Category: Campfire

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Twelve MORE Tips

And just like that, our time around the virtual campfire is coming to a close.

Though you may not have been able to warm your hands, my hope is that something on the blog warmed your heart. Thank you for pulling up a chair around the campfire—and keep an eye on the blog as we forge on into 2026 with ways to help your students become wonder-filled, confident readers and writers. 

But before we let our 4th Annual Campfire burn down to embers, here are twelve MORE tips to give you one last push into the new year.

ONE. BOOK TALK

Students shouldn’t just read out of obligation—they should read out of intrigue! One way to foster interest in books is by talking about them. And I don’t necessarily mean talking about themes or overarching arguments or literary devices. I mean some good old fashioned chit chat. Which characters did you like? Who annoyed you? What was the most interesting part of the story? Peeta or Gale? (Well, maybe only ask this if you’re reading The Hunger Games). Make book talk a normal conversation in the home or classroom. Books are exciting!

TWO. ENJOY THE JOURNEY

As educators and publishers, believe it or not, we’re not in the business of product. We’re in the business of helping students engage in process. Where students end up isn’t as important as how they get there, because the journey is where students experience growth. Learning happens in the in-between spaces. 

THREE. BOOKS AS MENTORS

Which writers do you admire? Might it be someone like Robert McCloskey, Roald Dahl, Katherine Paterson, or John Steinbeck? These authors would probably be tough to get ahold of as writing teachers (especially since three of the four have passed away) but fortunately for us, they left behind writing mentors: their books. Teach your students to treat books as writing mentors. Pay attention to what writing techniques resonate with you, to why certain passages stand out, to how a book makes you laugh or cry. Keep a list of these techniques—and then try your own hand at them. Perhaps an author’s wisdom is immortalized after all….

FOUR. READ TO LEARN

The point of writing is to communicate a BIG idea. And to shape a BIG idea, we need to provide the imagination with plenty of fodder. That’s where reading comes in. Reading builds up our fund of knowledge, or our understanding of the world around us. Only when writers have knowledge to draw on can they form ideas worth communicating. Read to learn—it will elevate your ceiling for BIG ideas. 

FIVE. BRAINSTORM FEARLESSLY

I don’t know what it’s like for you and your students, but sometimes brainstorming intimidates me. I feel the need to come up with a nuanced, sophisticated idea right off the bat; unfortunately, that’s not how brainstorming works. Sometimes, we need to give our subconscious space to relax, to feel at ease. One way to do this is to prioritize quantity over quality. Though this might sound counterintuitive, when we focus on coming up with a lot of ideas rather than one perfect idea, we can loosen our chokehold on the imagination and let it run wild, producing a gem. Encourage your students to relax into the brainstorming process. You might be surprised at their ideas!

SIX. ART AND WRITING: TWO PEAS IN A POD

What if painting made you a better writer? And what if pottery improved your painting? At Blackbird & Company, we believe that all arts bolster each other up. At its core, art is a way to meditate on ideas, to slow down, to focus on big questions. Whatever medium you engage with accomplishes these ends from different angles. Art isn’t separate from teaching writing—the two go hand in hand!

SEVEN. NO DEAD WORDS

Here’s a writing tip: avoid dead words! “What is a dead word?” you may ask. Dead words are words or phrases that are overused or vague, like “a lot,” “really,” “very,” “stuff,” and “thing.” You know them when you see them—they don’t mean much and take up valuable space on the page. The clearest writing is specific. So strive for specificity!

EIGHT. EXPERIMENT WITH SOMETHING NEW

Chances are you’ve heard the news by now, but I’m just so excited about it that I’ll bring it up again: Printshop is happening! Printshop is Blackbird & Company’s collection of downloadable writing activities, from individual worksheets on synonyms to bundles about etymology. We’ll be rolling out more and more Printshop activities as the months go by, so keep your eyes peeled! Supplement your students’ writing routine with something fresh. 

NINE. ROUGH DRAFTS AREN’T FINAL

This might sound obvious, but it can be easy to forget! Rough drafts are meant to be changed, rearranged, pieced together and pulled apart. Many times a wonderful hook is buried within a paragraph for those with eyes to see it, ready to be plucked out of the melee of sentences and placed at the paragraph’s beginning. Remind your students: every book they’ve ever read was once a rough draft, full of inconsistencies and mistakes and stumbles. Rough drafts should be rough; that’s what revision is for.

