Proclamation of Thanksgiving

Photo credit: www.Jewlicious.com

By the President of the United States of America.

.
A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.

Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.

They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

Photo credit: www.presidentialsignatures.com

To read more about the Thanksgiving Proclamation, go to AbrahamLincolnOnline.org

Thanks to Toni, The Happy Housewife, for reminding me where it all began.

Using Comic Strips to Encourage Reading, Writing & Self-Expression

How Parents Can Use Comic Strips To Encourage Children to Read, Write and Express Themselves

By Bill Zimmerman

Develop imagination, a fondness for reading and telling stories.

Comic strips are a perfect vehicle for learning and practicing language. Each strip’s three or four panels provide a finite, accessible world in which funny, interesting looking characters live and go about their lives. And readers with limited reading skills are not as overwhelmed in dealing with the size of a comic strip as they can be with a book of many pages.

Only few words are required for the characters to go about their lives and reveal their stories. Comic strips also don’t require long sentences or paragraphs to tell a good story. And, anyone who sees a blank talk or thought balloon floating over the head of a character wants immediately to fill it in with words and thoughts; doing so is the beginning step to tell a story.

My own love of comics began when I was a Child.

Back then, the very best day of the week was Sunday mornings when my dad left home early to bring back an armload of newspapers, all with their glorious color comics sections. The funnies were my paradise – I’d spend the morning going over each strip, following the adventures of my favorite characters. I’d look at the dazzling illustrations, be drawn into their colorful worlds and be challenged to decipher the letters in the white balloons coming from the characters’ mouths or floating above their heads. And with help from my father, I’d try my best to sound out the words in the talk balloons and make sense of the stories they told.

This, then, is how I first began learning how to read and to think imaginatively. The comic characters I saw and later copied became my friends and family, and I began to realize that reading could be fun and open up new worlds to me. I also began creating my own comic stories.

I grew up to become a journalist and newspaper editor, and author of many books that help young people find their writer’s voice. Not long ago I launched a new web site – http://www.makebeliefscomix.com -- where people of all ages can create their own comic strips – and in doing so, practice their language skills and have fun as well.

Tap into creativity with free online tools.

By giving youngsters a choice of fun animal and human characters with different emotions – happy, sad, angry, worried – as well blank thought and talk balloons to fill in with their written words, and some story prompts to spark ideas, youngsters will be able to tap into their creativity to tell stories and create their own graphic stories. (By the way you don’t have to use a web comic strip creator, you can just encourage your children to draw their own characters if they wish.)

Our best educators understand that playing is learning. Parents and teachers can use the process of creating comic strips to encourage youngsters to practice language, reading, writing, and communication skills. For those who teach young and old how to read and write or to learn English as a second language, an online comics generating site can be an invaluable tool in achieving these objectives. A parent or teacher, for example, could put together a comic strip with characters and blank thought or talk balloons, print it out, and ask children to fill in the balloons with words and narration. Better yet, a student can choose his or her own characters and develop stories alone or with a partner. One teacher I know who was teaching prepositional phrases had her students use online comics to include sentences with such phrases. Having to write sentences for characters to speak provides an engaging way to practice sentence structure and learn grammar.

Develop communication and vocabulary skills.

Educational therapists or parents who teach deaf, learning disabled, and kids with special needs, as well as trauma victims, also use comic strips to help their youngsters understand concepts and develop communication skills.

Comic strips are a great way for children to practice new vocabulary words and to practice dialogue in different situations. A child, for example, who may be having trouble with another child at school can use the comic to come up with words and actions to help him deal with this problem or practice dialogue for the child to use when a real-life situation arises. In effect, the comic characters can serve as surrogates for youngsters to work out different problems.

A student reading a novel or short story, could also storyboard the stories in comic strip form, or use the strip to keep developing the story after the book ends. A comic created can also be the beginning of a much longer written story, too. Creating comic strips with your children also encourages parents and children to work jointly and communicate effectively in creating something new.

Ideas to get your budding comic-writer started.

