!): what the bird looks like, sounds like, how they move, what they eat, where they live, anything special, different or unique about them.

flutter flutter fantail

flitter flitter wing

dance dance silver bird

shimmer shimmer sing

 

Use some of the words to make a bird pattern poem.

You could make a bird pattern poem in the shape of a bird.

OR use some of your words to tell a little bird story in a poem

 

Do an illustration to go with it if you like. You may even want to record yourself reading the poem.

 

h a v e    f u n  !!!!

 

send to  paulajoygreen@gmail.com

please include your name age and name of school

don’t forget to put NAME OF challenge in subject line so I don’t miss it

don’t put your surname on drawings or paintings or collages (Poetry Box policy)

 

There is no deadline while we are living in our bubbles! Every Friday I will post some work by children.

I will always answer your emails but not straightaway. If I haven’t replied after 3 or 4 days nudge me as I may have missed it.

I will have at least one book to give away each Friday.

 

 

You can also try these Poetry Box activities. Click on links below:

 

Tell about a book you have loved in bubble time.

Richard Langston reads his red poem with colour activities

Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan’s magnificent videos and The Bomb activities

write or draw something for your favourite library or bookshop

Listen to Ashley (8) read: try my dinosaur, pets and swip swap challenges

Have fun with SOUNDS, muck around with WORDS

Listen to Amelia (8) read 3 poems from The Treasury and try my activities

Listen to Philippa Werry read her poem and try her simile challenge

Make a memory album or page

Try my lost-wonder challenges and listen Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders!

Loads of MAKING ideas inside and outside

Do something rainy or snowy! Watch me read my rain and cold poems from The Letterbox Cat

Listen to Melinda Szymanik read her alien mother story and try your own

Send me pictures, photos or poems of curious things you see on your walks

Listen to Maisie and I read fish poems and invite you to do fishy things

Listen to my unpublished very very very strange tail story and do some illustrations for it or invent your own strange tail!

Try writing a postcard poem from where you’d like to be!

Mixed up animals and hear Paula read ‘Anifables’ poem

Sally Sutton’s magic hat challenge

Celebrate your hero and listen to Barbara Else read

Tell me about your favourite bookshop or library

Try my Pass the Poem challenge with friends and family by phone or email

Write draw video comic strip letters poems stories about being in your bubble

My cloudy challenges and hear my cloud poem

My thank our supermarket workers challenge

Listen to me read Aunt Concertina and offer a cool challenge

Listen to me read my poem ‘Lick Lick Riff’ dog poem and offer a doggy cat tiger bat any animal challenge

Check out David Hill’s wonderful photo challenge

Listen to Swapna Haddow read her book and try a rabbit challenge

Try Johanna Aitchison’s hunt the teddy challenges

Ruth Paul reads her muddy poem and I offer muddy challenges

 

kia kaha

keep well

keep imagining

 

 

Poetry Box bubble time: A fabulous red poem by Richard Langston and a colour challenge

 

Tomatoes

 

Milly is eating red

For breakfast she is

Devouring red she

Can hardly wait to

Eat this red look at

That red disappear

She is red inside with red

her plate is white

where did all that red

go?

 

Richard Langston

 

 

Listen to Richard read the poem:

 

 

 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this red poem by Richard Langston and thought it would be very cool to have some colour poems on the blog. Check out my colour ideas below.

Richard is a poet and an award winning journalist (TV, print and radio). He has won TV Current Affairs reporter twice.

 

Poetry Box activities:

Pick a colour.

Write down everything that pops into your head when you think of that colour.

Make a poem – it might be a word patter, funny, something that happened to you, a memory, a little story.

Make a drawing or painting mostly using that colour.

Make prints with your colour using a potato or your hands or anything you can find.

Make your colour out of something you can find in kitchen or garden. What can you do with the colour you make?

 

 

send to  paulajoygreen@gmail.com

please include your name age and name of school

don’t forget to put NAME OF challenge in subject line so I don’t miss it

don’t put your surname on drawings or paintings or collages (Poetry Box policy)

 

There is no deadline while we are living in our bubbles! Every Friday I will post some work by children. I will always answer your emails but not straightaway. If I haven’t replied after 3 or 4 days nudge me as I may have missed it. I will have at least one book to give away each Friday.

