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2010 Poetry Contest for Kids! Grades K – 12

2010 writing contest

The 2010 Neuroscience for Kids POETRY WRITING CONTEST is OPEN and entry forms are now available.

Here are the rules of the contest:

  • Only one entry per person. Please type or print your poems so we can read them.
  • Use the official entry form (copies of the form are acceptable) to write a poem about the nervous system in the style for your age group (see below).

Entry Form (PDF File) OR Entry Form (WORD File)

  • Please type or print your poems so we can read them. All poems, limericks and haiku must have at least THREE lines and CANNOT be longer than TEN lines. Material that is shorter than three lines or longer than ten lines will not be read.
  • All material must have a neuroscience theme such as brain anatomy (a part of the brain), brain function (memory, language, emotions, movement, the senses, etc.), drug abuse or brain health (helmets, brain disorders, etc.). Be creative! Use your brain!
  • Entries will be divided into four age groups:

If you are in Kindergarten to Grade 2, your poem can be in any style; it doesn’t even have to rhyme.

If you are in Grade 3 to Grade 5, your poem must rhyme. You can rhyme the last words on lines one and two; the last words on lines three and four, etc. or you can choose your own pattern.

If you are in Grade 6 to Grade 8, your poem must be in the form of a haiku. A haiku has only THREE lines. Also, haiku MUST use the following pattern: 5 syllables in the first line; 7 syllables in the second line; 5 syllables in the third line.

Example Haiku:
Three pounds of jelly
wobbling around in my skull
and it can do math.

If you are in Grade 9 to Grade 12, your poem must be in the form of a limerick. A limerick has 5 lines; lines one, two and five rhyme with each other and have the same number of syllables; lines three and four rhyme with each other and have the same number of syllables.

Example Limerick
The brain is important, that’s true,
For all things a person will do,
From reading to writing,
To skiing to biting,
It makes up the person who’s you.

  • To enter the contest, mail your completed entry form with your poem to:

Dr. Eric H. Chudler
Dept. of Bioengineering; UWEB E/O
BOX 355061
1705 NE Pacific Street
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-5061

  • Entries must be received by February 1, 2010 and cannot be returned.
  • People and their families associated with the Neuroscience for Kids web site are not eligible to enter the contest. Kids from ALL countries are welcome to participate.
  • The staff of Neuroscience for Kids and other individuals will judge poems on the basis of originality, scientific accuracy and overall style.
  • At least one winner from each group will be selected. Winners will be announced by March 1 and will be notified by e-mail or regular mail. The winner agrees to allow Neuroscience for Kids to publish his/her name (first name and last initial only) and poem on the Neuroscience for Kids web site. Winner addresses and e-mail addresses will NOT be published.
  • All materials received will become the property of Neuroscience for Kids and will not be returned. Neuroscience for Kids will not be responsible for entries that are damaged or lost in the mail.
  • Winners will be awarded a book or other prize to be determined later. Prizes will be mailed to the address listed on the winner’s entry form.
  • Void where prohibited by law. Questions about this contest should be directed to Dr. Chudler at: [email protected]

Contest prizes provided by:

NEURO4KIDS.COM | Capstone Press

Copyright © 1996-2009, Eric H. Chudler All Rights Reserved.

Entry form and other details below:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/contest10.html

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Haiku Contest – Anyone can PLay!

Do you haiku?  Love film noir?  (If you don’t know what it is, Netflix “The Maltese Falcon,” one of the greatest movies of this genre.)

Now write three lines in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern.  Can you work in references to “The Maltese Falcon,” Raymond Chandler, an author of other great stories in this genre, gumshoes or dames?

Want to play?  Send your haiku to [email protected] by noon (California time) Monday, Dec. 28.

Read more reader-written poetry at ContraCostaTimes.com/haiku    or InsideBayArea.com/haiku

Winners get published in the Contra Costa Times newspaper or in their online edition.

(Another credit is always good for the resume or college application!)

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Of Wiles in Oz

Every geographic area has a language all of its own. Sometimes it’s an accent. Other times it’s a unique slang. Either way, communication may become muddled and amusing. On our first trip to Australia in 2005 for our son’s World Solar Challenge Race, we visited Kangaroo Island by way of ferry. Upon arriving, we met our tour guide and group in a van.
“Did you see any wiles, mate?” asked the guide.
Bob and I scratched our heads. We didn’t have our “wiles” about us at that moment.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
The guide repeated his question.
“Did you see any wiles?”
Again, Bob and I eyed each other. What now? Play charades?
Then it hit us. The guide was asking if we had seen any WHALES while we were on our ferry ride.

