Exercise Three:

An ACTING EXERCISE:

Choose an every day activity, a way of being attacked and something that you can turn into to save yourself from attack.

For example, eating a picnic is an activity. Fire ants can attack. But then I could transform into an anteater – with a taste for spicy food.

Then act out the scene.

Exercise Four:

A LIMBO EXERCISE

Limbo, yes, sure. BUT ... when the limbo gets too hard – as it always does – choose something to turn into and then act out either going under or stepping over the limbo stick in a different, fully imagined way. Both a PHYSICAL activity and ACTING.

Exercise Five:

STORYTELLING EXERCISE

Make your bottle a story telling bottle by putting a long piece of string inside – with the tip of the string on the outside (so you don’t lose it). The kids sit in a circle. The first person, pulls on the string a bit while starting a story. The bottle is passed to the next kid who pulls some string, adds to the story and then passes the bottle. The bottle continues to be passed as the story unfolds until the person who pulls the last bit of string has to end the story. So the kids don’t know how much string is in the bottle, you can put the bottle in a sock.

The Best Idea for a Party Favor:

A journal. These don’t have to be pricey or fancy. They can be little notebooks of any sort. But they encourage keeping notes on your life and examining the world – which is a strange and mysterious place.

AWARDS

for a few
of our favorite schools...

Most Amazingly Inventive EVER! Hardee Junior High a school-wide read with hallways that made the book come alive, including a cricket attack! (Fearless leader: Louise Jones)

Biggest Brightest Audience

Rampello Project (Fearless leader: Carol Hogue)

Most Gracious (and what a talent show!)

Dowdell Middle School (Fearless leader: Joshua Newhouse)

Bravest Boldest Art

Mulrennan Middle School complete with floor-to-ceiling tornado! (Fearless leaders: Nancy Moran)

Most Quirky and Compelling Group of Kids

Burnett Middle School (Hello, Dallas!) (Fearless leaders: Nancy Phillips)

Most Brilliant Quick-Draw Questions

Marvelous Martinez Middle School (Fearless leader: Jeanette Whitman)

Best Novel Sketchers

Adams Middle School (Fearless leader: Abigail Dyer)

Spunkiest Funniest Questions

Eisenhower Middle School (Fearless leader: Erin Devlin)

Most Generous
It's a TIE: These two schools had HUGE book drives through www.booksindeed.org!
Swift Creek Middle
(Fearless leader: Ava Lee)
and
Holy Comforter Episcopal School
(Fearless leader: Laura Powell)
Both in Tallahassee, FL

Most Fabulous Listeners
St. Bernadette's, Drexel Hill, PA
(Fearless leader and someone to whom I dedicated The Slippery Map: Sister John Marie)

Best Combination of Manners and Sass!
(a boomerang school that keeps me coming back for more!)
Sanford School, Hockessin, DE
(Fearless leader: Ms. DeSantis)

Most Dedicated to their Writerly Dreams!
Stonehurst Hills, Upper Darby, PA
(Fearless leader: Ms. Mahoney)

Biggest Readers!
North Star Elementary, Hockessin, DE
(Fearless leader: Ms. Schweizer)

Most Dedicated Parents!
Pocopson Elementary, Pocopson, PA
(Fearless leader: Theresa Gambardella)

Best Wowzy Audience
(complete with yeehaws!)
Lakeland Highlands Middle School
(Fearless leader: Ms. Page
and her two fabu assistants!)

ALL of the Oscars
(Best Script, Best Actors, Directors, etc...)
Renaissance Academy
(Fearless leader: Dr. Caffrey)

Beachiest Peachiest
Oakgrove Middle School
(Fearless leader: Ms. Titus)

Most Brilliantly Creative
Liberty Middle School
(Fearless leader: Ms. Meginnis)

Most Brilliantly Illuminating Questions
Legacy Middle School
(Fearless leader: Ms. Thrailkill)