InkSlinger - Learning Vocabulary Through Poetry & Imagination

Giraffe art submitted by: Israa, Age 11, International School of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Essential QuestionWhy is it important to have a wild imagination?

Curriculum ConnectionsEnglish: NL-ENG.K-12.1; NL-ENG.K-12.2; NL-ENG.K-12.3; NL-ENG.K-12.4; NL-ENG.K-12.5; NL-

ENG.K-12.6; NL-ENG.K-12.7; NL-ENG.K-12.8; NL-ENG.K-12.11; NL-ENG.K-12.12

Activity #1• Discuss the Essential Question.

•  To warm up the class’ wild imaginations, read the poem Alphabet Alliteration by Becca D. (below).

•  Divide the class into groups and have each group take a section of the alphabet to alliterate.

•  Vote on who’s section has the wackiest alliterations.

•  Combine all the sections together to create one giant, silly poem!

Activity #2•  Have students read the story Monkey Attack: Zoo Invasion by Gabe H.,

on page four of the March 2011 magazine.

•  As a class, brainstorm wild story concepts and write them all on the board.

•  Vote on the top five wildest concepts and erase the rest.

•  Tell students to put their inner editors away and write crazy stories incorporating ALL of the top five elements they selected.

★ Submit wild and creative stories and alliteration poems to KidzEra for possible publication! Be sure to include the submission form on page three of the magazine with student submissions.

Alphabet Alliteration

Active aardvarks ate anchovies all afternoon.Bouncy bugs bounded off of big black bulls.Crazy crocodiles caught crying chickens.Devouring deer ditched the dizzy, drooling dingo.Elegant elephants easily embarrassed the educated elk.Fabulous fawns forced five foals to frolic.Generous geckos and gazelles gazed at gems.Hesitating hares horribly hit hairy hamsters.Ignorant invertebrates irritated the independent inch-worm.Jealous jaguars juggled jackrabbits and joeys.Karate kangaroos and koalas sang karaoke in kayaks.Little lambs and lemurs lapped up lemonade from a lake.Mad monkeys ate macaroni made by manatees.Nine naughty newts noticed nothing numb.Obedient owls ate old okra and oranges.Pampered poodles peed in the pool.Quick quail took a quiz before the quest.Radical raccoons raced with red rabbits.Slick salamanders and snakes sneaked spaghetti.Ten tiny turtles took a trip to Texas on Tuesday.Unbelievable unicorns unicycled under umbrellas.Vicious vipers vacuumed before vacationing to Virginia.Whistling whales waltzed with walruses.X-rayed men played the xylophone on Xmas.Yesterday, yowling yaks yelled at yellow jackets.Zigzagging, zooming zebras zippered zippers.

Poem submitted by: Becca D., Age 11, Cleveland Middle School, Garner, North Carolina

[ [I had to do something, but what? I could try to find

their weakness, but again, what could it be?

One day while I was watching television, I saw a short advertisement that said, “Come and see what’s new at the zoo. Welcome the new arrivals, the monkeys from Mars!” I saw this and decided to go and check it out. I grabbed my coat and hat, got in the car and drove to the zoo.

When I arrived, the zoo was packed! I guessed there were at least one thousand people, all there to see the monkeys. Thinking about this, I got in line and waited.

When I finally got to the admission booth, the attendant said, “Fifty dollars please.”

“Holy cow! Why is it so spendy? I’m not made of money!” I exclaimed.

“It’s so spendy because of the monkeys from Mars. Are you going to buy a ticket or not? I haven’t got all day,” he said, very rudely. So I handed him the money and went inside.

When I reached the exhibit, I was in awe — it was so amazing! One of the monkeys had purple fur, three eyes and four arms. The other monkeys had blue fur, one eye and three arms. Just then, I heard the purple monkey screech; one blue monkey pressed on a rock and something amazing rose into view. I saw an alien assault vehicle (AAV) with a death ray on the front of it.  All of a sudden, they fired the death ray and turned the enclosure into dust. They drove over the concrete and zapped the mayor!

I had to do something, but what? Just then an idea popped into my head: I could try to find their weakness, but again, what could it be?  I turned around to see that they were heading straight for me. As I scrambled to find something to throw at them, I saw a half-eaten hotdog on the ground that someone must have dropped while they were running.

After I threw it, the monkey screamed in agony and fell off the AAV. I knew what their weakness was! Now I could try to defeat them! So I snuck over to the snack bar to get some hotdogs.

Monkey Attack: Zoo InvasionStory submitted by: Gabe H., Age 11, Idaho Arts Charter School, Nampa, Idaho

When I got out of the snack bar, my arms were filled with hotdogs.   I think I looked like Hillshire Rambo. When I reached the monkeys, I started throwing hotdogs. The monkeys screamed with fear as the hotdogs approached them. As the hotdogs hit most of their targets, the monkeys fell off the AAV, screaming. The monkeys were distracted with all of the other people chucking various food items at them, like chips and hamburgers. Even a baby chipped in and threw its bottle at them. I took this opportunity to try to destroy the AAV, by shoving my last hotdog into the gas tank. Apparently the gasoline in the tank was vegetarian, because the AAV exploded in a spectacular display of flames.  The monkeys that weren’t taken out in the bratwurst battle were defeated in the explosion.

After a minute of hotdog horror, the monkeys were defeated and their AAV destroyed. I guess destroying their AAV brought the people that had been turned into human toast back to life. I asked for a free vacation for saving the world, but all they gave me was a giant plastic key painted to look like it was solid gold. I still think that 50 bucks was a rip-off.

Monkey art submitted by: Kimberly K., Age 11, Charleston Upper Elementary School, Charleston, Mississippi