Watchdog moon, you shine as I block the bitter wind with my overcoat.
Watchdog moon you shine
as I block the bitter wind
with my overcoat.
Now you try!
Here’s how to enter:
Comment your own haiku below using today’s Shakespeare word—watchdog—to be entered into our giveaway! To receive additional entries, head over to our Instagram or Facebook pages, be sure to follow us, and tag a friend on our latest “12 Days of Haiku” post.
We will be giving away three sets of Shakespeare’s Words & Will’s Words. Three lucky winners will be announced 12/15/2023 on Instagram and Facebook!
Winter sun sets behind palms as moonbeams sprinkle the sandy shore like snow.
Winter sun sets behind
palms as moonbeams sprinkle the
sandy shore like snow.
Now you try!
Here’s how to enter:
Comment your own haiku below using today’s Shakespeare word—moonbeam—to be entered into our giveaway! To receive additional entries, head over to our Instagram or Facebook pages, be sure to follow us, and tag a friend on our latest “12 Days of Haiku” post.
We will be giving away three sets of Shakespeare’s Words & Will’s Words. Three lucky winners will be announced 12/15/2023 on Instagram and Facebook!
Hokku is a 13th century form of Japanese poetry that was originally the short, quippy opening for a much longer poem, the renga. Hokku, over time, became the little poetic form we all know and love—haiku.
Here in the 21st century, the best way to begin writing a haiku is to craft a sentence of 15 to 19 syllables. For this exercise, let’s begin with a word from The Bard himself.
That’s right, Shakespeare. “Cheer” is a word that comes from the French who borrowed it from the Latin “cara” who borrowed it from the Greek “kara” but all three translate to the word “face’ not what you expected, right? Enter Shakespeare. In many of his works, as with this line from Richard III, he uses “cheer” as a verb that means uplifting comfort or encouragement: “And cheer his grace with quick and merry eyes!” And his use stuck!
So with Shakespeare’s word in mind, let’s compose a singular sentence that creates a snapshot of winter using the word “cheer” like this one:
Stars high above, cheer (5) / on snowflakes parachuting (7) /winter in season. (5)
Count syllables and you will discover this sentence has 17. This means it will divide perfectly into three lines with the first line of 5 syllables, the middle line of 7, and the last line of 5:
Stars high above, cheer
on snowflakes parachuting
winter in season.
But what if this sentence was way too long for haiku form? As is the case with this 20 syllable sentence below, simply trim the three syllable word and you’ll have your haiku!
The stars high above me / cheer on snowflakes that twirl while / falling gracefully down to earth.
The stars high above me
cheer on snowflakes that twirl while
falling down to earth.
When the sentence is close, as is the case with these 16 syllable sentence, simply break into three lines as close to 5-7-5 as possible and, et viola!
Night Snow, Utagawa Hiroshige, circa 1833, The Met.
Now you try!
Tomorrow is the first day of December. We hope you will follow along as we explore Twelve Days of Haiku. Don’t forget to check in on social media for our December Giveaway.
Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
But Shakespeare knew this long before Mark Twain spoke these words!
Have you ever received an invitation? Well, you can thank William Shakespeare for bringing that happy word into popularity! William Shakespeare actually invented 1700 words over the course of his lifetime and generously brought them into the wide world through his 154 sonnets and 38 plays.
Dis you know that the rate of words disappearing from English is greater than the rate they are appearing? Yes, the English language is shrinking! I, for one, am so thankful for William Shakespeare and the words he left us to chew on.
Shakespeare used verbs as adjectives and nouns as verbs. We see the verb “impair” used as an adjective in his play Troilus and Cressida: “Nor dignifies an impair thought with breath.” In his play, Julius Caesar,” he uses the noun “dog” as a verb: ”Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels.” He generated compound words like starblasting and doghearted and so much more! He played with suffixes. He played with prefixes. His imagination was limitless!
Above all else Shakespeare reminds us, like Mark Twain, that every word has unique power to communicate!
Come December, we will be celebrating Twelve Days of Haiku. More details tomorrow, but let’s begin with the prizes! We will be giving away a wonderful pairing of Shakespeare’s Words: A Glossary & Companion and Will’s Words: How William Shakespeare Changed the Way You Talk. We will be offering this pairing to three three winners on the last day of 2023!
Pages classes are designed to foster competence, creativity, and confidence in students as they press into the important work of becoming literate. Being able to communicate an original, BIG idea is the ultimate goal of English Language Arts.
Get the most out of Blackbird & Company’s materials and methods! Classes range from 1-5 weekly sessions, and will kickstart your work with skills, tips, and tricks to help you succeed. We offer a wide range of humanities classes, all designed to explore the art of idea making:
CORE – Read and Write and Discuss! These classes are tied to individual Literature + Writing Discovery units (2nd grade through 12th grade). Students will receive weekly feedback on their writing via the one-on-one conference!
