Create Mor Mondays!

About this post: I had fantastic English teachers throughout the years who helped me hone in on the art of “storytelling”. One, in particular, was my grade six teacher, Mr. Moriarity. Using his technique, each Monday I will post a Creative Writing exercise for parents who are homeschooling their children…and will share a few of the stories I receive the following week.

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Let me tell you about Mr. Moriarity!

It was 1979. I was a grade 6 student at Clayton Park Junior High School, when Mr. Moriarity, my English teacher, opened my eyes to “Creative Writing.”

Prior to his class, I drew pictures and wrote in my journal…but I hadn’t really used my imagination to tell a story or truly understand how I could turn what was in my head…into something that others would enjoy.

It was his class that opened my eyes…that stretched my imagination. I will never forget the day he said, “Colleen, you were born to be a storyteller.”

His trick…a simple visual cue.

Each Creative Writing class, we’d arrive in Mr. Moriarity’s classroom to discover something unusual laid out on his desk. I can remember the anticipation of waiting outside his room until he opened the door!

Once inside, we could examine the object…all gathering around his desk to explore the contents. When ready, we’d sit at our desks, close our eyes, and spend the next few minutes inside our heads as Mr. Moriarity sat on his desk, listing some details of the object we may have missed. Then, we’d open our scribblers and write our stories, complete with illustrations.

Later in the week, Mr. Moriarity would pick a few stories to read to the class and time and again, I was amazed to hear the different ways that everyone interpreted those objects into their stories. How very different they were from my own.

I’ve been thinking of all of the parents who are suddenly faced with needing to keep their kids entertained and busy…finding ways to allow kids to explore their imaginations and be creative.

In the hopes of “serving my readers” and helping all of the home school parents…while also keeping in mind my love for being creative and my love of writing, I’m launching a brand new series called “Create Mor Mondays” (and yes, MORE is spelled wrong but in this case, it stands for Mr. Moriarity!)

Here’s how it works:

• Each Monday I will post a new “visual cue” for your at-home students to create a short story, comic strip, poem or illustration.
• Email your submissions to me at colleenodea@icloud.com.
• The following Monday, I’ll pop on Facebook Live and read/show a few of my favorites before showing the next visual cue for the next creative writing exercise.

Create Mor Mondays – Week 1

The Green Liquid

Please share with anyone who you think might enjoy having a bit of fun with this.

I’ll see you on Facebook Live next Monday, for our first installment of “Create Mor Mondays”!

xo
Colleen