Category: Announcing

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Last Call to Enter our Giveaway!

We are down to the close of our Giveaway!

It’s NOT too late to submit.

Enlist your students to choose a favorite polished draft from this year’s work utilizing Blackbird & Company curriculum, submit the work to our journal of student writing: Reveal. Simple!

We invite writers, Kindergarten through 12th grade, who courageously write from the heart using our curriculum to submit! BUT March 31, 2026 is the deadline!

Each submission will earn your family a submission to our Giveaway!

And the prize? A Solo Stove S’Mores Bundle!

From the very first flicker of the tabletop fire bowl, you’ll be ready to roll into seasonal storytelling with this S’Mores kit from Solo Stove! This tabletop “Fire Bowl” + sticks, fuel, & bamboo tray is sure to add s’more fun to this year’s story making!

Winners will be announced on our social media April 1st!

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Let’s SPRING!

winter SPRING, summer, fall

Welcome Spring!

John Muir reminds us: “Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.”

Think about it. Every time a child picks up a pencil, this is a courageous act. And like John Muir, I believe that joyful enthusiasm is just around the corner for everyone who dares to compose an idea. As we empower children to value their ideas, to dig into the work of writing, to press into the process, joy will follow.

It’s simple…

Let’s SPRING into writing!

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Spring into Writing: Introducing The Writing Mentor

Style is one of the most important elements of writing—but how can you teach something that’s so personal, so impossible to quantify? It can feel like trying to explain Yosemite to someone who’s never seen a mountain or forest. Or describing how to perfect banana bread to someone without a sense of taste. 

That’s where Blackbird & Company’s Tools of Style comes in. These guides provide training wheels to practice using rhetorical devices—the tricks writers use to tell their stories well. And newly supplementing our Tools of Style guides are the new downloadable Printshop resources, namely The Writing Mentor. 

By using The Writing Mentor in conjunction with Tools of Style, young writers learn to ride the proverbial bike in scaffolded increments. They start by watching someone else ride a bike, then get on it themselves with a parent’s steadying hands holding them upright, and pedal until suddenly they’re riding under their own power. 

Perhaps the best guidance we can give our student writers, is to challenge them to write like a painter.

Imagery is vivid and descriptive—figurative—language that helps readers see pictures in their mind while reading. Take a look at Print Shop on the website, where you can download this Writing Mentor lesson, for a limited time, for FREE. Your students will learn through a masterful example of imagery. They will practice by sprinkling imagery into scaffolded sentences. And, ultimately, get creative by crafting five imagery-filled examples that. they will then shape one into a singular poem. 

If you can make your reader feel like they’re there, if you give them the means to smell freshly-cut grass and taste the tang of frozen yogurt on their tongue, you have accomplished something great indeed. Get into imagery—use The Writing Mentor!

 

~Claire S.

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Let’s Spring into Writing

During the month of March we will be offering strategies to support and inspire your writing students.

Our spring stories bundle for 2nd grade is a wonderful place to begin. As is the case with all the Earlybird units, your students will explore five wonderful books, journalling their way through each story. They will explore wonderful words, learn to describe how characters think, act, and feel. They will be supported in constructing sentences that re-tell the plot. And, they will bring shape to a small weekly idea.

Journalling about great stories, overtime, builds strong skills in young writers as they spring into writing!

~Kimberly

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Submit Soon!

Submissions are open NOW through June 5, 2026.

Writing is an artform that is meant to be read by a reader! Blackbird & Company Educational Press is proud to announce a call for submissions to student writers, Kindergarten through 12th grade, who courageously write from the heart using our curriculum.

The theme of Reveal 2026? Our students’ big ideas! This journal’s name—Reveal—captures the idea that every piece of writing is a revelation about the author, both in terms of what they stitch together in their imagination and what they send out into the world.

And the bonus? Submit work early, by March 31, 2026 and you will be automatically entered to win a Solo Stove Campfire kit.

For added inspiration, here is a published piece from Reveal 2025 crafted by Hadleigh R. as she worked through Introduction to Composition: The Essay, Volume 1. Notice—not a single passive verb throughout! Enjoy!

The Whirligig

Catching a glimpse of my sister waving at me from the corner of my eye, I hustle across the lush lawn of the rest stop to join her and Jagger at the workout/playground area. A tarp covers the playground to protect it from the Texas sun, making an excellent place to rest. Unlike most play structures, this one is metallic and sturdy, perfect for a teenager hoping to enjoy some quality time with her younger siblings at the rest stop. They wave their hands excitedly from the top of the highest structure as I come closer, but I don’t plan on climbing it and making a fool of myself, so I beeline for a small green circular platform with a wheel for holding on. I should be able to keep an eye on them from there. But when I step onto it, gripping the wheel for balance, I realize I missed an important detail. The dais is tilted so that whenever someone steps onto the platform, they start to spin, their weight fueling the centrifugal force. In a single second, the world whips around me at full speed, blurs of green and brown as I spin faster than I imagined possible. I glance down at my hands, which seem to be the only things around me not twirling. My fingers squeeze tight to the metal, not daring to let go. Only yards away from me, my mother walks our mutt. I yell for help, but she doesn’t seem to hear me as my view of her whips by again and again. Closing my whirling eyes, I spin alone in a vacuum chamber of blackness. When my mom shouts my name, I open my eyes to the swirling colors again, summoning the courage to leap from my imprisoned state. Facing my fear of twisting my ankle, I leap from the apparatus, stumbling to lean giddily on the now-motionless handle as the world still spins. Once it slows, I lurch around to come face-to-face with a concerned-looking mother and her two, small, openmouthed children. Smiling weakly, I apologize, loping away as fast as I dare, my siblings following close behind.