 

 

You can also try these Poetry Box activities:

Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan’s magnificent videos and The Bomb activities

write or draw something for your favourite library or bookshop

Listen to Ashley (8) read: try my dinosaur, pets and swip swap challenges

Have fun with SOUNDS, muck around with WORDS

Listen to Amelia (8) read 3 poems from The Treasury and try my activities

Listen to Philippa Werry read her poem and try her simile challenge

Make a memory album or page

Try my lost-wonder challenges and listen Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders!

Loads of MAKING ideas inside and outside

Do something rainy or snowy! Watch me read my rain and cold poems from The Letterbox Cat

Listen to Melinda Szymanik read her alien mother story and try your own

Send me pictures, photos or poems of curious things you see on your walks

Listen to Maisie and I read fish poems and invite you to do fishy things

Listen to my unpublished very very very strange tail story and do some illustrations for it or invent your own strange tail!

Try writing a postcard poem from where you’d like to be!

Mixed up animals and hear Paula read ‘Anifables’ poem

Sally Sutton’s magic hat challenge

Celebrate your hero and listen to Barbara Else read

Tell me about your favourite bookshop or library

Try my Pass the Poem challenge with friends and family by phone or email

Write draw video comic strip letters poems stories about being in your bubble

My cloudy challenges and hear my cloud poem

My thank our supermarket workers challenge

Listen to me read Aunt Concertina and offer a cool challenge

Listen to me read my poem ‘Lick Lick Riff’ dog poem and offer a doggy cat tiger bat any animal challenge

Check out David Hill’s wonderful photo challenge

Listen to Swapna Haddow read her book and try a rabbit challenge

Try Johanna Aitchison’s hunt the teddy challenges

Ruth Paul reads her muddy poem and I offer muddy challenges

 

kia kaha

keep well

keep imagining

 

 

 

 

Poetry Box bubble time: Sacha Cotter reads from The Bomb, makes a splash, and sings a cool song with Josh Morgan

Sacha Cotter is a very cool writer – she writes with the ear of a poet and she creates stories that zing with life, imagination and heart. With her partner, fabulous illustrator and musician, Josh Morgan, Sacha makes children’s books that really touch me.  I adore The Bomb!

In fact I want to give a copy of The BOMB to someone who tries one of my challenges! I am going to order a copy online now bookshops are open. See below where to email your things.

 

1   The BOMB

Sacha reads a taster from The Bomb, illustrated by Josh Morgan (Huia Press). There is also a te reo version of the book.

 

 

*NOTE* Due to a change in YouTube default streaming settings, our video quality may appear poor. For a crisper image, click the cog icon/settings button in the bottom right-hand corner of the YouTube video screen & set the quality to 1080p HD

 

You can go to the Good Night Kiwi series at TVNZ on Demand and hear What Now’s Evander Brown read the whole book. I love this story so much. A young boy desperately wants to do the perfect bomb into the water but he just can’t! Everyone bombards him with advice. I don’t want to spoil the story but his Nan (who knows a lot about perfect bombs) is very wise!

 

This is a story abut following your heart and doing things your way.

This means a lot to me because it is how I feel as a writer. I have learnt to write books my way and to follow my heart when I write.

 

Some Poetry Box Challenges

Write a poem, draw a picture or comic strip about something tricky you have tried to do.

Write a poem or do a drawing about and for someone who has helped you (your nan, your mum or dad, sister or brother, teacher, kuia, friend). Show me the person in your poem. What do they like? What have they said or done that has stuck with you? Send it to them!

Sacha is really good at finding words that pop on the line.  The action of her story comes to life with the verbs she picks! Try writing a poem about something you love to do. Go hunting for sizzling VERBS you can put in your poem and your drawing.

 

2   The BIG Splash

Sacha and Josh have fun making splashes in their backyard. Wow this looks so cool. They give lots of tips. This looks like such a NOT BORING thing to do in your bubble.

 

Poetry Box splash challenges:

Collect different size containers and fill them with water.

Collect different size things to drop in.

DROP IN!

Record the splashes on a video or in a comic strip or drawing.

Did you DISCOVER anything?

Can you write a SPLASH poem? Hunt for SPLASH words before you start.

Poems are good places to get SCIENTIFIC!

 

3 Listen to Sacha and Josh’s Tiny Kitchen Concert

 

 

I love listening to this song so much. It fills me with warmth and a good feeling that just keeps growing. I can see Sacha and Josh follow their hearts and do things their way.

