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How to Read an Animal Encyclopedia Together
If your animal loving kid wants to read an animal encyclopedia together, how to approach it? Here are some fun and light-hearted questions.
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Writing Activity: Describe a Fairground, Showground or Carnival
Have you ever been to a carnival? What about a rural show? A fairground? Circus? For sure you’ll have seen depictions of fairgrounds on TV and movies. They have a very specific vibe, and storytellers love them.
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Why were New Zealand women first in the world to achieve suffrage?
If you know anything about New Zealand history at all, you probably learned that New Zealand women were the first in the world to achieve the right to vote in 1893.
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Writing Activity: Describe the Inside of a House
Describe a house, describe the inhabitants (or inhabitants since departed). Below are examples of house interiors from novels and short fiction. A RURAL COTTAGE IN 1950s ENGLAND The room downstairs at the front of this cottage would appear to serve Mr and Mrs Taylor as both dining room and general living quarters. It is a […]
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Writing Activity: Describe A Smell
Beginner writers are frequently told to make use of all senses when describing a setting. While this is a good place to start, keen readers will understand that there’s a time and a place to delve into the senses; some stories call for sensory lingering. Others don’t.
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Writing Activity: Scene In A Restaurant, Café or Eatery
In this activity you will practice creative writing skills by writing a fictional scene which takes place in some kind of eating establishment: a restaurant, café, milk bar, fast food joint, Saturday morning market, street vendor… Any sort of eatery will do. But first, a pop culture quiz. How many of these cafes, diners and […]
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The Vertical Ladder by William Sansom Short Story Analysis
“The Vertical Ladder” is a short story by British writer William Samson (1912 – 1976) best known for his travel writing and highly descriptive language. A childhood game of dare goes wrong.
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Bunny Stew by Mikki Mares Short Story Analysis
Disney typically takes a nightmarish, harrowing fairy tale and bowdlerises it according to the more conservative end of its perceived audience. But lest we forget: In 1993 the Disney corporation also published a short story as disturbing as your typical pre-Grimm fairytales, replete with cannibalism. Disney had run a “Scary Tales” competition, and “Bunny Stew” was the winner.
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Writing Activity: Describe A Street At Night
A MIDLAND TWILIGHT The cloud-plumed afternoon has flown along the household street, Leaf-shadows flicker. Freshly strown, the sprays whir. Far and fleet, Hushed, furtive footsteps dodge and creep, and hunting voices call, “I spy,” and “One, two, three for you,” around the street’s still hall. The little winds of twilight blow. Upon the hop-scotch chaclk, […]
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Of Mice and Men: Classroom Alternatives
Of Mice and Men is a 1937 novella by John Steinbeck. Two migrant ranch workers move from place to place in California looking for work during America’s Great Depression. This social protest novel is widely studied with high school English literature students. But, where funding allows, English teachers are starting to replace class sets Of […]
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Evolution for Kids: Teaching Resources
Books for teaching evolution to children
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Writing Activity: Describe a Gallery or Museum
In any giant museum, your goal should be to spend 5+ minutes with 10 amazing works, not 5 seconds with 1,000. Less Wrong Header painting: Leroux Jules Marie Auguste (1871-1954) At The Cluny Museum
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Writing Activity: Describe The Outside Of A House
A writing activity in which you imaginatively approach a house and describe it.
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Writing Activity: Describe Main Street Of A Small Town
In this writing challenge, you’ll describe the main street of a small town, using artworks and expertly crafted paragraphs from books as inspiration.
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Writing Activity: Describe a Market
Fish markets, night markets, Saturday morning galas… Most people will be familiar with some kind of open air market.