First Place
We have our winners in last week’s haiku contest! I used random.org to select the first place winner, Cullen. Here’s his haiku poem:
The grasses are green
dew is sparkling here and there
earth’s morning beauties.
Second Place
Second place goes to Andrew K., age 9, who wrote my personal favorite and won a World of Animals StoryBuilders card deck. Here’s his haiku about a yellow jacket:
buzz-black, yellow bug
in garden flying, eating
stinging all the worms
It was a tough choice because there were some very clever and well-written entries. But in the end, Andrew’s won out because he:
- Followed the format.
- Avoided “to be” words.
- Made every word count.
- Picked a nature theme.
Thanks to everyone who participated. Keep up with your haiku!
Words Matter Week: Day 1
Every single day, almost without fail, the poetry lessons draw more folks to this blog than any other article (with the two most frequently accessed posts being Writing a Diamante Poem and Cinquain Poetry).
This inspired me to launch right into Words Matter Week by introducing a brand-new lesson: how to write haiku (and offer a fun contest too)!
What Is Haiku?
Japanese in origin, haiku is not based on rhyme, but on a pattern of syllables. At three lines long, haiku is a poem of economy. Traditionally, only 17 syllables are allowed, so a finished haiku may end up being just 12 or 13 words long.
By its nature, haiku is concrete and concise, capturing a single moment in a mere handful of words. It’s a tall order to write a poem full of rich imagery, paint a picture in the reader’s mind, and leave an impression on a heart or soul—and do so with so few words.
Every word counts, and that’s why—perhaps more than any other poetry genre—haiku is especially fitting for Words Matter Week.
Writing Haiku: An Experience with Nature
Choosing a Subject for Your Poem
Haiku poems celebrate appreciation for beauty and nature. Plants, animals, water, weather, and seasons are often subjects of haiku. Powerful yet sensitive, these poems communicate a mood or tone without actually using words to describe feelings.
Red and gold poppies
explode with fresh spring colors,
invading my yard.
Notice how this haiku expresses a crisp, springy, bright feeling. You can picture a tired winter garden coming to life. The words never actually say, “After a cold, colorless winter, I am so happy and cheered to see flowers again!” Yet this is the message the poem brings.
In the darkest wood
with heads hanging mournfully,
weeping willows cry.
This poem gives a feeling of sadness, even though the words don’t tell you how the poet feels, or how you should feel. Notice how personification helps to communicate this tone. When writing your haiku, think about the emotions you want your reader to experience. Paint a picture with your words to express a mood.
Formatting Your Haiku Poem
Some poetry forms require the writer to follow a certain format, or structure. You may remember that cinquains and diamantes, for example, call for you to use an exact number of words within an exact number of lines. Haiku, on the other hand, requires you to carefully count syllables instead of words. This form of poetry always uses 3 lines and 17 syllables.
Line 1: 5 syllables
Line 2: 7 syllables
Line 3: 5 syllables
When counting out syllables, listen to the beat within a word, silently tapping it out on the table. Usually, a syllable is marked by a vowel sound. “Butterfly” has three syllables (but/ter/fly). The word “cocoon” contains two syllables (co/coon). The word “exuberantly” has five (ex/u/ber/ant/ly). “Flight” has only one (flight).
Because your entire poem is only 17 syllables, every single word must be carefully chosen to say exactly what you want to communicate. Rely heavily on a good thesaurus for terrific, specific words! Your thesaurus will also be useful when you need to find a synonym of more or fewer syllables that will fit better on a line of your poem.
What to Do if a Line Contains Too Few or Too Many Syllables
> Either leave out or add articles (a, an, the) to shorten or lengthen the number of syllables. Example: a six-syllable line must be shortened to five syllables.
A/ small/ frog/ trills/ loudly = 6 syllables
Small/ frog/ trills/ loud/ly = 5 syllables (drop the “a”)
> Use your thesaurus to find a similar word that will fit.