Check out the way their baby’s legs jiggle in time to the music.

Maybe you can invent a dance to go with the song!

Have you ever made up a song? Would you want to give it a go? It could be really short! You could send me an audio or a video! Do it your way!

 

h a v e     f u n

follow your heart

do it your way

 

Author Sacha Cotter is an award-winning children’s writer based in Wellington. She is the author of Keys/Ngā Kī, The Marble Maker/Te Kaihanga Māpere and the 2019 Margaret Mahy Children’s Book of the Year, The Bomb / Te Pohū – all published by HUIA and illustrated by her partner in both books and life, Josh Morgan.

Sacha’s website
Manawatū born and raised, Josh Morgan (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata) is a freelance illustrator and musician living in Wellington, New Zealand with his partner, the author Sacha Cotter, and their wee family. Together they form the amazing storytelling / song writing / award-winning-picture-book-making team Cotter & Morgan.

 

send to  paulajoygreen@gmail.com

please include your name age and name of school

don’t forget to put NAME OF challenge in subject line so I don’t miss it

don’t put your surname on drawings or paintings or collages (Poetry Box policy)

 

There is no deadline while we are living in our bubbles! Every Friday I will post some work by children. I will always answer your emails but not straightaway. If I haven’t replied after 3 or 4 days nudge me as I may have missed it.

 

You can also try these Poetry Box activities:

write or draw something for your favourite library or bookshop

Listen to Ashley (8) read: try my dinosaur, pets and swip swap challenges

Have fun with SOUNDS, muck around with WORDS

Listen to Amelia (8) read 3 poems from The Treasury and try my activities

Listen to Philippa Werry read her poem and try her simile challenge

Make a memory album or page

Try my lost-wonder challenges and listen Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders!

Loads of MAKING ideas inside and outside

Do something rainy or snowy! Watch me read my rain and cold poems from The Letterbox Cat

Listen to Melinda Szymanik read her alien mother story and try your own

Send me pictures, photos or poems of curious things you see on your walks

Listen to Maisie and I read fish poems and invite you to do fishy things

Listen to my unpublished very very very strange tail story and do some illustrations for it or invent your own strange tail!

Try writing a postcard poem from where you’d like to be!

Mixed up animals and hear Paula read ‘Anifables’ poem

Sally Sutton’s magic hat challenge

Celebrate your hero and listen to Barbara Else read

Tell me about your favourite bookshop or library

Try my Pass the Poem challenge with friends and family by phone or email

Write draw video comic strip letters poems stories about being in your bubble

My cloudy challenges and hear my cloud poem

My thank our supermarket workers challenge

Listen to me read Aunt Concertina and offer a cool challenge

Listen to me read my poem ‘Lick Lick Riff’ dog poem and offer a doggy cat tiger bat any animal challenge

Check out David Hill’s wonderful photo challenge

Listen to Swapna Haddow read her book and try a rabbit challenge

Try Johanna Aitchison’s hunt the teddy challenges

Ruth Paul reads her muddy poem and I offer muddy challenges

 

kia kaha

keep well

keep imagining

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Box bubble time: a poem by Daniel and by me – write a poem for your favourite libraries and bookshops

Today we can order books from bookshops online. I LOVE bookshops and I also love libraries (which we can’t visit at Level 3). So i thought it would be a prefect time to celebrate go-to places for book lovers: LIBRARIES and BOOKSHOPS!

Some of you will be going back to school tomorrow and some of you will continue to learn and explore in your bubbles.

Daniel (11) wrote a poem to celebrate his neighbourhood library because he can’t visit it at the moment! So I thought this would be a cool thing to do too.

Challenge: write a poem for your favourite bookshop or library or librarian or bookseller.

I will have at least one book to give away.

 

Library Longing

– For Jos and Kerri of Whitby Library

 

In this lockdown

I have books

I have ebooks

I have audio books

I have school books

I even have library books

Can’t return books

Read 100 times books

 

But I don’t have a librarian

To quiz me

And tease me

And suggest things to me

And reserve things for me

And pretend the only person in the library is me

And remind me how much they know me

I can’t visit and that is sad for me

 

But I have learned how important my librarians are

They have known me my whole life

My reading life

My school life

My travelling life

They know just about everything

And I know the first place I will be heading

After this lockdown

 

Daniel L (Age 11, year 7, Hadlow School)

 

I wrote a poem about libraries for my book The Letterbox Cat

 

 

‘The Library’ by Paula Green in The Letterbox Cat (Scholastic)

 

 

send to  paulajoygreen@gmail.com

please include your name age and name of school

don’t forget to put NAME OF challenge in subject line so I don’t miss it

don’t put your surname on drawings or paintings or collages (Poetry Box policy)

 

There is no deadline while we are living in our bubbles! Every Friday I will post some work by children. I will always answer your emails but not straightaway. If I haven’t replied after 3 or 4 days nudge me as I may have missed it.

