Writing Challenge Week 10 Horror Story

Can you believe only a couple more weeks until school starts?  Where did the summer go?  We're trying to get all those last minute fun activities planned before summer ends, along with back to school shopping and getting ready to gear up for the new year.  Anyone planning to go see Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters this week?  The boys and I can't wait to go see it!  I'm also still working my way through the Mortal Instruments series.  I have just a few chapters left of City of Glass.  I caved and bought the last two at Costco on Saturday, so I will have the whole series in my classroom library for those who haven't yet read it, or haven't finished the series.

On to this week's challenge.  This has been all over the internet the last couple weeks, and I thought it was fun.  It's a short one, so feel free to write a couple of them.

Writing Challenge #10

Remember, you can only use two sentences, so make each word count!

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

How many of you have read this series?  Are you excited for the movie coming out August 21st?  I came in a little late on this series.  All year students were telling my I should read it.  I thought the premise sounded interesting, but I didn't get a chance to read it until this summer.  I couldn't put it down.  I read the first book in a day and a half.

If you haven't read it, here's the description from Amazon.
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .


I thought the book was fast-paced and exciting.  I also thought the characters were well-developed.  I was sad when in ended.  I was at Costco Monday, and they had the whole series.  I bought the second and third book.  I can't wait to see the movie.  August is looking good with both this movie and Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters coming out.  

Writing Challenge #9 Story Starter

Sorry I'm a day late this week.  We were in California for two weeks and got back Sunday night.  Yesterday, I was busy getting everything back in order from the long trip.  This week's challenge is a story starter.

Writing Challenge #9
You wake up in the morning, and when you look in the mirror, a different face stares back at you.  Take the story from this point.  

Writing Challenge #8 Chalk Art Prompt

I love when people create amazing artwork with chalk.  Some of these 3-D images blow me away.  One of my favorite movies growing up was Mary Poppins.  I loved the scene where they popped right into Bert's chalk drawing.  I want you to look at them and imagine the places they would take you to if you could jump into these chalk worlds.

Writing Challenge #8

Choose one of the above drawings.  Imagine you traveled into the world the artist has created (your journey there can be part of the story).  Describe your adventure.  

Writing Challenge #7 Happiest Poem on Earth

They say Disneyland is "The happiest place on Earth."  I love Disneyland, and it is one of my favorite places to go.  Allow me to indulge in a couple photos from past trips.  

Photo by Angela Knight

As much as I love Disneyland, I don't know if I would consider it my "happy place."  When I think of my happy place, it is somewhere where I can relax and be at peace.  Disney is way too fun for that.  I would choose the beach or even my back patio, where I sit every morning and evening.  

Where is your happy place?  The mountains?  The beach?  The soccer field?  

Writing Challenge #7 Happy Place

Write a poem about your favorite place.  That place in the world that just makes you happy.  Be descriptive.  Use lots of sensory detail.  Make us feel like we are there with you.

Writing Challenge #6 Fan Fiction

Lately, I keep seeing a lot of references to "fan fiction" on the internet.  It's been around a while, but I hadn't given it much thought until recently.  I have a cousin who is writing Jurassic Park fan fiction.  Merriam-Webster defines fan fiction as this:

Definition of FAN FICTION

: stories involving popular fictional characters that are written by fans and often posted on the Internet —called alsofan fic,

Basically you take characters from a favorite novel, television show, or movie and create a new story with those character.  I thought this would be fun to try this week.

Challenge #6

Write a piece of fan fiction using your favorite book or movie characters.  Create a new story for these characters.  It can be related to the original story, but not a copy of it.  Write your own original piece.  

2013 Writing Challenge #5

Happy July!  I don't know about you, but I'm having a tough time with it being July already.  Summer is flying by way too fast!  Does anyone have big plans for July 4th?  We haven't decided what we'll be doing, but we are staying close to home.  This heat is killing me, so I don't think we'll spend too much time outside.  On this holiday week, we're going to write a little historical fiction.

2013 Writing Challenge #5

Write a fictional story that takes place before or during the Revolutionary War.  Your characters can be early colonists or soldiers, regular people or famous historical figures.  

*For those going into 8th grade, you will be writing a historical fiction piece for the Revolutionary War as a requirement this year, so this could be a head start for you to get the ideas flowing.

Happy Writing and stay cool!

Writing Challenge #4

I was surfing around online and found a great site containing lots of writing prompts.  You can find it here.  The one I'm going to use today is from that site. It intrigued me because it combines two of my favorite things, writing and books (and movies).  I think there's something for everyone in it.  I'm still thinking about which one to choose.  I'm fans of all of them, except Dr. Who.  I keep saying I'm going to start that show on Netflix, but haven't yet.  I'm afraid I'll be hooked and won't get anything else done.

