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Take 2: Driving Through Farm Country and Heart of Earth Choral Work

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I’m just back from Texas, where I got to share with educators about poetry and also about mentor texts for informational writing. It was an awesome conference and a short, intense, very hot trip! My blog comments were broken last week, and I think they’re

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Back Together with Moon

Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) So, this month, our Poetry Princess challenge was to write in response to a quotation. The initial one someone suggested was an excerpt from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, p. 359, in the chapter “People of Corn, People of Light:” “If grief can

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Advice from a Forest

Heart of Earth

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) More hard family news came our way this week, and life kind of feels like a slog right now. Thank you for all your virtual hugs and good thoughts coming my way! On the plus side, our daughter who’s lived overseas for the past 10

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Tail of Red, Tip of White, by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

It’s Poetry Friday, and I may be moving slowly, but I’m here. (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I’m putting this post together on Tuesday, and I’m still dragging from Covid. I’m thankful for my relatively mild case, though I feel like I’m trying to swim through concrete. Over this past month (before my

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Mom’s Quilted Tree Skirt, a Poetryaction to Pick a Pine Tree

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I’ve been busy with lots of family dramas lately, and I’ve felt overwhelmed with life and business/promotion stuff, and I haven’t been writing too much. This week, I finally forced myself to spend 30 minutes per day working on a new trade picture book project.

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The Song of Sunshine

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Thank you all for your lovely words about my ghazals last week. Although I’m not a big fan of the form in general, your nice messages made me feel less ugh about them :>D Last weekend, Randy and I went to a Twins baseball game

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A Fun Craft for a Rainy Day

Rainy season is here! Here’s a fun craft to go along with my board book, Puddle Song. You can do the coloring and cutting while it’s raining, and then go outside and make your creations bloom in the puddles. Have fun! Click on the image below to visit my Puddle Song page, where you’ll see

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Put a Muzzle on My Ghazals

Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) This month, our Poetry Princess challenge was the ghazal. To be honest, I’m not a fan. My first attempt came out whiny. I know people are tired of hearing about how much I hate hot weather! But we’ve got a lot going on–kind

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Thank You! A Virtual Author Visit

My most recent author visit was with Pipestone Elementary School. I had such a wonderful virtual time with them. We talked and moved and wrote and connected. I was so tickled to get a lovely packet from Marcy Schmitke, the school librarian. I love how each grade level was inspired by the session we did.

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Imagine…, a Poetryaction to Milo Imagines the World

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I read Milo Imagines the World last week. It’s all about the assumptions we make about other people, and also about re-imagining the world for ourselves. This made me daydream about what would be an idyllic day, and I decided to do a poetryaction draft. 

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Weathering Weather at LitLinks

Author Patricia Newman has such an extensive collection of great LitLinks posts, all connecting books, science, and language arts. What a great gift for teachers! I’ve shared activities there before for Snowman-Cold=Puddle and If You Want to Knit Some Mittens. Today I have a new post up there about weather! I’m sharing about weather journals

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Iris, Rainbow, and a National Poetry Month Link Roundup

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Friends, if you submit your poems for grown-ups to online or print journals, would you share your favorite markets or your favorite place to find poetry markets in the Comments? My adult daughter is interested in starting to submit her poetry. Thank you! It’s funny

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Legit KidLit — A Fun Video to Play for Your Class

Hi teachers, it’s good to be back! I shared this Legit KidLit video once before, but it might have gotten lost in the frenzy of National Poetry Month and book launch celebrations. I think this is an awesome video to have on hand to play in your classroom during this last month or so of

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Day 30: The Problem with Monkeys

Happy National Poetry Month 2023! Curious about what I’m doing? Want to play along? Read more here. [Heads-up: If you’re visiting regularly, please know that the bold, blue text is what I’m writing fresh each day. The black text is the same each day:>) ] This is it! The final day of National Poetry Month!

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