 

You can also try these Poetry Box activities:

 

Listen to Ashley (8) read: try my dinosaur, pets and swip swap challenges

Have fun with SOUNDS, muck around with WORDS

Listen to Amelia (8) read 3 poems from The Treasury and try my activities

Listen to Philippa Werry read her poem and try her simile challenge

Make a memory album or page

Try my lost-wonder challenges and listen Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders!

Loads of MAKING ideas inside and outside

Do something rainy or snowy! Watch me read my rain and cold poems from The Letterbox Cat

Listen to Melinda Szymanik read her alien mother story and try your own

Send me pictures, photos or poems of curious things you see on your walks

Listen to Maisie and I read fish poems and invite you to do fishy things

Listen to my unpublished very very very strange tail story and do some illustrations for it or invent your own strange tail!

Try writing a postcard poem from where you’d like to be!

Mixed up animals and hear Paula read ‘Anifables’ poem

Sally Sutton’s magic hat challenge

Celebrate your hero and listen to Barbara Else read

Tell me about your favourite bookshop or library

Try my Pass the Poem challenge with friends and family by phone or email

Write draw video comic strip letters poems stories about being in your bubble

My cloudy challenges and hear my cloud poem

My thank our supermarket workers challenge

Listen to me read Aunt Concertina and offer a cool challenge

Listen to me read my poem ‘Lick Lick Riff’ dog poem and offer a doggy cat tiger bat any animal challenge

Check out David Hill’s wonderful photo challenge

Listen to Swapna Haddow read her book and try a rabbit challenge

Try Johanna Aitchison’s hunt the teddy challenges

Ruth Paul reads her muddy poem and I offer muddy challenges

 

kia kaha

keep well

keep imagining

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Box bubble time: Ashley reads 3 poems and I make up activities (a dinosaur question, PETS and swip swaps)

 

 

Ashley is 8 years old and lives on a 5 acre property in the glorious Horowhenua with his Mum, Dad, little sister, and two cats. He loves building lego creations and is an avid graphic novel reader.

 

 

Asley reads ‘Why did all the dinosuars die out?’ by Laura Ranger from Laura’s Poems

 

 

Ashley reads ‘George’s Pet’ by Margaret Mahy in A Treasury of NZ Poetry for Children (Random House)

 

 

 

Ashley reads ‘Swip Swap Day’ by Paula Green in Groovy Fish (Cuba Press)

 

Poetry Box Bubble time activities

Listen to the poems

 

QUESTIONS

Laura Ranger thought of a cool question for her poem. She oubkished that book when she was a child!

Can you think of a fascinating question, do a wee bit of research and then write a poem or do comic strip about it?

Illustrations and posters welcome!

 

PETS

Can you write a poem about the pet you have or the pet you would most like to have?

Can you imagine the most wonderful pet in the world (might be imaginary) and write about it?

Illustrations welcome!

 

SWIP SWAP TIME

Can you mix and match things like I did in my poem. I mixed up where animals live.

You could try that too in a poem or comic strip.

Or you could mix and match some thing else!

Surprise me!

Illustrations welcome.

 

send to  paulajoygreen@gmail.com

please include your name age and name of school

don’t forget to put NAME OF challenge in subject line so I don’t miss it

don’t put your surname on drawings or paintings or collages (Poetry Box policy)

 

There is no deadline while we are living in our bubbles! Every Friday I will post some work by children. I will always answer your emails but not straightaway. If I haven’t replied after 3 or 4 days nudge me as I may have missed it.

 

You can also try these Poetry Box activities:

 

Have fun with SOUNDS, muck around with WORDS

Listen to Amelia (8) read 3 poems from The Treasury and try my activities

Listen to Philippa Werry read her poem and try her simile challenge

Make a memory album or page

Try my lost-wonder challenges and listen Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders!