 

~Kimberly

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Great Sentences Begin Here

Beginning Sentences 
One of the challenges of writing sentences is creating variety. Sometimes a short, simple sentence will do just fine, but there is something wonderful about a long luscious sentence! Let’s practice writing concise sentences with a punch of rhythm. In this beginning activity, let’s practice writing ideas into exceptional short and long sentences. Click through to this activity which will pair perfectly with students in CORE, Level 1 (3rd grade, or older struggling writers).

By now, you’ve likely heard about Print Shop for Primary students, kindergarten through 2nd grade. We are very excited that our first few Print Shop offerings for elementary and middle school are now live!

Introducing, The Writing Mentor

The Print Shop Writing Mentor will grow into a collection of exercises to help young writers write well. Great writing begins with words. Words combined well form phrases. And great sentences are made of wonderful words and fantastic phrases that communicate ideas articulately with precision.

Through the end of February, all our Writing Mentor lessons on Print Shop are FREE.

Intermediate Sentences
It’s easy to write the way we speak to our friends. However, when we write the way we speak, our writing can be confusing to readers. Writing like we speak often ends up in run-on sentences and sentence fragments. These distract the reader from focusing on our important ideas. Since, as writers, we want to make the reader’s job as easy as possible, it’s important to avoid run-ons and fragments! In this intermediate activity, let’s practice tightening up ideas into exceptional, concise sentences. Click through to this activity which will pair perfectly with students in CORE, Level 2 (4th or 5th grade, or older struggling writers).

Advanced Sentences
Stilted, awkward paragraphs are jarring to read. Reading one is like hearing a choir that is off key. They grate on the ears. They are repetitive and lack flow. In this advanced activity, we will practice tightening up ideas into exceptional, rhythmic sentences. Click through to this activity which will pair perfectly with students in CORE, Level 3 (6th – 8th grade, or older struggling writers).
~Kimberly
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Print Shop for Elementary and Middle School

Campfire Tip #6: Offer Independent Writing Skills Practice

Print Shop is a Blackbird & Company New Year Resolution!

Print Shop downloads offers an awesome opportunity to set your students into independent writing activities.  We are building a collection of downloadable activities designed to engage students, 3rd through 8th grade, in focused, independent work pinpointed on specific writing academic skills with opportunities to build upon the fund of knowledge. Click through to see our offerings, and check back often this month as we add more bundles—lessons on crafting exceptional sentences, extras tied to Tools of Style, activities exploring etymology and so much more. Each downloadable activity comes with instructions. We are so excited to grow this offering!

Now through the end of January 2026 all  Print Shop downloads will be FREE!

 

~Kimberly

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Print Shop for Primary

Campfire Tip #5: Inspire Independence

Print Shop is a Blackbird & Company New Year Resolution!

So what is Print Shop for Primary? It’s an awesome collection of downloadable Discovery activities designed to engage students, Kindergarten through 2nd grade, in focused, independent work pinpointed on specific academic skills with opportunities to build upon the fund of knowledge. Click through to see the first bundle of pumpkin activities, and check back often this month as we add more bundles—frogs and rainclouds and zippers and kites! And soon we will be adding an ABCeDarian Journal, beautifully illustrated by artist Sandra Ronda with dip pen and ink especially for your students to watercolor and learn from. Each downloadable activity comes with  a materials list and instructions. We are so excited to grow this offering!

Now through the end of January all  Print Shop downloads will be FREE!

 

~Kimberly

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Revealing a Giveaway

Campfire Giveaway

What would make our annual virtual campfire gathering even more wonderful? An actual campfire, of course!  Enlist your students to choose a favorite polished draft from this year’s work from Blackbird & Company curriculum, submit the work to our journal of student writing: Reveal. Simple!

We invite writers, Kindergarten through 12th grade, who courageously write from the heart using our curriculum to submit! And, now through March 31, 2026, each submission will earn your family a submission to our Giveaway!

And the prize? A Solo Stove S’Mores Bundle!

From the very first flicker of the tabletop fire bowl, you’ll be ready to roll into seasonal storytelling with this S’Mores kit from Solo Stove! This tabletop “Fire Bowl” + sticks, fuel, & bamboo tray is sure to add s’more fun to this year’s story making!

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Welcome to the Campfire

It’s that time of year again. A new year is dawning and the long stretch of educating looms ahead! I love that word “loom” because it is a very specific verb. Of course, the noun is a machine for weaving, but the verb means to come into sight in an indistinct, atmospheric way. When something looms ahead, it is sort of unknown. And the unknown can sometimes be daunting. I know, as a teacher, January makes me catch my breath, knowing the work ahead is BIG. And when something BIG is looming on the horizon, I don’t know about you, but I want to run away!

Here at the campfire though, we have a moment to catch our breath, look back, prepare, and look forward again with a less blurred view, “Hey, that looks like an adventure to me!”

So join us these next four weeks as we offer a dozen or so tips and tricks to carry with you on the 2026 adventure!

 

~Kimberly