Lori Sherritt-Fleming Author

I am highlighting some of the very young and talented students that I have mentored this year though BL Education for your summer reading delight. Today, meet Jasmine, always an inspiration. She always came up with magical scenarios and character names that tickled my imagination! Hard to believe she just finished grade three and could write this much in just one week! Every week!

About the Author: Jasmine is a little girl that is in grade 3 and she lives with her parents, sister and brother. She loves writing stories, and also, she likes to read. Her piano teacher tells her she is a book bug!!! (and Lori is her favourite teacher…ok, I just added that!)

The Magical Crystal Ball

By: Jasmine

Chapter 1 The Introduction 

            Snowflake, the snow tiger was a little tiger cub. She had a swirly-black pattern on her body, and a silvery tail swished behind her. Her mother’s name was Crystal, and her father’s name was Icicle. Crystal had the power of snow, and Icicle had the power of ice. Snowflake had the power of telling the future. Her family was granted a wish, so they wished they could fly. Everyone had silver wings. Snowflake had glittering white wings with touches of silver. Crystal had pale blue wings with silver, and Icicle had light sea-blue colored wings with silver.

            Today, Snowflake was excited. She was going to the mountains! She was going to visit the Snow Globe Theater with Queen Blizzard! The Snow Globe Theater was one of the most popular theaters on the globe. But tickets were expensive and hard to get, so Snowflake felt important and content at the same time. Of course, the queen controlled all the tundras in the world so she got to pick who could go with her to the theaters, or who couldn’t. Also, Queen Blizzard’s companions did not have to pay because they were with the queen.

            “Snowflake, don’t forget to bring your crystal ball!!” Sparklepaw called her younger sister. 

Snowflake opened her pouch and carefully took out her crystal ball. It sparkled in the early morning sun. “I have it!” Snowflake called. Snowflake needed to take the crystal ball with her, everywhere she went. It helped her to tell the future and alarm her when something bad was going to happen. “Let’s goooo!” 

            When they reached the Crystal Snow Globe of the Tundras Theater and Cafe they chose a seat on the balcony, overlooking the stage. It was very fascinating, seeing the actors dance and play out different scenes. By the end of the day, the group was exhausted. Just then, Sparklepaw asked Snowflake to read the future. That’s when trouble started. Snowflake reached down to get the crystal ball out, but she discovered that her crystal ball had been stolen!

Chapter 2 The Plan

            “Oh-no!” cried out Queen Blizzard, as soon as she finished scolding the guards. “It must have been Flickerflame, daughter to Queen Fireflame. The fire group is a group of sleek, white lynxes with bobcat ears. They are the worst. Especially Flicker flame, she is the hunting thief of the Fire Clan,” Queen Blizzard explained. “Flicker flame was sitting right in the row above us. The fire row!!” she added darkly. 

“Then let’s find my crystal ball!” yelped Snowflake, striking a superhero pose.

“Wait, we need a plan,” said Sparklepaw. They discussed the plan for some time, and then it was time for action.

Chapter 3 Action

            The group met again at Blizzard’s Ice Palace. It was time for action. Blizzard led the sisters into flight, snapping open her majestic azure wings, carefully making sure the four wings would not hit each other. The queen’s wings had a dark outline of cobalt-blue. The tips were black. “Whoosh!” A blast of wind blew against her. Snowflake was doing a little somersault in mid-air. But then she fell in mid-air, spraying snow all over Queen Blizzard and Sparklepaw. 

As soon as Sparklepaw shook off the snow, she rolled her eyes and said, “Little sister, don’t do that again!” Sparklepaw picked up a little pawful of snow and whacked it into Snowflake’s face.

“Oh yeah?” Snowflake grouped together some snow, and threw it at Sparkle paw. Then, before they knew it, a snowball fight started.

            A while later, they decided to start. When the moon pulled itself up onto the horizon, the group knew it was time for the trip to the Lava Castle.

            When it was midnight, they arrived at the Molten Gate. The group pulled on their lava-like costumes. They were black, with strips of blazing red coming to the center, forming a star. The outfits were so realistic, that even they fell for it! 