TEN. WRITERS NEED READERS

You’ve thought your deep thoughts, you’ve written your ideas on the page—what comes next? A reader. While the act of writing itself holds power, writing needs an audience. After all, if the purpose of writing is to communicate, you need someone to communicate with! Encourage your students to share their work with others, be it friends, family, or classmates. For an opportunity to gain a wider readership, submit student work to Reveal, Blackbird & Company’s annual student anthology. Did I mention that every submission until March 31st comes with a chance to win a mini campfire, a Solo-Stove S’mores bundle? 

ELEVEN. BE THE TORTOISE, NOT THE HARE

The moment a child first picks up a pencil, they are embarking on a lifelong writing journey. This journey can’t be rushed. Growth can’t be forced. Rather, we take a thousand baby steps and eventually look over our shoulder to wonder at how far we’ve come. So as you mentor young writers, look for baby steps and know that big steps are few and far between. In this race we must be the tortoise, not the hare. 

TWELVE. IT’S A BUMPY ROAD—BUT WORTH IT

If a student is stretching their skills, not every piece of writing they pen will be a roaring success. And that’s okay. Expect some failure. Encourage experimentation. The result can be awkward, muddled prose, or a flash of insight that opens readers’ eyes to a new world—but how will we know if we don’t try? Either outcome is better than always playing it safe by hiding behind rigid rules of composition. Failure has as much (or more) to teach us than success. The road to progress is bumpy, but learning to soar is worth a bump or two. 

 

~Claire S.

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Leonardo’s Flying Machine

Campfire Tip #12: Be like Leonardo

Leonardo Da Vinci was a polymath (someone whose knowledge spans many different subjects and has an enormous body of knowledge.)

Look • Imagine • Create

Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci was not only an artist but also an inventor? His sketchbooks included hundreds of ideas—catapults, flying machines, musical instruments, tools, water systems, and so much more! Leonardo dreamed BIG.

So how do we inspire our students to be like Leonardo?

It all begins with a book, a pencil, and our Leonardo da Vinci Observation Journal kit. Set your students on a Leonardo adventure. Observation begins with a question: What am I seeing? In a world filled to the brim with stimulation, it is easy to take our senses for granted. Though we are usually quick to have thoughts on things that we taste and smell, sight (of all things) can often be overlooked. We see so many things on a daily basis that it’s easy to forget to stop and really look.

Learn to think and create. This 20-lesson interdisciplinary unit guides students into biographical research of Leonardo. Students will read to discover and write what they glean. Each week they will be guided through observational exercises, and learn to draw from the Renaissance Man’s sketchbooks, encouraged each step of the way by our instructional videos that can be accessed at your convenience.

We are offering a discount on the unit through the end of January. Simply use the code DaVinci15 at checkout.

Enjoy the journey with Leonardo.

 

~Kimberly

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Struggling Writers: Filling the Gaps

Campfire Tip #11: Remediate to Read & Write

Does your student struggle to spell well? Stumble to decode simple words and phrases? Does your student struggle with lingering ELA COVID delays? Or do you have a student who just needs a bit more direct instruction, a bit more time and practice.

What if you had everything needed to engage your students in the process of remediating reading and writing skills at your fingertips? We’ve got you!

 

Click through to:  The Wonderful World of Phonics

Reading builds a rich vocabulary, grows our knowledge of the world, and sparks BIG ideas.

Writing begins with an idea and is crafted to words on a page by a courageous thinker.

Our open-ended unit provides you, the teacher, with all the tools necessary to guide your students into the wonderful world of phonics. Our curriculum, rooted in Orton-Gilligham wisdom, is user friendly and affirming for the older student who needs additional direct instruction and independent practice to shore up skills. Includes all you need to know about phonics, a placement guide, plus lesson guidance each step of the way.

Help your students dive into 2026 with the ELA tools that will enable them to read and write and think well!

 

~Kimberly

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One Bite at a Time: Long Research Writing

Campfire Tip #10: One Bite at a Time

“The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time,” or so the saying goes.

That’s also the mindset one must adopt when tackling the year-long research essay, known as Essay Volume 6: Advanced Research. This unit is designed for 11th and 12th grade students, representing the culmination of their research and literary writing skills. 

This school year marks my first foray into teaching Essay Volume 6. Over the last two sessions, I’ve learned a lot—and I’ve also fallen in love with this essay unit! It teaches life skills and writing habits that will stick with students for years to come. 

Is Essay Volume 6 a good fit for your student, either this coming year or years down the road? Here are some of my takeaways from teaching the long research project:

1. How It Works

Before we get into WHY I love Essay Volume 6, let’s go over what this unit entails. The Long Research Essay can be organized into two parts: the research process and the writing process. And conveniently enough, the guides are broken down into A and B volumes along the same lines. 