Some ideas for comic strips: Make believe that your animal characters can talk to each other or read each other’s thoughts. They can joke and have great adventures together. Or, imagine they could tell a beautiful love story. How would it go? How about a comic strip retelling a favorite fairy tale?

What about a comic strip in which a character writes a poem or sings a song to another? Or make believe a character could say the words to heal all people. What are the words your character would use? How about a comic strip in which characters throw the most fun party in the world. Where would it be? Whom would you invite? Or, maybe your party turns into a disaster. What happens?

Or, what if your characters could be bold and brave for a day. Just what great deeds would they do? Make believe your character could pass on a message to another, and that character passes the message on to another, and so on. How would the original message keep changing?

Here are a few other make-believe subjects:

You could write these on 3 X 5 cards, or on individual sheets of paper and give them to students to write or draw about:

...Make believe you planted your dreams. What would you hope to grow?

...Make believe that with the snap of your fingers you could change yourself. How or what would you become?

...Make believe someone gave you a golden treasure box. What would you place in it?

...Make believe that you could talk with a character from a favorite book. Who would that be? What would you both talk about?

...Make believe you were given a characteristic of some animal you loved. Would animal would you choose and which animal trait would you like to have?

...Make believe that your meal consisted only of flowers. What would you have for dinner this summer?

...Make believe that you could develop a new flower or herb that has special powers to bring peace to our world. What would it look like? What would you name it? Where would you plant it? How would its powers be released?

...Make believe that you could create a new season so very different from those we know. What would your season be like, and what would you call it?

...Make believe you had a net to catch a favorite moment in your life. Which would it be?

Please, share your work!

After completing each comic strip on the computer, a child can print it out and color and create her own comix library, or email the strip to a friend or relative. She can also use the comic strip to create personalized greeting card stories for family and friends and to celebrate special times in their lives. Wouldn’t you like to receive one on your own birthday or when you're in need of cheering up?

I hope you will try out makebeliefscomix.com with your children and send me feedback on the experiencing of creating comic strips. My email address is: wmz@aol.com

About the Author:

A journalist and prize-winning newspaper editor, Bill Zimmerman is the creator of MakeBeliefsComix.com (http://www.makebeliefcomix.com), a free web site which offers fun characters with different emotions, blank thought and talk balloons to fill in with words, and story prompts to help children along in creating comic strips. For many years he created an interactive, syndicated Student Briefing Page for Newsday newspaper to teach young people about current events that was nominated twice for a Pulitzer Prize. At Newsday, Bill also created a series of comic books to teach history and current events to young readers. Bill also has written 19 books which are aimed at helping people find their writers’ voices. They are featured on his other web site: www.billztreasurechest.com. His latest is ‘’Your Life in Comics: 100 Things for Guys to Write and Draw,’’ an interactive comic book for reluctant boy writers/readers. His work has been featured on the Today Show, PBS's acclaimed Ancestors Series, in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and such magazines as Family Circle, Parents, Esquire, Business Week, and Essence.)

Using Comic Strips to Encourage Reading, Writing & Self-Expression

How Parents Can Use Comic Strips To Encourage Children to Read, Write and Express Themselves
By Bill Zimmerman

Develop imagination, a fondness for reading and telling stories.

Comic strips are a perfect vehicle for learning and practicing language. Each strip’s three or four panels provide a finite, accessible world in which funny, interesting looking characters live and go about their lives. And readers with limited reading skills are not as overwhelmed in dealing with the size of a comic strip as they can be with a book of many pages.

Only few words are required for the characters to go about their lives and reveal their stories. Comic strips also don’t require long sentences or paragraphs to tell a good story. And, anyone who sees a blank talk or thought balloon floating over the head of a character wants immediately to fill it in with words and thoughts; doing so is the beginning step to tell a story.

My own love of comics began when I was a Child.

Back then, the very best day of the week was Sunday mornings when my dad left home early to bring back an armload of newspapers, all with their glorious color comics sections. The funnies were my paradise – I’d spend the morning going over each strip, following the adventures of my favorite characters. I’d look at the dazzling illustrations, be drawn into their colorful worlds and be challenged to decipher the letters in the white balloons coming from the characters’ mouths or floating above their heads. And with help from my father, I’d try my best to sound out the words in the talk balloons and make sense of the stories they told.

