Episode 38: I've Got Twilight News

Take five minutes to do this creative exercise with me...

The other day, my 9-year-old came home with a haiku project she did at school. The goal was to make use of old library books to create something new. So instead of simply writing a haiku with any words from their head, the kids had to use words found in stacks of old books and put them together to make a poem while sticking with the rhyming cadence of a haiku (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables). Here is her result:

I love how free this feels. It doesn’t really have to make sense, yet there is a vision and moment of joy in the story being told here.

Inspired by this, let’s do a similar creative exercise together right now:

1. Stop what you are doing and grab a catalog, magazine, mailer, food packaging, or something from your recycling bin. etc.

2. Cut out 8-10 words from those various pieces.

3. Now arrange the 10 words in order to make a sentence and then you can insert additional words from there to fill in where needed.

This should take no more than five minutes of your time. Don’t overthink it!

Here were the words I found and cut out…

And here is the sentence that I made…

It’s fun and funny to see what words you gravitate towards when choosing from a random selection of options. And, what you create from there!

Small exercises like this give as—as adults—a chance to play in ways we rarely get to anymore. Take these chances to play!

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