This time we noticed signs in Darwin. POKIES. Poker is a big game in Australia. With a British influence, Bob ate bangers (sausages) one day and I had fish and chips for lunch.
We hiked in the bush (Australian’s country’s wildlife area) and saw a willy willy. (dusty wind that spirals upward) Saw a kiwi (person from New Zealand) and ate a dog’s breakfast. (messy!)
Upon entering an early morning tour bus, the guide greeted us and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll stop for a bit of breaky soon.” (breakfast)
I took a picture of a kangaroo and with a “joey” in her pouch and she examined me closely for any signs of food for sharing. Alas, they don’t recommend feeding them, so I couldn’t give her anything at all. But she still did a thorough search.

Writing Exercise: What slang is prominent in your area? Are “your people” known for an accent? When I came from Wisconsin, I was teased here in California not only for my Midwestern drawl, but for my “Milwaukee-ease.” Later, I turned this type of slang into a humor article for a San Francisco newspaper.
1. List as many various slang words from your region as you can recall. You may begin this list today and continue it for awhile. Ask friends to help you! It might consist of phrases as well as words themselves.
2. What about the accent? Try and describe the accent and how it varies from other dialects you here.
3. Work your unique area into a short story, personal experience piece, poem or article. It can be humorous, serious, or a mixture of the two styles. Feel free to share any part of your dialect and slang. We’d love to hear the fun way the world communicates differently!

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Funny Site – – To “Weed” or Not to “Weed”

As a high school and college student, one of my part-time jobs was working in a library. After college graduation, I took jobs behind the check-out counters at local libraries during summers when I wasn’t teaching. So I’ve had a love of libraries and books, old and new, for quite a long time.

Every year, I know there is a painful time when libraries must weed their shelves of books due to lack of space. In my current town, there is a lovely give-away adventure in the parking lot. My shelves are filled with such treasures.

Below is a site of some books that were published and perhaps NEED to be taken off the shelves now . . .

I especially like the book KNITTING WITH DOG HAIR. Since my non-shedding Yorkie’s dog fur is now rolling across the floor at an alarming rate, it occurs to me that I might make use of this in a creative way . . .

http://awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com/page/4/

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Hallmark Humor Contest – Deadline Oct. 18 – HURRY!

Adults or kids can enter this one!

Write funny! Hallmark is now accepting submissions for their “Make a Mother’s Day Card That Makes Mom Laugh!” Contest

There are two categories.
1. Makes a card for moms.
2. Make a card for friends who are moms.

You can enter a card in each category. Use photography, illustration, or design. Just make sure it’s – –
1. Funny and for Mother’s Day
2. Sendable (works for many moms and friends)
3. Cohesive (writing and images work together)

Prize: $250 and either it will be for sale on their website or in stores. You’ll get a great credit too! For more information, visit:

http://hallmarkcontests.com/page/CONTESTS/contest/Thats_Motherhood?gclid=CK_azfuJwJ0CFRZeagodrRYTiQ

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Lessons From A Rat

On the first day, Rat Lady appears confident, with cage in hand. “We’ll get this little guy,” she says with a smile.

Hilde and I feel her assuredness, so we relax. It’s about time a professional steps on the scene.

We help her clear away the brush from his hole so she can set the cage firmly on the ground. She opens the cage door and sets cheese inside. If the cheese isn’t enough of a lure, the soft, green felt scented with other rats will help.

“Bogey! Dinner!” I call.

He’s used to my voice now, and soon his little nose and gray head pops out. In no time at all, he climbs out of the hole. We hold our collective breath.

Just as he is about to get inside the cage, a walker on the path saunters by. “WHATCHA DOIN?” He roars in a deep, gravely voice.

Bogey disappears. Our shoulders sag.
Hilde turns to answer him softly. “Trying to catch a domesticated rat.”
After a half-a-dozen questions, the man moves on.

Once more, I call Bogey out. He cautiously wiggles his nose by the hole.
“Come on Bogey! It’s good food!”

He creeps out, paw by paw, sniffing as he inches along. Time crawls as slowly as he does. Finally, he makes the leap.

INTO THE CAGE!
Rat Lady leans down to close the door. Leaves crackle.
Jump!
Bogey is OUT of the cage, and Rat Lady slams the door a second too late.