This, then, is how I first began learning how to read and to think imaginatively. The comic characters I saw and later copied became my friends and family, and I began to realize that reading could be fun and open up new worlds to me. I also began creating my own comic stories.

I grew up to become a journalist and newspaper editor, and author of many books that help young people find their writer’s voice. Not long ago I launched a new web site – http://www.makebeliefscomix.com -- where people of all ages can create their own comic strips – and in doing so, practice their language skills and have fun as well.

Tap into creativity with free online tools.

By giving youngsters a choice of fun animal and human characters with different emotions – happy, sad, angry, worried – as well blank thought and talk balloons to fill in with their written words, and some story prompts to spark ideas, youngsters will be able to tap into their creativity to tell stories and create their own graphic stories. (By the way you don’t have to use a web comic strip creator, you can just encourage your children to draw their own characters if they wish.)

Our best educators understand that playing is learning. Parents and teachers can use the process of creating comic strips to encourage youngsters to practice language, reading, writing, and communication skills. For those who teach young and old how to read and write or to learn English as a second language, an online comics generating site can be an invaluable tool in achieving these objectives. A parent or teacher, for example, could put together a comic strip with characters and blank thought or talk balloons, print it out, and ask children to fill in the balloons with words and narration. Better yet, a student can choose his or her own characters and develop stories alone or with a partner. One teacher I know who was teaching prepositional phrases had her students use online comics to include sentences with such phrases. Having to write sentences for characters to speak provides an engaging way to practice sentence structure and learn grammar.

Develop communication and vocabulary skills.

Educational therapists or parents who teach deaf, learning disabled, and kids with special needs, as well as trauma victims, also use comic strips to help their youngsters understand concepts and develop communication skills.

Comic strips are a great way for children to practice new vocabulary words and to practice dialogue in different situations. A child, for example, who may be having trouble with another child at school can use the comic to come up with words and actions to help him deal with this problem or practice dialogue for the child to use when a real-life situation arises. In effect, the comic characters can serve as surrogates for youngsters to work out different problems.

A student reading a novel or short story, could also storyboard the stories in comic strip form, or use the strip to keep developing the story after the book ends. A comic created can also be the beginning of a much longer written story, too. Creating comic strips with your children also encourages parents and children to work jointly and communicate effectively in creating something new.

Ideas to get your budding comic-writer started.

Some ideas for comic strips: Make believe that your animal characters can talk to each other or read each other’s thoughts. They can joke and have great adventures together. Or, imagine they could tell a beautiful love story. How would it go? How about a comic strip retelling a favorite fairy tale?

What about a comic strip in which a character writes a poem or sings a song to another? Or make believe a character could say the words to heal all people. What are the words your character would use? How about a comic strip in which characters throw the most fun party in the world. Where would it be? Whom would you invite? Or, maybe your party turns into a disaster. What happens?

Or, what if your characters could be bold and brave for a day. Just what great deeds would they do? Make believe your character could pass on a message to another, and that character passes the message on to another, and so on. How would the original message keep changing?

Here are a few other make-believe subjects:

You could write these on 3 X 5 cards, or on individual sheets of paper and give them to students to write or draw about:

...Make believe you planted your dreams. What would you hope to grow?

...Make believe that with the snap of your fingers you could change yourself. How or what would you become?

...Make believe someone gave you a golden treasure box. What would you place in it?

...Make believe that you could talk with a character from a favorite book. Who would that be? What would you both talk about?

...Make believe you were given a characteristic of some animal you loved. Would animal would you choose and which animal trait would you like to have?

...Make believe that your meal consisted only of flowers. What would you have for dinner this summer?

...Make believe that you could develop a new flower or herb that has special powers to bring peace to our world. What would it look like? What would you name it? Where would you plant it? How would its powers be released?

...Make believe that you could create a new season so very different from those we know. What would your season be like, and what would you call it?