Happy writing,

2013 Writing Challenge #3

I saw Man of Steel over the weekend, and it inspired this week's challenge.  Whenever I see a superhero movie, I always think about what it would be l like to have those powers, and of course I think about which powers I'd like to have.  For every superpower, it seems like there would be both good and bad aspects.  I liked that in Man of Steel they showed just how difficult Clark's powers were for him when they first manifested.

Challenge #3

Create your own superhero.  What are his/her powers?  Now write a story that shows the negative side of having that particular superpower.  

2013 7th Grade Book Recommendations

The last week of school, I had this year's 7th graders (now8th graders) compile lists of their favorite books.  Here they are in alphabetical particular order.

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Alex Rider series

Among the Brave

Among the Captured

Among the Hidden

B.F.G. 

Bitter Melon

Black Hawk Down

Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Bud, Not Buddy

Call of the WIld

Candy Shop War

Candymakers

Catching Fire

Charlotte’s Web

City of Bones

Clockwork Angel

Confectionately Yours

Crazy

Daniel X

Dead End in Norvelt

Diary of a Wimpy Kid series

Divergent

Dracula

Dragon’s Milk

Elephant Run

Eragon Series

Everlost

Extras

Fablehaven

Girl’s Best Friend

Gone WIth the Wind

Guardians of Ga’hoole

Hatchet

Holes

Hoot

Howl’s Moving Castle

Hunger Games

I Am Number Four

I Funny

In the Company of Heros

Incarceron

Insurgent

It

Jane Eyre

Kane Chronicles

Legend

Life of Pi

Lightning Thief

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Rings

Lost Hero series

Mark of Athena

Maximum Ride

Maze Runner

Middle School

Missing Series

Misty of Chintoge

Mockingjay

Mockingjay

Narnia Series

Of Mice and Men

Powerless

Pretties 

Pretty Little Liars

Rebecca

Red Pyramid

Red Umbrella

Safe Haven

Sarah’s Key

Search For the Moon King’s Daughter

Son of Neptune

Specials 

Summer of the Monkeys

Sunrise Over Fallujah 

The Art of Dancing in the Rain

The Big FIeld

The Cay

The Giver

The Help

The Hobbit

THe Limit

THe Lost Hero

The Lying Game

The Outsiders

The River

The Roar

The Unidentified

Twilight

Uglies

Uglies series

Under Wildwood

War and Peace

Warrior Heir

We Were Soldiers Once...and Young

Wildwood

Witch and Wizard

Because I'm a huge word nerd, I also put it into a Wordle.  The bigger the title, the more times it was suggested.  It's easy to see which books were the most popular this year.  To see the full version, click on the Wordle.

2013 Summer Writing Challenge #2

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer break so far!  Ours has been really busy, so I'm hoping for some relaxation time this week.  For the writing challenge, I think it's time for a story starter.  You may use this as the actual beginning of the story or simply to spark an idea.  I'll even give you a choice of two starters.

Remember to upload your story to Dropbox or email it to me directly.

Challenge #2

1) The waves crashed across the sand and I knew....

or

2)"That will show them," I thought as I hammered the last nail into place.

Happy writing!

Books-- Glow and Spark, the Sky Chasers series

Hello readers!  I'm working on compiling the recommendation list put together by this year's 7th graders.  I should have it up this weekend.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a series of books I came across by accident.  I was reading an article for teachers and it mentioned a few different series of books.  I'd heard of all of them except Sky Chasers.  It was recommended for people who liked the Hunger Games.  I downloaded the first book, Glow, to my Kindle, and I couldn't put it down.  As soon as I finished it, I downloaded Spark and read it in one day!  The only thing that frustrated me was that it had a killer cliffhanger ending, but the next book doesn't come out until January 2014.

The books are about two ships that were sent into space from Earth.  At the time, Earth was in bad shape, so their mission was to spend decades (I can't remember exactly how long) in space, and then come back and repopulate Earth.  The story starts out following Waverly and Kieran, two teenagers on the first ship.  Then the second ship attacks the first, and steals all the girls, killing most of the adults on board.  The story then goes back and forth between Waverly's experience on the new ship and Kieran's experience trying to run the other ship without any adults.

I thought the books were excellent.  I will warn that there is some violence (not as explicit as the Hunger Games) and the kids have to deal with some adult situations on the new ship.  I would rate them a PG-13.  They reminded me a lot of Lord of the Flies, with the kids trying to govern themselves and the way they handle situations new to them.

Happy reading!

2013 Summer Writing Challenge #1

Hello!  Welcome to another summer of writing challenges.  If you played along last year, this will work in much the same way.  Every week, I will post a new challenge for you.  Some weeks it will be personal writing, others weeks a story starter.    I will try to play along every week as well.

Week #1 Challenge:

Vacation.

What is the best trip you've ever taken?  Describe the trip and why it was so special.  

Remember, to have a chance at fun prizes, you need to email it to me or post it on Dropbox.  If you would title your file as your name and #1, that would be great.  For example, mine would be name nschuette#1.    I look forward to reading your pieces, and I will post my own sometime this week.  I have to decide which trip I want to describe.  Have fun!