Suppose your haiku looks like this:
Thunder clouds follow me (6)
booming from behind (5)
the sky is so mad. (5)
Do you see how each line has too many or too few syllables? Let’s look at them one at a time.
Example: the first line of a haiku poem must be 5 syllables long.
Thun/der/ clouds/ fol/low/ me = 6 syllables (it’s too long – you need 5 syllables)
Now, look up follow in the thesaurus. Can you find a one-syllable word that will fit? (chase)
Thun/der/ clouds/ chase/ me = 5 syllables (this will work)
> Look for a word to drop.
Thun/der/ clouds/ fol/low = 5 syllables (just drop the “me”)
> Find a different way to say a similar thing. Often your thesaurus will help, but sometimes you just need to think! How can you express the same message while adjusting the number of syllables?
Example 1: The second line must be 7 syllables.
boom/ing/ from/ be/hind = 5 syllables (it’s too short – need 7 syllables)
bel/low/ing/ from/ a/ dis/tance = 7 syllables (use longer words)
Example 2: The third line must be 5 syllables.
the/ sky/ is/ so/ mad = 5 syllables
The number of syllables is correct—so what’s wrong with this line? Remember that you want to avoid “to be” words such as is, and empty words such as so:
the/ an/gry/ sky/ shouts = 5 syllables, OR
the/ black/ sky/ threat/ens = 5 syllables
While still expressing a “mad” feeling, these lines use more specific words that paint a fuller picture.
OK, here’s the finished haiku poem:
Thunder clouds chase me (5)
bellowing from a distance (7)
the angry sky shouts. (5)
Should haiku have a title? Typically not. If you think it needs a title to better explain the poem, do your best to work the title into the poem by removing and replacing words. Use your new syllable skills to help!
Copyright © 2010 Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.
A Haiku Contest for Words Matter Week!
Now it’s time for you and your children to write some haiku! Everyone who posts a haiku poem in the comments section between now and March 7 will be entered in a contest.
The Rules
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Only one entry per person is allowed, so pick your best poem.
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More than one family member may enter as long as each entry is separate and email addresses are different.
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Your haiku must be formatted properly in order to qualify for a prize.
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To win a physical gift, winner must have a U.S. mailing address.
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I will notify winners on March 8. As soon as they’re confirmed, I’ll announce the winners on the blog.
Happy Words Matter Week . . . and happy writing!
~Kim
Molly Fox at HomeschoolWriters.com is sponsoring a unique competition to determine the Homeschool Writer of the Year!
Fallacy Detective Giveaway!
Tell your friends about the Homeschool Writer of the Year Competition and you will be entered into a drawing for a copy of The Fallacy Detective by Hans and Nathaniel Bluedorn.
Click here for giveaway details
What is the Homeschool Writer of the Year Competition?
This competition is not skill-based. The homeschool student who enters the most (not wins the most) writing contests in 2010 will be named Homeschool Writer of the Year and will receive his or her choice of an Elsie Dinsmore doll or William Wallace sword. What a wonderful motivation—and challenge!—for your children.
Click here for contest details
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Win Some Free Goodies from WriteShop
To help Hal and Melanie Young celebrate the release of their new book, Raising Real Men, WriteShop is giving away two fabulous prizes:
- WriteShop Primary book and Activity Set Worksheet Pack of your choice.
- $35 WriteShop gift certificate good for any purchase at the WriteShop store.
To enter the WriteShop Primary drawing, simply leave a comment at Raising Real Men. To be eligible for the $35, you also need to become a Raising Real Men Facebook fan.
Hurry right over, because I’m not sure how much time you have before they close this giveaway!
Give a Little, Get a Lot!
Also, don’t forget that today is the last day of the Estes Family Benefit Sale. You can read my article about it here, or you can just go straight to the sale.
Either way, you won’t want to miss the chance to bless a wonderful family in need while gaining $350+ in homeschooling e-books and MP3s for a small donation of just $39! (This donation also puts you in the running for some great Super Packages valued at up to $849 in tangible products!)
Sale ends January 29 at midnight EST.