...Make believe you had a net to catch a favorite moment in your life. Which would it be?

Please, share your work!

After completing each comic strip on the computer, a child can print it out and color and create her own comix library, or email the strip to a friend or relative. She can also use the comic strip to create personalized greeting card stories for family and friends and to celebrate special times in their lives. Wouldn’t you like to receive one on your own birthday or when you're in need of cheering up?

I hope you will try out makebeliefscomix.com with your children and send me feedback on the experiencing of creating comic strips. My email address is: wmz@aol.com

About the Author:

A journalist and prize-winning newspaper editor, Bill Zimmerman is the creator of MakeBeliefsComix.com (http://www.makebeliefcomix.com), a free web site which offers fun characters with different emotions, blank thought and talk balloons to fill in with words, and story prompts to help children along in creating comic strips. For many years he created an interactive, syndicated Student Briefing Page for Newsday newspaper to teach young people about current events that was nominated twice for a Pulitzer Prize. At Newsday, Bill also created a series of comic books to teach history and current events to young readers. Bill also has written 19 books which are aimed at helping people find their writers’ voices. They are featured on his other web site: www.billztreasurechest.com. His latest is ‘’Your Life in Comics: 100 Things for Guys to Write and Draw,’’ an interactive comic book for reluctant boy writers/readers. His work has been featured on the Today Show, PBS's acclaimed Ancestors Series, in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and such magazines as Family Circle, Parents, Esquire, Business Week, and Essence.)

Using Comic Strips to Encourage Reading, Writing & Self-Expression

How Parents Can Use Comic Strips To Encourage Children to Read, Write and Express Themselves
By Bill Zimmerman

Develop imagination, a fondness for reading and telling stories.

Comic strips are a perfect vehicle for learning and practicing language. Each strip’s three or four panels provide a finite, accessible world in which funny, interesting looking characters live and go about their lives. And readers with limited reading skills are not as overwhelmed in dealing with the size of a comic strip as they can be with a book of many pages.

Only few words are required for the characters to go about their lives and reveal their stories. Comic strips also don’t require long sentences or paragraphs to tell a good story. And, anyone who sees a blank talk or thought balloon floating over the head of a character wants immediately to fill it in with words and thoughts; doing so is the beginning step to tell a story.

My own love of comics began when I was a Child.

Back then, the very best day of the week was Sunday mornings when my dad left home early to bring back an armload of newspapers, all with their glorious color comics sections. The funnies were my paradise – I’d spend the morning going over each strip, following the adventures of my favorite characters. I’d look at the dazzling illustrations, be drawn into their colorful worlds and be challenged to decipher the letters in the white balloons coming from the characters’ mouths or floating above their heads. And with help from my father, I’d try my best to sound out the words in the talk balloons and make sense of the stories they told.

This, then, is how I first began learning how to read and to think imaginatively. The comic characters I saw and later copied became my friends and family, and I began to realize that reading could be fun and open up new worlds to me. I also began creating my own comic stories.

I grew up to become a journalist and newspaper editor, and author of many books that help young people find their writer’s voice. Not long ago I launched a new web site – http://www.makebeliefscomix.com -- where people of all ages can create their own comic strips – and in doing so, practice their language skills and have fun as well.

Tap into creativity with free online tools.

By giving youngsters a choice of fun animal and human characters with different emotions – happy, sad, angry, worried – as well blank thought and talk balloons to fill in with their written words, and some story prompts to spark ideas, youngsters will be able to tap into their creativity to tell stories and create their own graphic stories. (By the way you don’t have to use a web comic strip creator, you can just encourage your children to draw their own characters if they wish.)

Our best educators understand that playing is learning. Parents and teachers can use the process of creating comic strips to encourage youngsters to practice language, reading, writing, and communication skills. For those who teach young and old how to read and write or to learn English as a second language, an online comics generating site can be an invaluable tool in achieving these objectives. A parent or teacher, for example, could put together a comic strip with characters and blank thought or talk balloons, print it out, and ask children to fill in the balloons with words and narration. Better yet, a student can choose his or her own characters and develop stories alone or with a partner. One teacher I know who was teaching prepositional phrases had her students use online comics to include sentences with such phrases. Having to write sentences for characters to speak provides an engaging way to practice sentence structure and learn grammar.