“Ohhhhh.” We all groan at how close it was.

Rat Lady tries again. Into position. Again, Bogie noses out, and just as he’s about to strike . . .

“DID YOU CATCH THAT RAT YET?” screeches the blue-haired woman from the other day.

We hang our heads. No more Bogie now.

I bite my tongue. “Yes, we caught the rat,” I want to say. “We’re all just standing around this hole with an empty cage for no good reason . . .”

After screeching woman moves on, we wait for what seems like hours. Finally, Bogey is ready. He creeps out. Climbs inside . . . and . . . BANG! But Bogey jumps out. Again, the door closes a moment to late.

You can get a rat to food and trick him twice, but he’d have to be really stupid to fall for it a third time. This rat is NOT stupid.

I think we are. After all, he trained us first, by having us provide room service.

We’ve tried on three separate occasions already, and we haven’t succeeded. Rat Lady will come tonight and try with her BARE HANDS. Yes. She’s going to grab him. I personally doubt anyone would be faster than Bogey. If she can do it, I’ll be thrilled. Hopefully she’ll give us visitation rights, because she plans on keeping him at her house.

If she isn’t successful, I’ll go shopping for a new rat cage. And if nothing works, I guess Hilde and I will have a new pet out in the park to care for this year. Besides our usual walking on weekdays, we’ll just have to feed and water him and hope he can survive the critters and the elements.

We know he’s got a pretty neat home by now. After all, he’s redecorated it. That’s right. You know that green felt Rat Lady had in her cage? At one point, she put a little over the edge of the cage, so he’d have it in sniffing range. By this time, she and I were sitting around the hole.

Bogie came out, grabbed the felt, and backed up with it. All six by three inches of it into his wee hole!

Wall-to-wall comfort.
Next, he was busy with his new find, so to get his attention, Rat Lady knocked a dirt clod down his hill into his front door.
That brought him out with a huff. He pushed that dirt clod up the hill and gave it an OOPMH.

“THAT’s out of here,” he seemed to say.

Rat Lady pushed it back down a bit.
Bogie came out and pushed it back up. I could swear he gave her a dirty look.

Today, Rat Lady used a stick to keep the cage door open. When she was finished with it, she stuck the stick in the ground near the opening of his hole.
Suddenly, the stick moved. All by itself. To the right.
Rat Lady moved it to the left.
Next, the stick moved back to the right.
Rat Lady moved it to the left.
We laughed out loud.
She moved it to the right.
It moved to the left.

I bet this rat would be great at board games. Or dancing for that matter.

Writing Exercise:
1. Are you stuck with your plot? Think “out of the box.” If you are doing the same thing over and over again, maybe you need to think in a new and different way.
2. Remember to have patience. You know that old saying about Rome. And now I have a new one about rats.
3. If you need something to write about, you can write about a fictional animal and give him a unique personality. Tell your story through the animal’s viewpoint.

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First Class Dogs

Did you hear about the new airlines for pets? Pet Airways will fly an animal between five major cities for $250. “Regular” airlines charge comparable prices to stick your beloved little terrier, cat or parrot in the cargo hold; a noisy, unprotected, unheated and unairconditioned area often filled with dangers.

Pet Airways, now booked solid for two months, will fly animals in the main cabin of a plane lined with animal carriers in place of seats. The passengers will be attended to every fifteen minutes and will be given preboarding walks and potty breaks.

Each airport accomodating Pet Airways now has a “Pet Lounge.” These cities are New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles.

Can’t you see it? Let this news filter into your writing life. Create a piece of fiction using this current events item. You may write a story from the animal’s point of view or from the owner’s point of view. What happens on this trip? Feel free to characterize the animal (or animals) in fun and funny ways!

As an animal lover, I’d love to meet the passengers on this airlines!

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Squirrel Obstacle Course and Animal Mania

Every morning, I have a ritual. As I feed my dog, make breakfast, and “tidy the kitchen” as my English neighbor would say, I commune with nature. Does that mean I gaze with rapture upon mother nature?

No. I lie in wait with my ammunition, a 7-11-sized glass filled with water. As soon as SQUIRREL lands on one of two hanging bird feeders in the front yard, I in my old blue bathrobe fly out of the front door, with water glass in hand.

It usually takes at least two of these attempts before I actually douse SQUIRREL. Next, he’ll actually stay on the ground and eat the seeds there. But if I miss – – the battle rages on.