In the first half of the project, students choose a person, place, and thing they want to learn more about, unifying the three topics with a single theme (like creativity, truth, perseverance, or tragedy). Then they take a self-directed tour through the library and internet to find their sources and build a fund of knowledge. As I’ve taught this Pages class, I’ve given lessons on how to find and use credible sources—which is one of the most important skills in college writing—and expect students to present their research findings each week. This stretches their abilities in new ways!

In the second half of this course, students synthesize their research by writing and revising. Because they combine their person, place, and thing with their theme, they create a brand new narrative about their topics—chances are, no one has combined their topic and theme in the same way before! This is an exciting opportunity to apply a literary essay style to one’s own research.

2. Motivated Learning

A major principle of the psychology of memory is that we remember information that’s personally meaningful to us and struggle to remember information we don’t care about. You probably know this just from living life. 

Because Essay Volume 6 gives students so much creative freedom, they can choose to research topics they’re passionate about, transforming a potentially mundane research project into a motivated pursuit of knowledge. Writing doesn’t have to be boring. If you’re writing about the right things, it can be the most engrossing activity imaginable. 

For example, my student, Kingsley, has long been inspired by ballerina Margot Fontayne. She has a book about Fontayne’s life on her bookshelf that she’s never had the time to read. But Essay Volume 6 says, “Pursue your interests!” So that’s what Kingsley’s done. Choosing Margot Fontayne as her person to research, she’s taken a dive into this legendary dancer’s life, satisfying her curiosity and honing her research and writing skills. She finally had the chance to read her book!

When done right, research writing gives thinkers the chance to pursue questions they have about the world. 

3. Rising to the Challenge

Time and time again, I’ve seen this truth play out: Set high expectations and students will rise to meet them. 

The Long Research Essay is a daunting task. It demands self-discipline. Motivation. Consistency.

But, I believe our Blackbird students are more than up to the challenge. When students set big goals for themselves and then achieve them, they build their confidence one brick at a time. The impossible becomes possible. Students learn that they are capable!

The week-by-week scaffolding of Essay Volume 6 provides the framework necessary for students to soar to great heights. You don’t craft a masterpiece in one sitting; rather, you chip away at your work of art day by day, sometimes fueled by perseverance rather than inspiration. 

Let’s set some lofty goals. And then get to work. 

 

~Claire S.

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Books: FUNding Knowledge

Campfire Tip #9: Read Books!

I’ve had a taste of what it’s like to grow up in rural Virginia because I’ve read Bridge to Terabithia. 

I know how veterinarians assist cows giving birth because I’ve read All Creatures Great and Small.

I’ve seen how humans and octopuses can develop friendships because I’ve read The Soul of an Octopus.

I have insights into the class structure of late eighteenth century England because I’ve read Sense and Sensibility. 

While these tidbits about life might seem inconsequential (how often do you need to know the ins and outs of human-octopus friendship?), when added together, they represent my fund of knowledge about the world. A fund of knowledge means all of the abilities, cultural insights, and information people glean just from living life—and from reading books. 

When the time comes for students to learn—to synthesize their relationships and experiences and readings—nothing is more important than their fund of knowledge. Making sense of new information without a prior foundation of learning is like trying to jump in sand; you can get a little air, but you’d go much higher from solid ground. This foundation provides a framework with which to interpret the world. 

Not only is a fund of knowledge essential for processing new information, but it also nourishes students’ creation of their own big ideas. Forming ideas from a blank slate is nearly impossible. From a base of learning, however—that’s a different story. Just as flour and eggs and sugar are essential ingredients for a cake, stories and settings and characters are the ingredients for forming original ideas. We need fodder to gently daydream and boldly imagine. 

This fodder stems both from living vicariously through characters and from one’s own experiences. In class, I get excited when students connect an element of literature to their own lives, like dance class or theater or swim team. They’re drawing on their fund of knowledge and making literature come alive!

With every new adventure, be it through story or experience, a student’s fund of knowledge gets a little deeper, a little wider. My hope is that as students learn more about the world, they also learn more about themselves—and harness the courage it takes to voice their big ideas. 

 

~Claire S.

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Pencils Are Magic

Campfire Tip #8: Pencils are the Best Technology

Sometimes, I get a piece of student writing that sounds a little off. No misspellings, perfect punctuation, stays on topic—but something doesn’t seem quite right. No matter where I look amidst the precise diction and correct clauses, I can’t find the student’s voice. That’s when, with a sinking heart, I run the piece through a plagiarism or AI checker and, if I’m unlucky, find a match to another online source. 