Betsy-Tacy Update
My apologies that the second set of Betsy-Tacy reviews (and giveaway info) aren’t up yet. It’s been a crazy couple of days. But hopefully I can get the reviews written over the weekend. Make sure to check back! Meanwhile, don’t miss the reviews of Betsy-Tacy and Betsy-Tacy and Tib.
~Kim
Writers of all ages need an audience. And what better way to gain one than to enter a writing contest? It’s so satisfying when a child receives a reward for his writing—whether it’s a cash prize, a special gift, or simply a chance to get published.
So why should you encourage your kids to enter a writing contest? Here are three important reasons.
1. Writing Contests Provide Boundaries
Most students need—and work well within—boundaries. Writing contests provide strict limits in the form of deadlines, word count, and subject matter.
Deadlines: Students, particularly teens, need to begin the practice of working within time limits, as they’ll face all sorts of deadlines throughout high school and college. Contest deadlines help them pace their writing so they can develop, write, and proofread the piece with time to spare.
Word count: Writing contests usually have some sort of word limit. Cutting a story or essay down to its most essential core will result in a tighter composition. It takes skill to whittle away excess verbiage in order to make every word count, but it’s a skill well worth developing.
Subject matter: Because most contests ask for a specific kind of writing—a short fictional story, a patriotic piece, or a poem, for example—students get to fine-tune their skills and focus their writing while practicing with a variety of themes. Writing on a given topic, even if it doesn’t especially interest them, is good practice for future writing assignments. Students won’t always have a choice, and practicing with different genres broadens their base of writing experiences.
2. Writing Contests Provide An Audience
When your child enters a contest, he is writing for two audiences: real and intended.
Real audience: These are the people who will read and/or judge the poem, essay, or story.
Intended audience: These are the people your student’s composition aims to address. They could be children, teenagers, elected officials, senior citizens, young mothers, homeschoolers, etc.
Writing with an audience in mind makes the writing clear and concise. Each writing contest requires your student to keep a certain audience in mind, which in turn helps him hone his skills. For practice, encourage your child to enter different contests with varying themes and audiences.
3. Writing Contests Improve Confidence
Your student may not want to enter writing contests because she doesn’t think she’s good enough to win, or she worries that everyone is better than she is. Encourage her to try anyway—it’s a great learning experience! And the more your child writes, the better her writing will become.
Writing Contest Tips
Now that you’re convinced writing contests are great opportunities for your kiddos, take care to guide them in the right direction by finding appropriate contests and steering clear of scams and rip-offs.
Finding Good Writing Contests
It can be a challenge to discern between legitimate contests and crooked or suspicious ones. While contests aren’t automatically legit just because they’re free, entry fees don’t necessarily spell scam, either. Some contests, for example, might charge a fee to help offset the cost of prizes or to help support a literary organization. If a contest looks legitimate, and the fee is low (under $10), you might consider it for your student. Here are a couple of resources for children’s writing contests.
Homeschool Writing Contests offers one-stop information about a number of writing contests, most of which are free.
The Old Schoolhouse Storytime Contest offers a Stirring Fiction contest for adults 16 and up, and a fiction story contest for kids 15 and under.
Avoiding Scams
Some writing contests are, indeed, scams. Scam contests typically serve as fronts for generating income and are not legitimate outlets for student writing. Here are a few articles that will help you identify and avoid scams.
Avoid Writing Contest Scams
Beware of Writing Contest Scams
The Seduction of Poetry Contest Scams
Writing Contests to Avoid
Finding Story Ideas
Choosing a topic depends entirely on the contest requirements. But if your child simply needs help with story ideas, check out WriteShop’s fabulous StoryBuilders—printable card decks that make great writing prompts for silly, whimsical, humorous, or serious stories. By picking one card from each category—character, character trait, setting, and plot—she’ll have the foundation for her winning story in no time!
Look for StoryBuilders under E-books in the WriteShop store. They’re only $3.95-$7.95, and they come with either 96 or 192 writing prompt cards. (You can read over 70 reviews of StoryBuilders here.)
