More Altered Books

Here are some more altered books.
This one is LB's. He's showing off his use of a paint spatter technique to illustrate a crime scene description.



This one is SH's. We did love poems about food, and she chose apples.



And, finally, here's a nice one by SJ, who's really getting into this whole altered book thing:

Altered Books --Riddles

Once again I have a creative writing advisory class. This year, however, ALL the kids want to be in it, and we have a real focus.
This year is the year of making altered books! These books not only give the kids a chance to "publish" their work in a take-home form, but they also give us a chance to recycle a good many out-of-date textbooks and materials.
The most recent assignment was to write a riddle poem. The kids were given examples, many from Tolkien's The Hobbit, then told to choose a simple, generic object and write clues about it. They then tried to work it into a rhyming poem, if possible.
Thanks to the counseling center secretary, we had many, many old puzzle pieces to use at decorations, so I told them to use the puzzles to complement their riddles. -- riddles and puzzles, get it?
Here are some results:



In this one by ninth-grader TC, an old music book has been turned upside down and used as the background for her riddle on the heart. The riddle's answer lies hidden behind the metallic paper panel.

Here's one by RW about grass:


She's used collaging techniques here as well.


And here's one by 8th grader TC about water. She chose to cover up her background book and use 3-D objects to illustrate her theme:




And finally here's one by SL (I think this is SL's, anyway.). Notice how she works her riddle around the existing text:



And if you look closely, you'll see the puzzle pieces spell out the answer to her riddle.

Pass-Around Poem -- Rachel

This one was begun by Rachel:

Sad
The yellow flowers drooped
Honey melting slowly over the table
When the sun sank slowly down
A lonely yellow donkey sitting in his stall
The donkey moves like a sluggish snail
Talking to a blank white wall
In an empty hallway
On a really high mountain.

Okay, well, this one jumps around a bit, but we've got some interesting sad images here.

Pass-Around Poems --Savanna

Here is a pass-around poem BEGUN by Savanna:

Sneaky
A black shadow
On the back of a t-shirt
In the alley near the New York street
A brown rat sneaks into a cellar
Like a ballerina on tiptoes
Snickering at the ignorance of unsuspecting humans
Like the darkest shade.

(Remember: every line was written by a different student, following my oral directions.)

Pass-Around Poems

Just before the end of 2nd term, we tried a new thing which I'd made up: each row in the class took an emotion, then each person wrote just one line (following my directions about including a color, an animal, a metaphor, etc.) as it was passed around the room. Some of them turned out just awful, but others were quite interesting.
Here's one that was begun by Annie:

Happy
The adorable bunnies frolicked in the lush green grass
Mexican jumping beans bouncing around
In the the park with the sun shining vibrantly
A lush green bird flying from tree to tree
Fluttering like a helicopter
With a green feather coat
Keeping it warm in the crisp, cool breeze, in a warm sunset
In the beautiful orange sky.

Okay, that last line makes me think of Nat King Cole..... :)

A "Quality" Poem by Kim

Laziness (as land)

This land is not totally
flat, some mountains. It rains
sometimes.
All you see here is
ugly trees, dirt,
tumbleweeds and
Under the trees
are patches of
grass. There are tumble-
Weeds blowing in the low wind.
the
smell
is
the
smell
of
new
fallen
rain.

A "Quality" Poem by Todd

Anger (as water)

Anger is like the ocean when it's in a typhoon
Wailing towards the fishermen and the
Islands in its path
Whiping out everything in its way
Dark and gloomy days after the destruction
Of the typhoon