Day #508 Writers Boot Camp

This week I’ve been going to Woodward Mill Elementary School to speak to the 5^th-grade classes. They have a “Writer’s Boot Camp” each year, and I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to each of the classes last year. This year, I’m doing to same thing again.

We’re talking about verbs, and the importance of using effective ones when they revise their compositions.

One of the exercises I use allows them to fill in the blanks with either nickel words or dollar words.

1. The lion __________ across the grassland.
2. I _____________ my grandfather’s paintings.
3. My grandmother love to _____________.

And so on. You could use nickel verbs: 

1. walked
2. like
3. smile 

But think how much more interesting, exciting, compelling these sentences would be with dollar verbs such as:

1. stalked
2. abandoned
3. sky-dive 

We had quite a discussion about the story that’s implied when we say I abandoned my grandfather’s paintings. Don’t you want to know why?

Let’s see...another sentence could be 

1. Honey bees _____ (fly/buzz/sting/pollinate…)

BEEattitude for Day #508:

       Blessed are those who stretch their minds, for they shall find more room in their brains.