Develop communication and vocabulary skills.

Educational therapists or parents who teach deaf, learning disabled, and kids with special needs, as well as trauma victims, also use comic strips to help their youngsters understand concepts and develop communication skills.

Comic strips are a great way for children to practice new vocabulary words and to practice dialogue in different situations. A child, for example, who may be having trouble with another child at school can use the comic to come up with words and actions to help him deal with this problem or practice dialogue for the child to use when a real-life situation arises. In effect, the comic characters can serve as surrogates for youngsters to work out different problems.

A student reading a novel or short story, could also storyboard the stories in comic strip form, or use the strip to keep developing the story after the book ends. A comic created can also be the beginning of a much longer written story, too. Creating comic strips with your children also encourages parents and children to work jointly and communicate effectively in creating something new.

Ideas to get your budding comic-writer started.

Some ideas for comic strips: Make believe that your animal characters can talk to each other or read each other’s thoughts. They can joke and have great adventures together. Or, imagine they could tell a beautiful love story. How would it go? How about a comic strip retelling a favorite fairy tale?

What about a comic strip in which a character writes a poem or sings a song to another? Or make believe a character could say the words to heal all people. What are the words your character would use? How about a comic strip in which characters throw the most fun party in the world. Where would it be? Whom would you invite? Or, maybe your party turns into a disaster. What happens?

Or, what if your characters could be bold and brave for a day. Just what great deeds would they do? Make believe your character could pass on a message to another, and that character passes the message on to another, and so on. How would the original message keep changing?

Here are a few other make-believe subjects:

You could write these on 3 X 5 cards, or on individual sheets of paper and give them to students to write or draw about:

...Make believe you planted your dreams. What would you hope to grow?

...Make believe that with the snap of your fingers you could change yourself. How or what would you become?

...Make believe someone gave you a golden treasure box. What would you place in it?

...Make believe that you could talk with a character from a favorite book. Who would that be? What would you both talk about?

...Make believe you were given a characteristic of some animal you loved. Would animal would you choose and which animal trait would you like to have?

...Make believe that your meal consisted only of flowers. What would you have for dinner this summer?

...Make believe that you could develop a new flower or herb that has special powers to bring peace to our world. What would it look like? What would you name it? Where would you plant it? How would its powers be released?

...Make believe that you could create a new season so very different from those we know. What would your season be like, and what would you call it?

...Make believe you had a net to catch a favorite moment in your life. Which would it be?

Please, share your work!

After completing each comic strip on the computer, a child can print it out and color and create her own comix library, or email the strip to a friend or relative. She can also use the comic strip to create personalized greeting card stories for family and friends and to celebrate special times in their lives. Wouldn’t you like to receive one on your own birthday or when you're in need of cheering up?

I hope you will try out makebeliefscomix.com with your children and send me feedback on the experiencing of creating comic strips. My email address is: wmz@aol.com

About the Author:

A journalist and prize-winning newspaper editor, Bill Zimmerman is the creator of MakeBeliefsComix.com (http://www.makebeliefcomix.com), a free web site which offers fun characters with different emotions, blank thought and talk balloons to fill in with words, and story prompts to help children along in creating comic strips. For many years he created an interactive, syndicated Student Briefing Page for Newsday newspaper to teach young people about current events that was nominated twice for a Pulitzer Prize. At Newsday, Bill also created a series of comic books to teach history and current events to young readers. Bill also has written 19 books which are aimed at helping people find their writers’ voices. They are featured on his other web site: www.billztreasurechest.com. His latest is ‘’Your Life in Comics: 100 Things for Guys to Write and Draw,’’ an interactive comic book for reluctant boy writers/readers. His work has been featured on the Today Show, PBS's acclaimed Ancestors Series, in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and such magazines as Family Circle, Parents, Esquire, Business Week, and Essence.)