Snowflake, Sparklepaw, and Blizzard made it through to the castle, but now was the risky part. They had to go in without anyone catching them. The guards usually asked for an ID card or a metal armband, to show that they were the Flame Lynxes. That was the name for the flame pack. The snow tigers crouched low to the ground, then leapt up, up, up, until they circled the castle. Blizzard gave a thumbs-up, or in other words, a paw-up. In unison, the sisters flew in a straight line, then separated to cover the corners. A bubbling lava moat was underneath them. Queen Blizzard flew down and sprayed a gust of icy wind and snow from her mouth, also showing off her venom fangs, which she used to hit the ice, and melt it. Then, all the lava hardened. It attracted quite a lot of lynxes. “The distraction worked!” thought Blizzard. 

            Meanwhile, Snowflake left Sparklepaw guarding the grounds. She wandered around, trying to find the treasury. Snowflake then found an uneven set of bricks and tried to push them back. But to her surprise, when she pushed them, they opened up into a room! There were opals, emeralds, obsidians, jasper, empty ambers, and diamonds. But most importantly, her crystal ball was there! 

Snowflake reached for it, grabbed it, and launched into flight. Blizzard and Sparklepaw followed. They went to Queen Blizzard’s palace and Snowflake looked through the crystal ball. “I see that we all will have a good future, free of trouble. But there is one future that I can’t read. It is covered with dark red smoke. But just follow the good futures, and you will be alright.” So the group went back to their normal lives. 

I had a very busy and creative school year…so much so that blog posts have been few and far between. Now that we are graduating into summer, it is time to celebrate some of the wonderful writing that some of my students have completed. Their spring writing makes great summer reading!

This first story is by Daniel from my class at BL Education. A little something for all of you cat lovers out there.

About the author: Daniel was 9 and a quarter years old when he wrote this story. He likes to hang out with his friends and play. He loves cats so much that he owns a stuffie cat called Whiskers. He recently finished grade 3 and he will move on to grade 4. 

The Story of The Fortune Telling Cat (AKA Whiskers)

Part 1

One day, a cat that was named Whiskers was strolling around Cat Island. She had light grey fur. She wanted to tell people’s fortunes but didn’t know how. She wanted to figure it out so she went to a pro fortune teller to learn how to do fortune-telling. The fortune teller was a mysterious black cat wearing a hoodie. “Excuse me,” asked Whiskers.

“Yes?” replied the black cat mysteriously. 

“Can you teach me how to tell fortunes?” asked Whiskers.

“As you wish,” replied the black cat. “You need to collect the following item. The crystal ball. To obtain it, you must travel to Fishy Island. Once you collect it, you can return it to me.” 

Whiskers immediately figured out that Fishy Island was very near. So she grabbed a boat and rowed to Fishy Island. She found a suspicious yarn ball. She grabbed the item and went back to Cat Island and arrived at the mysterious fortune teller. “I’m back with the ball!!” Whiskers yelled. 

“Let me see,” said the fortune-teller. “It’s the one. Now you have to go get a scroll from the top of the mountain to learn fortune telling,” said the fortune-teller.

“But what about you?” Whiskers asked. 

”I’m just here to give ingredients. So now go learn the ways of fortune telling.”

Part 2

Whiskers eagerly climbed the mountain for the scroll. When she reached the top she saw a scroll on a pedestal. She grabbed it and went home. She read the scroll each day so she could improve her skills. Sometimes she invited her friends over to help and be test subjects. After 10 weeks and 1 month. Whiskers was ready. She set up a little table with a sign that said: “$1 for 1 fortune tell”. With that, she completed her quest even though it was a little bit short. But she still completed her quest, or did she? Just kidding. She finished it.

The End

“I Want to Go Home” –Memories of Kamloops Residential School and Joeyaska Ranch

A new Book by: Mary Jane Joe (Elder Nk’xetko)

Today we celebrate the release of Mary Jane Joe’s (Nk’xetko’s) new book Xwist Memin Kin “I Want to Go Home” –Memories of Kamloops Residential School and Joeyaska Ranch published by Tellwell Talent.

