Creative Wednesday: What Can You Make of This?

This morning while I was thinking of ideas for today's post, I came up with three different ways to get your creative juices flowing. For the next three weeks I'll be giving you started ideas you can use and of course I'd love you to share what you come up with in the comments.

Let's get started:

Since it's Christmas time, look at the three pictures below and write a story through the eyes of a child or elderly person who's reminiscing about what you see here. Make this a flash fiction of no more than 100 words.

Have fun! I look forward to reading your stories.

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Creative Wednesday: What Hapened Next?

Have you ever read a book to a child and had them ask you: "What happened next?"

Do you say: they lived happily ever after?
they went to sleep?
or worst of all, nothing the story is over?

So, what did happen next? Did the three little pigs become famous wolf slayers and travel the world? Did little red ridinghood run off to Hollywood and become a star or did she marry the woodsman who saved her?

Next time a child asks you "What happened next?" I challenge you to come up with a new story ending that children will talk about for years to come.

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Creative Wednesday: My ABC Food List and more

Okay, as promised, here’s my list:


A apple, really, I try to eat one every day
B broccoli
C chocolate, I’m willing to bet that many women said this too
D dates
E eggs
F French toast
G grapes
H honey
I ice cream, almost any flavor! Yum!
J jellybeans
K kiwi friut
L lobster, the kind from the Caribbean
M mahi mahi
N nectarine
O oats, raw with pineapple, cinnamon and almond slivers
P pizza
Q quiche
R rasberry
S salmon
T tomatoes
U upside down cake
V vanilla wafers
W watermelon
X xingzi - Chinese for apricot, okay so this one’s a stretch, but it works
Y yogurt
Z zucchini

Okay, so I had to do some searching online and some might be a bit of a stretch, but I had fun thinking about foods I like. I found that certain letters have lots of foods I like and others very few.

I couldn't think of a way to rhyme them, anyone want to give it a try?

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Creative Wednesday: Favorite Food Alphabet

It's safe to say that we all have favorite foods.

I challenge you to come up with a list of foods that you really like. Now, that's not much of a challenge, so, make your list in alphabetical order and list one food item for each letter of the alphabet. The food has to start with the letter, not just have the letter in the word somewhere. If that's too easy, see if you can make the foods rhyme.

Are you doing this with your children? Have them find pictures of the foods and paste them next to the food name.

Have fun with this and please share. I'll share my list next Wednesday and hope some of you have posted comments so I can share your list too.

Now, could you eat them all in one meal? I dare you, no, I double dare you!

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Being Creative; What Does It Mean To You?

When you think of being creative, what comes to mind? Is it writing, drawing, acting, poetry?

I've dabbled in all of the above. Creating a work of art, whether it's a story or something out of fabric makes me smile. For example, I'm a Gator fan. As a demo girl at Sams Club I get to speak to lots of people each day. Since I live in central Florida, there are lots of Gator fans.

Now we have an old plastic gator we rescued after Hurricane Andrew. He's beat up and even missing some toes. Here's what I did with him one afternoon to show my Gator spirit.

GO GATORS!


On Saturdays I bring him to work and set him on my demo cart. As people sample my food, many of them make comments about rescue gator, both gator fans and those who wish they'd lose a game.


So, what do you do that's creative and brings you and maybe others a smile?

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Creative Thinking Wednesday

I'm taking a new approach to Wednesday. Many call Wednesday 'hump day' because it's in the middle of the week. I want to turn you, my loyal readers, onto your creative brain power.

So, how will I do this? Each week I'll have something new for you to ponder. Could be a picture,a prompt to get your writing flowing, a puzzle or maybe even a fun craft idea.

How do these things take books beyond reading, you ask? Simple. Each of the ideas I post can be used with your favorite book, mainly children's books, but who knows, you might be able to use some with your favorite sci-fi or romance novel too.

The idea is to have fun. Take a few minutes out of your day and let your mind wander into that creative area that wants to express itself.

Here's what I picked for today. I spent several years recently in the Caribbean living on a sail boat. Several times a week I went snorkeling with friends. I fell in love with undersea life. So much so that I bought a simple underwater camera. My time snorkeling was spent taking hundred of pictures and even some short movie clips. Here are some of the many pictures I took. They were taken one after the other.

What do you see?

Please share your ideas, stories and poems that come from this picture. I can't wait to read them all. :-D

*Please note* All rights reserves for all photos in today's post. Thank you

posted by Joy Delgado
We go Beyond Reading
Laughing Zebra – Books for Children
Check out what’s going on at the zoo!
Zooprise Party / Fiesta Zoorpresa blog

Story Starters for Children

Does your child like to write short stories?

OR

Do you wish your child liked to write short stories? Either way, have some fun with these story starter ideas.

(Use them as a spring board to get your creative juices flowing.)

When I looked outside on that gloomy, rainy day, suddenly the rain changed from water to cats and dogs!

Without warning there was a loud roar shook the ground.

As the twister came closer, we could see cars and cows swirling around and around going up and up. . .

The peaceful morning sun shining on the river made it sparkle like a million diamonds. Ripples slowly started coming across the river.

See what you and your children can come up with. Be sure to share them here. I'll post them in an upcoming post.

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Looking for some fun arts and crafts for your kids to do? Check out zoo camp. This week is all about okapis.