Using a random word generator to create a poem

It's time for another fun creative writing exercise! When I was at Huth Road school a week ago, I took pictures of the third-grade writers club to share with the families belonging to the PTA. The students were writing narrative poems. I thought that was pretty cool, especially later, when I read the poems, which had been posted on a bulletin board in the hallway. They were all wonderful poems!

So, today's creative writing exercise will be the narrative poem, with a little twist. 

There will be eight sentences in the narrative poem, and each sentence will end with a word selected by a random word generator. I went to a website titled "creativity games.net" to use the random word generator. If you click onto "random word generator," you will find what you're looking for. 

There are numbers to click onto. The number that you click onto is the number of words that will be generated randomly for you. For this creative writing exercise, I suggest clicking onto "eight." You will get eight words. Copy the words, one per line.

Your next step will be to write sentences, with each of the randomly selected words at the end. If you don't like the set of random words that were generated for you, you can click onto "eight" again, and you will receive an entirely new set of words. Don't worry, though, about your poem making sense. If it is a bit nonsensical, that's OK. In fact, some of the greatest poetry may seem to be a little nonsensical (for example, "Jabberwocky," by Lewis Carroll).

So, this is the poem that I created from my random set of words. I will bold my random words so that you can see that these words were selected randomly for me. 


I walked along the river, battling the ferocious wind,
lost in thought, grieving for a lost friend, not noticing a hazard.
Scared by car horns, I fell into the water, and grabbed grimy abandoned fish scales.
I crawled out of the water, soaked, needing help, but not willing to shout.
As I slipped and sputtered in my effort to stand, along came a strange-looking carriage.
A zebra and a unicorn called to me, telling me to plot a graph,
a road map, directions to a magical and magnificent feast,
in a place far, far away, in the place where there is purple snow.

Let your imagination loose and have fun!

The 366-day photography project: halfway through!

I started my 366-day photography project on a radiant summer day. I celebrated this new project by spending the day at Buckhorn Island State Park. Back on August 1st, this is what the park looked like. It was green and alive. The waters were warm and inviting.

There was so much color! 

The bees were busy and the park was full of the many species of birds that either stay year round or visit during their migrations. 

And here we are, six months later. All is quiet and dormant.

The naked trees all point to the blue sky.

This is Jay Burney. He came to Riverside-Salem to tell us about how to make our natural environments better by restoring the native plants and rehabilitating the habitats that were destroyed by industry and other human-made disasters.

On Monday, I got ready to take another trip to Buckhorn Island State Park, nearly six months after the trip that launched my year-long photography project. It was a relatively warm winter day. The sun was shining brightly, and there was no wind. 

As I headed to the park, I took pictures of the birds on the electrical wires. These birds fly in large groups and adjust to the world of the humans by using electrical wires as perches.

I enter Buckhorn Island State Park. It is white and silent. There is something magical about the whiteness and the silence of winter.

The ice forms and hits the water. There is a frozen film covering the water closest to the shoreline.

The bears sit on the snow near the marsh.

This is the point closest to Niagara Falls. The water is still open. 

This was the view from under the stone bridge in August. The cattails are vividly green, as is the vegetation in the river.

This is the distant view of Niagara Falls, as seen in winter.
 

Here are the frozen wetlands.

Monday's sunset was radiant.

On Monday evening, the library hosted a meet and greet for Patricia Covley, the new library director.

People enjoy the event. The book sale room was open, and refreshments were served.

On Tuesday, I went to the hairdresser. It was time for a haircut. I looked like shrubbery in need of pruning!

The beauty parlor is still decorated for Christmas, even though it is now time to decorate for Valentine's Day!

This is the post-pruning me, with a bear. Maybe I should figure out how to crochet a new sweater for the bear. The bear is still decorated for Christmas, too!

On Wednesday, I went to take pictures of Glenn Colton's "character building" show at Huth Road Elementary School.

It was a very entertaining form of character building.

Glenn Colton was funny and punny. He said that, if you crossed a Western TV show with Star Wars, Luke Skywalker would be told: "May the Horse be with you."

The show was very interactive. The kids were engaged and involved.

They were clearly enjoying themselves, while hearing about the benefits of friendship, healthy nutrition, literature, and more.

Amazingly enough, many of the kids have fond memories of the 1970s.

The performances were also fun for the teachers. No one wanted them to end... but, alas, all good things come to an end (I didn't invent that).

The teachers enjoy this message.

Snow is good for making pictures with your feet.

Delicious, juicy oranges came in the mail, thanks to my nephew and niece-in-law, Devin and Chrisha.

On Friday, the PTA treated the staff at Huth Road Elementary School to a special luncheon.

The teachers enjoyed food and games and they won prizes.

They had a good time.

Happy therapy dog.

Would you believe that these are pens? 

Celebrating healthy choices in a fun way

Glenn Colton came to offer a positive, encouraging, and entertaining message to the students and teachers at Huth Road Elementary School. He is revisiting a performing career from which he retired in 2012. 

Glenn Colton said that he "started with an idea in 1985 and became full-time in 1993." He performed in libraries, elementary schools, and in town-sponsored summer concert series. During his full-time career, he has performed more than 3,000 shows.

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Glenn, who now works in an automobile dealership, said that his performing career was a dream come true. He said that he was happy to have had a full-time performing career, which he was able to do "in a concert-type setting." Also, he is happy that he was able to promote his own original music. The one dream that did not come true was the road crew that he would have liked to have had.

"I don't have that," Glenn said.

Glenn said that he wrote 80 to 85 percent of the songs for Wednesday's show. He had very enthusiastic audiences for the two shows that he presented. His positive messages were accompanied by acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and various rhythm instruments. "Always tell the truth. It's not always easy, but it's the right thing to do," Glenn said.

Glenn shared a positive message about friendship. He summarized it with: "There are tall ships and small ships, but the best are friendships."

He acknowledged, however, that not everyone will want to be your friend. In fact, some people might act mean and unpleasant, like a bully. So... how do you deal with a bully? You start by asking the bully if he'd like to be your friend.

Um. No. Probably not.

Then you ignore the annoying and rude bully.

Will that make the bully stop? Maybe or maybe not.

The next step is to tell the bully to stop. Tell the bully that his picking on you bothers you and that you don't like it.

Some bullies will quit. Others will just stubbornly cling to their bullying behavior.

Glenn, who dealt with a stubborn bully when he was in elementary school, said that the last step was to ask an adult for help in handling the bully. Eventually, Glenn's bully stopped. In fact, Glenn and the former bully became friends and they stayed friends until they both graduated from high school.

Glenn also shared a message about healthy living. "We celebrate healthy choices." One example of a healthy choice would involve eating your vegetables. 
 

The performance was interactive and a great deal of fun. The audience had the chance to sing and to dance and to do the wave. Glenn also enjoyed sharing stories about his own childhood. He asked how many of the students remembered the 1970s. Amazingly enough, quite a large percentage of the students, all under the age of twelve, remembered a decade that ended years before they were born.

Everyone became a member of the "Ducky Wucky club," after singing along to the earworm-inducing "Ducky Wucky" song.

If you'd like to hear some of Glenn Colton's music, you can find it on You Tube.

Check this out! It's loads of fun, very singable, and something you can share with the kids.
Optimism!

Enjoy!