I have had the pleasure and the privilege of working alongside Mary Jane, (Elder Nk’xetko), in many schools and communities. She has provided mentorship and inspiration for youth as part of the youthLEADarts and ARTCi teams. Much of her artwork hangs in my home. She made a healing quilt for me to give to my ailing aunt with a beautiful Coast Salish sun on it. As she created she infused the quilt with prayers for health, peace and happiness. I know my aunt was comforted and strengthened by the quilt itself and the intentions of resilience that were sewn into it. 

Mary Jane is a tender storyteller, her voice, when she speaks is like lavender for the soul, soothing and uplifting. Anyone could listen to her for hours. She speaks her truth honestly, even when the truth reveals deep hurts. 

In her touching memoir, Mary Jane shares personal memories of her days at Kamloops Residential School, and reveals how her family and their ancestral traditions helped her to find strength, resilience and confidence against dark odds. Reading it, you feel as if Mary Jane is sitting in the room with you, recounting her story in an intimate, one on one setting. Her voice is poetic, stirring, frank and powerful. 

Mary Jane’s book is for everyone: for people with knowledge of residential schools and for people seeking an understanding of them, for those who have found healing and for those still seeking it, for young readers and for elders. Her story is accessible. Her writing allows us the time and space to access our own feelings while she reveals hers. 

Mary Jane’s book captures a human experience, a historical experience and a highly personal experience in a way that can guide and inform all people on the road to truth and reconciliation. 

It is a powerful must read. 

You can purchase Xwist Memin Kin “I Want to Go Home” –Memories of Kamloops Residential School and Joeyaska Ranch at:

-Amazon.com

-as a Kindle,  Rakuten , Kobo or  Smashwords eBook or  at Indigo Books on Granville Street in Vancouver BC where you can order online for pick-up.

Stay tuned for an upcoming interview with the author! Congratulations Nk’xetko! 

What if you dared go through a magical door into another land? What would lie on the other side? 

What if you came across a letter…the old fashioned kind sealed with wax? Where would you find it? What was written on the envelope? Was it addressed to you? 

What did the wax seal look like? Did it have symbols on it? A crest? Initials? What do you think these symbols mean? Do you dare open it? 

If you do, what does the letter say? Does it invite you somewhere? Present a mystery? Give you directions? A warning?

So many questions. Questions always lead to a good story, whether they be answered or unanswered. 

To fire up your creativity, why not make your own seal and use it as kindling for a new story or to extend one that you have already started? 

Draw your seal first, selecting symbols to represent the sender. Simple symbols like crowns or trees are best for this craft. Then carve your symbol into a styrofoam plate to make a print template. Using coloured markers, colour the styrofoam. Note: brighter, vibrant colours work best. Yellow washes out, for example. Next, using a sponge, wet a piece of plain, white paper (do not leave puddles). Press and hold the coloured side of your styrofoam crest on the wet spot. When you remove it, you should see an impression of your crest. When dry, you can outline it in sharpie. You can use the template over and over again, using different colours each time. 

Here is a link to help you understand the art of printmaking with styrofoam.

Enjoy using art to inspire writing! You have my ‘seal’ of approval! 

I have always loved Roald Dahl’s sense of whimsy, fancy and fun! He took such liberties to create his own words and entertained us with heavy sprinklings of nonsense.

After reading parts of “The BFG” and creating a list of our own nonsense words, my students and I put our imaginations to work.

What kind of restaurant would a giant or monster go to? What kinds of things would be on the menu?

We looked at a few ‘unsavoury’ images for the menu covers and then, inspired by Roald Dahl’s whimsy, invented a restaurant full of appetizers, drinks, soups, salads, mains and desserts for giant clients!

One student created a menu for the: Trolly Bolly Restaurant where you can order an Oliymoly to start, a Blooduckel to drink, a Seaple for soup, and a Blaclsam for dessert.

If you opened a restaurant for giants or monsters, what would you put on the menu?

This Mother’s Day I recommend that you DO NOT give your mom a bouquet from THIS garden!