Using Comic Strips to Encourage Reading, Writing & Self-Expression

How Parents Can Use Comic Strips To Encourage Children to Read, Write and Express Themselves
By Bill Zimmerman

Develop imagination, a fondness for reading and telling stories.

Comic strips are a perfect vehicle for learning and practicing language. Each strip’s three or four panels provide a finite, accessible world in which funny, interesting looking characters live and go about their lives. And readers with limited reading skills are not as overwhelmed in dealing with the size of a comic strip as they can be with a book of many pages.

Only few words are required for the characters to go about their lives and reveal their stories. Comic strips also don’t require long sentences or paragraphs to tell a good story. And, anyone who sees a blank talk or thought balloon floating over the head of a character wants immediately to fill it in with words and thoughts; doing so is the beginning step to tell a story.

My own love of comics began when I was a Child.

Back then, the very best day of the week was Sunday mornings when my dad left home early to bring back an armload of newspapers, all with their glorious color comics sections. The funnies were my paradise – I’d spend the morning going over each strip, following the adventures of my favorite characters. I’d look at the dazzling illustrations, be drawn into their colorful worlds and be challenged to decipher the letters in the white balloons coming from the characters’ mouths or floating above their heads. And with help from my father, I’d try my best to sound out the words in the talk balloons and make sense of the stories they told.

This, then, is how I first began learning how to read and to think imaginatively. The comic characters I saw and later copied became my friends and family, and I began to realize that reading could be fun and open up new worlds to me. I also began creating my own comic stories.

I grew up to become a journalist and newspaper editor, and author of many books that help young people find their writer’s voice. Not long ago I launched a new web site – http://www.makebeliefscomix.com -- where people of all ages can create their own comic strips – and in doing so, practice their language skills and have fun as well.

Tap into creativity with free online tools.

By giving youngsters a choice of fun animal and human characters with different emotions – happy, sad, angry, worried – as well blank thought and talk balloons to fill in with their written words, and some story prompts to spark ideas, youngsters will be able to tap into their creativity to tell stories and create their own graphic stories. (By the way you don’t have to use a web comic strip creator, you can just encourage your children to draw their own characters if they wish.)

Our best educators understand that playing is learning. Parents and teachers can use the process of creating comic strips to encourage youngsters to practice language, reading, writing, and communication skills. For those who teach young and old how to read and write or to learn English as a second language, an online comics generating site can be an invaluable tool in achieving these objectives. A parent or teacher, for example, could put together a comic strip with characters and blank thought or talk balloons, print it out, and ask children to fill in the balloons with words and narration. Better yet, a student can choose his or her own characters and develop stories alone or with a partner. One teacher I know who was teaching prepositional phrases had her students use online comics to include sentences with such phrases. Having to write sentences for characters to speak provides an engaging way to practice sentence structure and learn grammar.

Develop communication and vocabulary skills.

Educational therapists or parents who teach deaf, learning disabled, and kids with special needs, as well as trauma victims, also use comic strips to help their youngsters understand concepts and develop communication skills.

Comic strips are a great way for children to practice new vocabulary words and to practice dialogue in different situations. A child, for example, who may be having trouble with another child at school can use the comic to come up with words and actions to help him deal with this problem or practice dialogue for the child to use when a real-life situation arises. In effect, the comic characters can serve as surrogates for youngsters to work out different problems.

A student reading a novel or short story, could also storyboard the stories in comic strip form, or use the strip to keep developing the story after the book ends. A comic created can also be the beginning of a much longer written story, too. Creating comic strips with your children also encourages parents and children to work jointly and communicate effectively in creating something new.

Ideas to get your budding comic-writer started.

Some ideas for comic strips: Make believe that your animal characters can talk to each other or read each other’s thoughts. They can joke and have great adventures together. Or, imagine they could tell a beautiful love story. How would it go? How about a comic strip retelling a favorite fairy tale?

What about a comic strip in which a character writes a poem or sings a song to another? Or make believe a character could say the words to heal all people. What are the words your character would use? How about a comic strip in which characters throw the most fun party in the world. Where would it be? Whom would you invite? Or, maybe your party turns into a disaster. What happens?

