Creative Writing Activity {Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant}

The kids and I enjoy Jack Prelutsky's humorous poems. A couple weeks ago, we read (and listened to) his poems from Carnival of the Animals while dancing and making animal masks. This week ,we read Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems, which inspired a creative writing activity...

Each of Prelutsky's poems in Umbrellaphant pairs an animal with a household object: a Panthermometer is a panther with a thermometer for a tail, the Clocktopus is a cross between a clock and an octopus, etc... When we had finished reading through the poems in this book, I invited the kids to make up their own animal-object combinations to draw and write about.

E (age 6.5) really embraced the challenge. She came up with a Fan-Peacock and a Filter-Fish, and then continued to invent new animals all day. E is somewhat of a perfectionist, so I'm really glad that her creative side is flourishing and that she can think outside the box so easily. 

L was less than enthusiastic about writing, although she needs the most practice in this area. She came up with a Bear-Teddy who is part real bear and part teddy bear. I love how she wrote that he is both fierce and kind and drew him an adorable bear, but with claws. 

Her second animal invention was a Heart-Owl who is a “gentle creature”.