Scary Mary, from my book, “Hungry for Science: Poems to Crunch on” has inspired a few new breeds of plants…but be careful, some of them bite.

This week, to honour spring we ‘grew’ a few new stories of our own. First we read “Scary Mary’s Garden Tour”, then we watched some videos about real life plants, ones that eat…um there is no nice way to say this…meat. Then we watched one about some of the most beautiful flowers in the world for contrast.

After this, we drew or modelled plants of our own creation. They had to have a head, a body and roots, with at least 3 human characteristics. We named them and then wrote short stories about them. Where did we find them? What did they look like? Were they poisonous? What could they be used for? What was unique about them?

One young horticulturist grew a “Do-nut-touch-me Plant”. It looks sweet, but do not try to pick it!

I grew a Cat-a-pult-a-killicus Plant. If you try to dig it up, it will scratch you with its claw-like roots. It has a blue tail and uses it to flick or catapult flies into its cat like flower face. Once on the cat’s whiskers, these flies don’t stand a chance. Like the victims of the Pitcher Plant, they slide down into sticky goo and well…I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

Try inventing your own plant. Scary Mary has plenty of room in her garden for more flowers.

To view a reading of “Scary Mary’s Garden Tour” visit:

https://www.artistsrenderingtales.com/artci-educational-videos

Hope you all sow some seeds of creativity this week!

April has been National Poetry Month and while I did not quite write or read a poem a day, I did hone my haikus and pen a few quirky quatrains.

Thursday, April 29th is Poem in Your Pocket Day, a fantastic way to celebrate and share your favourite verses!

PIYP is an international movement that encourages folks to invite poetry into their daily interactions. On PIYP Day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, coffee shops, street corners, and on social media using the hashtag #PocketPoem.

Of course I recommend playful poems written by my friends Tiffany Stone and Kari-Lynn Winters. Visit them at https://www.tiffanystone.ca and https://kariwinters.com. Or…put this poem in your pocket, written by me and found in “Hungry for Science Poems to Crunch on”

Cycles

Cycles, cycles ’round and ’round

like wheels upon a bike.

Winter, spring, summer, fall–

which season do you like?

The earth moves ’round the sun

bringing winter snow.

Some months later, moving still

spring flowers start to grow.

The earth moves ’round the sun

bringing summer heat.

Some months later, moving still

we have fall fruit to eat.

Here are a few suggestions about how to celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day from the League of Canadian Poets website: http://www.poets.ca. Why not try one this Thursday!

• Start a “poems for pockets” giveaway in your school or workplace
• Urge local businesses to offer discounts for those carrying poems
• Post pocket-sized verses in public places
• Memorize a poem
• Start a street team to pass out poems in your community
• Distribute bookmarks with your favorite lines of poetry
• Add a poem to your email footer
• Post lines from your favorite poem on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr
• Send a poem to a friend

Art and words go hand in hand. Simple sculpting helps students develop a richer and more evocative vocabulary. It encourages them to pause and include things that would normally be overlooked. It allows them to explore colour and mood both in 3D and on paper. 

I worked on retellings with my students recently. We read “Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs” retold and illustrated by Mo Willems. After that students thought of who Goldilocks could be…did she have to be human or could she be a monkey or a potato of all things. Then they thought about who she was visiting…three dragons, three sharks, three…you fill in the blank. 

Each of us re-wrote the story with the new characters in their new environments. 

First drafts were pretty good, but I felt they needed more detail, so we built mini-models of one of the rooms in the house Goldi was visiting. This whole activity was inspired by my 6 year old neighbour who gifted me with an entire mini fairy scene made out of plasticine. I was so impressed with her mini fairy pizzas, mini flowers, mini fairy umbrellas and such that I had to try it myself!

Students made models of their favourite room and their writing blossomed. I asked them to add these new found details to their story. 

Sentences went from, ‘there were three beds’ to describing each in detail right down to the colours and designs on the bed sheets. Some even included little stuffies for each character to sleep with, bedside books and lamps. 

So, the next time you are at a loss for words…go mini! Build a mini-world and build  vocabulary at the same time. But do watch out for those dragons…they could be home at any minute! 