Or, what if your characters could be bold and brave for a day. Just what great deeds would they do? Make believe your character could pass on a message to another, and that character passes the message on to another, and so on. How would the original message keep changing?

Here are a few other make-believe subjects:

You could write these on 3 X 5 cards, or on individual sheets of paper and give them to students to write or draw about:

...Make believe you planted your dreams. What would you hope to grow?

...Make believe that with the snap of your fingers you could change yourself. How or what would you become?

...Make believe someone gave you a golden treasure box. What would you place in it?

...Make believe that you could talk with a character from a favorite book. Who would that be? What would you both talk about?

...Make believe you were given a characteristic of some animal you loved. Would animal would you choose and which animal trait would you like to have?

...Make believe that your meal consisted only of flowers. What would you have for dinner this summer?

...Make believe that you could develop a new flower or herb that has special powers to bring peace to our world. What would it look like? What would you name it? Where would you plant it? How would its powers be released?

...Make believe that you could create a new season so very different from those we know. What would your season be like, and what would you call it?

...Make believe you had a net to catch a favorite moment in your life. Which would it be?

Please, share your work!

After completing each comic strip on the computer, a child can print it out and color and create her own comix library, or email the strip to a friend or relative. She can also use the comic strip to create personalized greeting card stories for family and friends and to celebrate special times in their lives. Wouldn’t you like to receive one on your own birthday or when you're in need of cheering up?

I hope you will try out makebeliefscomix.com with your children and send me feedback on the experiencing of creating comic strips. My email address is: wmz@aol.com

About the Author:

A journalist and prize-winning newspaper editor, Bill Zimmerman is the creator of MakeBeliefsComix.com (http://www.makebeliefcomix.com), a free web site which offers fun characters with different emotions, blank thought and talk balloons to fill in with words, and story prompts to help children along in creating comic strips. For many years he created an interactive, syndicated Student Briefing Page for Newsday newspaper to teach young people about current events that was nominated twice for a Pulitzer Prize. At Newsday, Bill also created a series of comic books to teach history and current events to young readers. Bill also has written 19 books which are aimed at helping people find their writers’ voices. They are featured on his other web site: www.billztreasurechest.com. His latest is ‘’Your Life in Comics: 100 Things for Guys to Write and Draw,’’ an interactive comic book for reluctant boy writers/readers. His work has been featured on the Today Show, PBS's acclaimed Ancestors Series, in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and such magazines as Family Circle, Parents, Esquire, Business Week, and Essence.)

Kiboomu Give-Away: iPhone Apps!

Kiboomu is all about kids, providing simple and easy kids crafts, educational songs with lyrics, activities and printables, recipes, musical iPhone and iPad apps, and all-around fun play for preschool, daycare, kindergarten, and home school children. Developed by Wendy Wiseman and Sherry Segal, self-professed technology geeks who love children, education, music, and business.

Kiboomu has graciously provided four amazing iPhone apps for Stone Soup readers! Three piano apps and Kiboomu's newest app, Toddler Sing and Learn! These entertaining apps combine touch, sound and color, making them educational and fun! Four fortunate people will win one of these fabulous freebies!

Discover the alphabet from Ant to Zebra! The best way for your toddler or preschooler to learn the alphabet with our perfectly paced sing-along ABC Song! Also great for ESL Learning!

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Aspiring toddler and preschool pianists now have a new way to take piano lessons! With the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Piano iPhone App, You can even record your little one playing and singing along!

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"With an Oink-Oink here and an Oink-Oink there!" With this app Animal and instrument sounds are introduced as toddlers play, Sing and learn with the Old MacDonald Piano iPhone App!

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Toddlers will learn words, letters, numbers, colors and shapes, body parts, food, as well as sing along songs with Toddler Sing & Learn! Choose from 10 songs, 10 puzzles and 10 coloring pages!