The History Opt-in – These classes will provide extra historical background tied to specific CORE Level 2 (4th & 5th Grade), Level 3 (middle school), and Level 4 (high school) units. Students must be enrolled in CORE to participate.
Research – Learn to explore the life of a famous person, extract fact, and write a unique biographical essay. Students are supported each step of the way.
Creative Writing – Each session we are offering short thematic classes that will apply writing skills in beautifully creative ways.
Visual Arts – Explore great works of art and their makers. Students will learn about and practice art making while gaining skills that will transfer to all areas of academic pursuit, especially the art of writing.
Music – Explore the works of great composers and the language of music. Students will gain skills that will transfer to all areas of academic pursuit, especially the art of writing.
“Thank you for making class so enjoyable and personal. My daughter’s writing has really expanded since being in classes with you.” ~Brit Riddle
“I really appreciate you going through the different areas of reading and writing in class as opposed to having him do it all on his own at home. It sets a good example of what to do (i.e. what to look for and pay close attention to as he reads) and how to do it (i.e. organize his thoughts and get ready to write into paragraphs).” ~Paulina Yeung
While cleaning out a closet I found some treasure! Real writing gold. A stash of letters my mother had written to my father over the course of a year while she was simultaneously raising 4 children and trying to sell our house in North Carolina. My father was out west in California building a new house in the 1960’s. As I read through these seven letters (as well as a few my older brother and sister had written to him), I was instantly transported back to my childhood in that small town as my mother was reporting on each child and all the goings-on of friends and close relatives like my grandmother and my aunts and uncles.
I was struck how writing letters is a record in time, an anchor to the shifting sands of time, people and places.
This led me to realize how much we forget from the past and how our lives change so much. How could we not change as we age? Each life stage changes us—education marriage, raising family, careers, possible trauma, big life changes, and so on.
And then I found another letter that really hit my heart.
This is a letter I wrote to a beloved aunt all about the man I was dating at the time (late 70”s), named John. I was trying to convey matters of my heart and all my feelings about dating him and wondering if he was the one? I have never been a journal keeper, so these letters are all I have to remember who I was at that time.
I fear letter writing and all its myriad benefits have fallen away to the convenience of email and texting but it’s not the same. I can feel my mother’s love through that beautiful penmanship and the slow deliberate retelling of stories and gossip. I can imagine my father working alone up on the mountain, pulling up a paint can to sit upon while reading about his wife and children. There is so much love and longing in those letters flowing from the tip of that pen.
I am happy to report that my daughter was pen pals with her grandfather all through her childhood, as he was living a nomadic life in the desert, sending her sweet letters with little desert creature drawings imbedded. And at 30 she corresponds regularly with my cousin who is 45 years her senior! They share a love of travel and always send post cards from far flung places on the globe.
So we at Blackbird and Company want to encourage the art and gift of letter writing! We have some brand new FREE resources—Letter Writing and Letterforms—to help you establish the very fun and rewarding endeavor that is letter writing.
Hands, fingers, eyes, oh my! When it comes to writing an idea, students are often thwarted by the complex activity of coordinating the minute muscle movements of the hands and fingers holding a pencil, with the sight of the eyes and the idea stirring in the mind’s eye!
Stitching is a wonderful way to switch it up, setting the pencil aside (temporarily) to strengthen small motor ability. Not only does sewing by hand require the pincher grasp that requires coordinating the thumb and pointer, but it requires coordinating the eyes in the process. Stitching by hand is a quiet, slow activity that requires patience.
Stitching leaves strengthen’s fine motor skills.
Many years ago I cut some very simple pinnately parallel, leaf-like shapes in calico fabrics. I popped the raw “leaves” into a little basket with pre-threaded (with embroidery floss) needles and carved out time during fall for leaf stitching—half an hour would easily stretch to an hour with my little ones contentedly choosing two leaf shapes and stitching them together tenaciously. This seasonal tradition began with me teaching the running stitch, re-threading all the needles and moving quickly to my children confidently whip stitching and blanket stitching, even threading their own needles!
And guess what? Writing an idea became less painful. Skills gained during sewing transfers directly to the stitching of ideas crafted with pencil on paper.
Enter by using the form below to submit a photo of your student’s most beautiful lettered-by-hand version of the following pangram:
Win a penmanship mug or a set of our beautiful Blackbird & Company stationary. Four winners will be chosen and will be announced November 30, 2023 on our social media platforms.
Accentuate your friendly letter with a fall-themed crafty insert!
This project began with a package of fall leaf table confetti. But you can just as easily begin by tracing real leaf shapes on colored craft paper, cutting out the shapes, and drawing. From there, all you need is imagination and a fine-point marker. Fill each leaf with a repetitive design of lines! You might even add a little message to your design! These handcrafted fall leaves, inserted into your friendly letter, will be a delightful surprise to the recipient and a fresh addition to any fall table.