Later in the day, when I eat lunch, he’ll visit me from his perch on a tree over the deck and chatter non-stop, nagging me in what I’m sure is unmentionable language for a squirrel.

Perhaps I should set up this in my yard?

Writing Prompts: 1. Write in the voice of the squirrel. What happens when he discovers an obstacle course? 2. How does a squirrel plan to get his next meal? How will he outsmart the humans around him? 3. Write in a person’s point of view of someone driven absolutely crazy by a VERY intelligent squirrel or other animal. 4. Write about a squirrel on a school campus. What happens?

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Of death and humor

Last Friday, the most wonderful man passed away. He was on this earth for ninety years. Almost a century! Born in a Wisconsin farm house, with nine older brothers and sisters, he road in a horse-drawn sleigh, milked cows by hand, carried in wood for the stove, pumped water instead of turning on the faucet, attended a one-room school, and listened to the radio for entertainment.

He toiled long hours on the forty-nine-acre farm when his brothers and sisters got jobs . . . got married . . . joined the priesthood . . . or became a nun. He married a city girl, my mother, in 1949, and ten years later they sold the farm and moved to a small town. He worked as a painter and held other jobs in a factory for over forty years.

I never heard him complain once.

Dad was a quiet man. I was closer to my mother growing up, so when she passed away in 2002 and he moved to California to be near us, I knew it would be a new chapter in our lives.

It turned out to be an enormous gift. I got to know him on another level. For growing up an “old school” Catholic, he never fit the stereotype. I introduced a friend of mine to him once and I later told Dad that this friend was gay.

“Poor man,” he said.

I understood Dad’s meaning. Yes, it is difficult to live as a gay man in our society of unacceptance. However, Dad accepted him and loved him as he was.

Dad’s whole being radiated love. His hugs were the best! Ask any of my friends, often the receipents of those hugs. He held on tightly, as though he were infusing you with his energy. And of course, he was. You walked away feeling loved, happy, and joyful.

Dad had the most amazing sense of humor. Dry and quickly delivered, you’d miss it if you weren’t paying attention. And his laugh! Uproarious, the kind of laugh that proclaims it a GOOD THING to laugh!

So last Friday, when the call came unexpectedly, I first denied it. “Your father just passed away,” said the nurse.

I’m so in-tune to his every need, that I expected I’d have a warning. A buzzer would certainly go off in my head, right?

“No he didn’t,” I said back at her.
Pause.
“Liz, I was there.”

Oh. Right. Reality check.

When I appeared in his room, it wasn’t a big deal to see him. After all, as a Catholic of older parents, with lots of relatives, I’ve been to my share of funerals. I’ve seen so many dead bodies by now I can’t even estimate the number.

But somehow, when that body is your own parent, it’s different. I leaned over and kissed him and smoothed his hair. It hadn’t even been an hour, and he was already cold to the touch.

My friend, Cathy, was on her way. Why not get started? I began with taking down the multitude of 90th birthday cards and pictures that adorned his walls.
When she appeared, packing up his room at the nursing home went quickly. She took out the clothes in his closet and I began folding and piling.

“Uh, Liz,” Cathy looked down at the stack of clothes. They were all on top and around Dad’s feet and legs.
“Isn’t there something terribly WRONG with this?” she said.
“You think he’d mind?” I asked.
“No.”
“What do you think he’d do?” I asked.
“Laugh,” she said.
And we did.

Writing and Reading Exercises:

Sometimes we think of reading and writing HUMOR in a category all by itself. But really, is life like that? Just a day of all humor? Isn’t life a mixture of sad, happy, funny, tragic?

As you read some of the best books, the most wonderful scenes, note the way the authors handle emotions right along with humor. Sometimes life is filled with both.

Exercise: 1. Write a moment of sadness from your life. 2. Turn this moment of sadness into a moment in fiction. 3. What kind of humor can you add to it to lighten this moment? Sometimes a light touch helps with pacing too.

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Happy April Fool’s Day!

April Fool! Watch Out at School! by Diane De Groat
Arthur’s April Fool (Arthur Adventure Series) by Marc Brown

Do you have any April’s Fools Day books to suggest? I admit, there aren’t a wealth of them out there like there are for other holidays. I’ve got a chapter inside Louise the One and Only about this day.

Exercise: Have you ever pulled the perfect prank on someone? Something that isn’t mean, but funny? Clever and cute? Ever had it pulled on YOU? Write about this. Or create a short story or poem for the perfect April Fool’s Day joke.

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