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To Win:

Mandatory Entry for Giveaway

Leave a comment on this post (Not on Facebook or on Twitter) letting me know which prize you’d like to win! (If you win, I’ll do my best to match the right prize to your needs.) Links are provided so that you can visit the above Kiboomu links to view the products, if you like...

Additional Optional Entries

1. Become a fan of Stone Soup on FB (Or leave a comment letting me know you already do!)
2. Follow Stone Soup on Twitter (Or, again, leave a comment letting me know you do.)
3. Subscribe via email to Stone Soup (Or... you get the gist!

(Of course, you can still enter, even if you already follow or subscribe.)

Giveaway Information

• Entries will be accepted until midnight MST, Sunday, March 20, 2011. Winner will be announced by Monday, March 21, 2011.
• Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry; The winner will be chosen by random number generator.
• Please leave a way for me to contact you in your entry otherwise another winner will be chosen. (There is a space provided for your email under the space where you enter your name. Emails are NOT published, unless you type them into the comment box.)
• NOTE: This giveaway is downloadable so it’s offered Worldwide!

Disclosure:

I was not provided with anything free for this giveaway, products were provided for Stone Soup readers by Kiboomu. The opinions posted here are my own, and were not influenced by Kiboomu.

Quick and Easy Valentine Bookmarks

Quick and Easy Valentine Bookmarks
(Or Elaborate Any-Time Bookmarks, Made by You!)

You have a Valentine's Day get-together with your homeschool group (or play group) and you forgot to buy valentines. ( I know I am the only one who has done this!) You don't have to spend big bucks, or go out of your way to buy a boxed cards that will be tossed away as soon as the kids get home!

Handmade in a Hurry!

Think outside the box. You can use anything! Old magazines, buttons, notions, foam embellishments, ribbons, rick-rack, embroidery floss, stickers, punches, old cards, scraps or even paper plates!

You Might Be Surprised by Your Supplies

Crack out those scrap-booking supplies, old cards and even your notions. You can use anything to make these useful Valentine's Day bookmarks. (These will be used for months to come!)

These bookmarks would be acceptable to give to girls or boys!

The Basic Bookmark

I use my old paper-trimmer, but a ruler is just about the right width for a bookmark, which makes it easy to trace one and then cut along the lines. Those scrap-booking scissors with the funny edges are really nice to have too. They add interest to even the simplest bookmarks. The basic bookmark is two layers. (In addition to embellishments.) The top piece measuring 6" x 1.5", and the bottom piece measuring 6.5" x 2". Anyway, the top piece measures 1/2 an inch larger than the bottom piece, which creates a nice border of contrasting color.

Cut It, Glue It and Tie It Off - You're Done!

If you have the time, adding sequins, jewels, glitter paint or other embellishments add "Wow!" but when my daughter was in a hurry to get somewhere with her collection of Valentines, we set up an assembly line. My daughter picked two or three papers she liked, one of us cut paper, the next person glued the papers together, and the third punched the hole at the top, fed the ribbon through and tied it off. Voila! We had a dozen valentines finished in about fifteen minutes!

Punches, Stickers, Buttons or Rhinestones!

I love using paper-punches. Not just heart-shaped, but all of them! These bookmarks might be used for years to come, so anything goes. If you are a purist, however, stick to pinks, reds and hears. You will still get "ooh's" and "ah's!" Fix the embellishments to the bookmark with glue, scrap-booking adhesive or double-sided tape. I have used glue-sticks, but sometimes the pretty stuff falls off after a while. The adhesive is just not strong enough for creations that are handled much.

Valentine Bookmarks for Every Age

When my children were younger, I would construct the basic bookmark, then let my children embellish them with stickers, and sign their names. Now that they are older, they enjoy using funky scrap-booking scissors, rhinestones, glitter paint and even stamps to embellish their creations.

Don't Forget the Signature!

It's especially fun to save one from each child, each year, in your memory box. Their creations show big changes, and their signatures do too! If you make some Valentine Bookmarks (or any bookmarks, for that matter) send me some photos and I will feature them on the Stone Soup Project Gallery! Email Stone Soup!

Comments? I LOVE them! (Click HERE!)