Words. They can help to elaborate on or describe a character or their actions, they can capture a mood, highlight a feeling…but what if words elude you? What if, however hard you try and however many times you use thesaurus.com, you keep recycling all of the ones you are most comfortable with? What if all of your stories and the characters in them start to sound the same? 

Time to shake things up a bit! In one of my writing classes, we decided, literally and figuratively to build a character from scratch. We created our own magician’s pets using modelling clay and a lot of imagination.

The pet had to have three distinct parts: the head of an animal or mythical beast, the body of something else and the feet of another creature. Students then drew their creature, gave the pet a name and built a miniature version of it out of clay/plastercine.

Here are some of the ideas students came up with:

-a Sharkasaurus: a creature with 2 panda heads, 3 horse legs and the body of crocodile.

-a Duckle: a creature with the head of a duck, the body of a turtle and cat’s legs.

-a Flabuzzle: a creature with a dinosaur’s head, a bee’s body, flamingo legs and a peacock’s tail.

-Pinky Pie: a creature with the head of a wolf, the body of a duck and dragon’s legs.

-a Driggy: a creature with a dragon’s head, a pig’s body, and 20 chicken legs.

Building these mini monsters helped everyone to develop their vocabulary and discover some fine and intricate details that they could use in their writing. Nobody was at a loss for words when they were asked to describe them.

We all kept our mini pets close by and made them the centre of their own stories in days to come as we explored how to train them, what to feed them and what kinds of trouble or adventures they got into with their magicians!

Why not try this when you are at a loss for words? Build your very own mini magician’s pet and make it the centre of an adventure story! Feel free to post and share your creatures below!

Every year for the past 15 plus years or more, it has been my tradition, along with 1000’s of others and a handful of brave friends, to take the plunge, the Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s Day.

Here in Vancouver it usually takes place at English Bay. This year, it went virtual and avid polar bears were encouraged to dip in family groups at socially distanced venues in bathtubs, backyard pools and fish ponds…

For the 101^stVancouver Polar Bear swim, though we could not host our usual party, some of the ‘guests’ that showed up were truly magical! We met a Scotsman, an astronaut and the Loch Ness Monster. Together we broke the ice on ‘Loch Ness’ in North Vancouver and jumped in! We improvised.

Every year, I dress up. Last year I was Flamingo Lady and sported a pink boa, a pink bouffont wig, a large inflatable pool flamingo, pink flamingo glasses and a pink boa. My mom and dad participated too as Snowflake and Elvis. There are Vikings, penguins, clowns and princesses that show up in full garb! 

This year I wasn’t sure what to dress up as, what character to be. Recently my writer friends have been encouraging me to draw on my own culture and experience. I do have Scottish ancestry and am always present for the PB swim…so why not create characters around that? 

The story of how the first polar bear swim in Scotland came to be was born on a stormy, rainy, dark morning, nestled under my cosy duvet, my hands wrapped around a warm cup of coffee. I had Loch Ness Monster hats and Scottish tams in my Tickle Trunk from our trip to Scotland. I had a kilt and a Scottish looking scarf. When I went to find them (and I had just seen them before Christmas), they were nowhere to be found. So, as you can see, we improvised. 

We did our traditional pre-photo shoot…and though I did not plan for an astronaut to show up, our youngest dipper came dressed in full space gear for his inaugural dip! We made a quick few alterations to the story, added a historical reference to breaking the ice with swords and went live to the backyard splash pool! 

The result? A HUGE amount of fun! A tsunami of splashing! An improvised sword fight! Stuttering and sputtering! And the possibility that this improvised, unlikely story may very well turn up in a picture book in 2021! 

Lessons to be embraced this year…be willing to improvise (it can be fun and lead to unexpected twists and turns in your story!) Play! Place unusual characters together and see what happens! Be true to you and your experience, draw on it! See where it goes! And above all…dive right in! 

Happy writing and Happy New Year everyone! Special thanks to my family who hosted this smallest of swims and congrats to the young astronaut who says this is now his tradition too!