Loads of MAKING ideas inside and outside

Do something rainy or snowy! Watch me read my rain and cold poems from The Letterbox Cat

Listen to Melinda Szymanik read her alien mother story and try your own

Send me pictures, photos or poems of curious things you see on your walks

Listen to Maisie and I read fish poems and invite you to do fishy things

Listen to my unpublished very very very strange tail story and do some illustrations for it or invent your own strange tail!

Try writing a postcard poem from where you’d like to be!

Mixed up animals and hear Paula read ‘Anifables’ poem

Sally Sutton’s magic hat challenge

Celebrate your hero and listen to Barbara Else read

Tell me about your favourite bookshop or library

Try my Pass the Poem challenge with friends and family by phone or email

Write draw video comic strip letters poems stories about being in your bubble

My cloudy challenges and hear my cloud poem

My thank our supermarket workers challenge

Listen to me read Aunt Concertina and offer a cool challenge

Listen to me read my poem ‘Lick Lick Riff’ dog poem and offer a doggy cat tiger bat any animal challenge

Check out David Hill’s wonderful photo challenge

Listen to Swapna Haddow read her book and try a rabbit challenge

Try Johanna Aitchison’s hunt the teddy challenges

Ruth Paul reads her muddy poem and I offer muddy challenges

 

kia kaha

keep well

keep imagining

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Box bubble time: Friday picks of children’s mahi

 

Loads of you have been checking out Poetry Box reading and activities. Remember I post children’s mahi every Friday as long as we are in our bubbles (this applies to Level 3 too).

I will always rely to your emails but I get lots so feel free to nudge me if I haven’t replied after 5 days.

All the challenges are still OPEN! You will see the list when I post today’s readings and activities later this morning.

Here are some lovely things that arrived this week:

 

1 A rainy poem challenge

Rain poem

By Lily age 8   Pukekohe Valley School

 

Rain

Pitter patter
What a pain
I see it splatter
Going quickly down the drain
For me inside it doesn’t matter
Daniel (Age 11, Year 7, Hadlow School)

(I made a pattern poem – I added one more word every line and I made it rhyme.)

 

Melinda Syzmanik’s alien challenge

\

Do Aliens have mothers?

Do aliens have mothers?
I have a better question:
Are aliens our mums?

Daniel (Age 11, Year 7, Hadlow School)

 

3  Memory things (hunt for an early memory and write a poem story comic strip)

 

Learning to Fly

 

Hi Mum!

Look at me!

I’m so high!

I jump.

I fly.

I fall.

I hurt.

What were you thinking?

I was trying to fly.

How did that go for you?

The flying was great…

The landing was terrible!

 

(Quoted from real life experience and words of Daniel age 2 years.)

Daniel said he talked with his mum about some of the earliest things he could remember, he had things like his first cat and daffodil fields and going on the ferry, but he said this memory jumped out as something funny to turn into a poem.

Daniel   (Age 11, Year 7, Hadlow School)

 

 

4 Postcard poems

(imagine you are somewhere in the world or NZ and send me an email postcard!)

 

 

Daniel (11)

 

5  MAKE something (look at my list for loads of ideas)

 

 

With a stomping and a glomphing,
a shouting and some screaming,
Down the street comes Bob, the Creepy,
Scary, Horrific, Sock Monster,
to get a cup of tea …

 

The Van Clan children in Whangarei

 

6  Amelia (8) reads The Sapling Tree by Richard Langston

I invited you to do tree things

 

Tree Poem

 

Imagine a cat tree

With a carpet trunk

Sisal branches

Green catnip mice hanging as leaves

Pom poms on springs

And pom poms on strings

Are the flowers

And vines

Up in the tree top

Swinging from their furly tails?

Are cat monkeys

Flying fluffy furballs of cuteness?

 

Daniel   (Age 11, year 7, Hadlow School)

 

7  Philippa Werry’s simile challenge

 

Taws Ylf

 

Moving as silently as an assassin

Arcing through the air like a falcon

As light as a feather

Yet as lethal as a hippo

It whips through the air as quick as a cat

I am drawn to it like a mouse to cheese

Because I. Hate. Flies.

 

Daniel   (Age 11, Year 7, Hadlow School)

 

8 A surprise arrival in me email box

By Aarya (10)

 

Hope to see lots of fascinating things in my email box this coming week!

Ngā mihi nui

Paula