Love and the Weather
Have you ever noticed how many songs use weather in their titles or in their lyrics? Often, this is a metaphor for a relationship or circumstance. Write your own song using the weather.
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What Do You Do for Fun?
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS Some people like to put puzzles together. Others like to build forts, take hikes, or go camping. Some kids like to read or play a sport. Derek Jeter, a now-retired New York Yankee, played baseball to have fun: “You gotta have fun. Regardless of how you look at it, we’re playing a…
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Proof of Alien Life Beyond Earth
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS Famed physicist Stephen Hawking and others launched a $100 million program called Breakthrough Listen in their search for alien life beyond Earth. The search will begin with the one million stars closest to us in the Milky Way Galaxy and then expand into neighboring galaxies. “We believe that life arose spontaneously on…
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Story: This Tool Is Powerful!
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS Do you want to influence your readers? Do you want to grab their hearts? Use the power of story. There are two kinds of stories: the true ones and the fictional ones. People have been using both kinds forever, and so can you.
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You, a Huge Pile of Legos ®, and a Creation
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS I recently visited Downtown Disney in Orlando, Florida, and enjoyed the huge Legos ® creations there. Really, they are tremendously interesting. I kept trying to figure out how someone built them and where they put their first blocks to begin these fun displays. Here are some of the Legos ® pictures I…
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Put Your Message on a T-Shirt
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS You’ve seen your fair share of messages on t-shirts, and you’ve probably worn a few t-shirts with writing on them. Sports teams, music groups, camps, and even hospitals put their messages or advertisements on t-shirts. They are like wearable billboards, and everyone reads them as you walk by. What message do you…
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How Will You Get Your Message Out?
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS You learn important skills in essay writing that you can apply to other forms of writing, but are essays always the best way to communicate ideas to others? When Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wanted to save a piece of American history in 1830, what did he do? Did he write his senator?…
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Chasing Happiness
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson writes that our “inalienable rights” are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” What does “the pursuit of happiness” mean? What does it mean to you? What did the original writers mean by it?
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What Are You Waiting For?
Former US presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson corresponded almost daily, and they were waiting for something important to happen. They wanted to live to see the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. What are you waiting for in your life?
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Declaration of Dependence: Teen Maturity
SHARON’S BLOG Your son is eleven years old. He wishes he could play ball as well as his dad does, and he hugs you freely. Your daughter is ten. She loves to look through your jewelry box, and she plays up to her dad. Now jump ahead a few years to a time when your…