This is one of the most disheartening moments as a teacher. In every educator’s soul is a hope that their students will come to love their subject as much as they do, that they will grow curious about the world and strive to learn more about it. But when students plagiarize and use AI, the teacher’s hopes are dashed. Plagiarism values product over process, which completely misses the point of education. Shortcuts lead to temporary ease at the expense of long-term progress. 

That’s one of the reasons I find AI use among children to be so menacing, especially among elementary schoolers. Whereas the point of writing is to express one’s BIG ideas, to give shape to the abstractions of the psyche, shortcuts make that impossible. When writers use AI and plagiarize, they express other people’s big ideas, handicapping their own potential. How can we grow our own humanity if we steal other people’s? And how can we think up big ideas if we don’t really think at all?

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that students who use ChatGPT to write essays experience less neural activity when completing assignments—but I found it fascinating that even using the internet in an academically honest way decreases neural activity, as illustrated in this study from MIT. Relying solely on one’s own brain produces the highest levels of neural activity while writing. And with the highest levels of neural activity comes deep learning, 

Here’s where pencils come in. 

 

While not a perfect solution, writing by hand limits the temptation students feel to look up answers online or generate them through AI. Whereas typing up an essay on Google Docs comes with an alluring internet browser right next door, practically begging reluctant students to take the easy way out, a paper and pencil leave a student stranded with their thoughts, and their thoughts only. 

That’s where the magic of writing happens. When one’s thoughts have the chance to percolate, to coalesce, into something new, unique, and bold.

So what better way to write than pick up a pencil? And, remember, not all pencils are created equal! Click through to The Well Appointed Desk to discover some of the top rated favorites. 

 

~Claire S.

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Gems of Art and the Section 5 Project

Campfire Tip #7: Encourage Creativity

If you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll want some syrup to go with it—but if you give a girl an octopus book and some thread, she just might make the most gorgeous pillow you’ve ever seen!

If you’ve been with Blackbird & Company for a while, you know the grand finale of every Literature guide arrives in the form of the Section 5 project. Students have the freedom to pour as much or as little time into these projects as they feel inspired. 

Over the years, we’ve been WOWed by our students’ talents. Each writer brings some new twist to old stories, a fresh perspective that shines. And in Session One of Pages classes, our Pages Online student, Gwen, raised the bar for the Section 5 Project. Inspired by The Soul of an Octopus, a Level 4 novel, her project brings the WOW! 

Take a look at this pillow. The painstaking detail in every stitch, the beautiful and warm color palette, the elegance of the underwater tentacles—chef’s kiss!

While sewing and embroidery might not be immediately identified as writing practice, creating a project like this teaches a host of lessons that can be applied both to writing and life. 

For one, this project is about putting vision into reality. Gwen had an idea and traveled step-by-step—gathering materials, creating a pattern, sewing little section by little section—towards her masterpiece. The ability to tackle complex goals by breaking them down into parts is an essential skill for writing. It sounds a lot like crafting a thesis, finding evidence, and developing a hook!

Another product of creating a project like this is grit. Though I’ve only embroidered a handful of times and never very well, I’m familiar with the vast patience embroidery requires. And to create an octopus with this level of detail and precision? That took a lot of discipline!

This is where holistic education comes in. We are in the business of creating well-rounded individuals, not writing robots. Gwen’s talents and perseverance exemplifies the Blackbird spirit. 

 

~Claire S.

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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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Blasting-off an IDEA

Tip #4 IDEAS Motivate Writers

Writing is an art form achieved via a series of steps:

1) It all begins with an IDEA. Without an idea, the writer will simply stare at the blank page.
2) Once there is an idea in the mind of the writer, the PENCIL steps in to translate thoughts to words on the page.
3) When the pencil’s work is complete, the job of the writer is to become a READER. Encourage your students to RE-READ everything they write.
4) Empower students to use the RED PEN as they re-read to REVISE. Teach them to use strong words, to fearlessly re-arrange, to make corrections, and to not be afraid to strike through.
5) Polish the draft, preferably in cursive by hand.

Children have enormous creative potential.

This potential will flourish and they they will thrive as writers when they are inspired to revel in the important work of IDEA making.

THINK Tortoise (not the hare). Learning to write is a long journey, we know this to be true.

Michaelangelo said:

“If you know how much work went into it you wouldn’t call it genius.”

At the core of each child’s being is some form of genius.

We inspire genius as we inspire children to bring shape to their IDEAS.

 

~Kimberly