Imaginative

Imaginative... forming mental images and concepts that are not perceived as real.

An imaginative student is able to deal resourcefully when faced with unusual problems.

Combine imaginative ideas with interactive tools.

Make it Authentic... We often focus on the endangered animals, but what about those animals that have survived? Celebrate a local animal. Tell its survival story. Then, invent an animal. How would it survive in your community? Tell its story. Use Build Your Wild Self or imagine something totally new.

Read the book Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors by Joyce Sidman to kick of exploration. Watch the YouTube book trailer.

Interactive Word and Story Tools

• Word Tools
  • Wordle
  • ABCYa. Great for young children.
  • TagCrowd
  • Tagul
  • Tagxedo
  • WordOut
  • Word Mosaic
  • Word Shift
  • You Are Your Words
• Interactive Tools
  • Kerpoof
  • Kidsspace from Toronto Public Library
• Story Builders
  • Storybird. A teacher version is available so teacers can set up student accounts.
  • Art of Storytelling. Experience, tell, and picture a story.
  • Boomwriter. Read, write, compete and get published.
  • Dog's Life. Write a comic-like story.
  • Kerpoof-Story. Very easy to use Tell a Story feature.
  • Kidsspace. Easy to use library-sponsored tools.
  • Myths and Legends. Contains images and animation options.
  • Littlebird Tales. Uploade images and record you voice on each page.
  • Picturebook Maker. Create picturebooks with limited images.
  • Simplebooklet. Create documents of different sizes.
  • Storyjumper. Create your own book.
  • Storymaker. Simple and free library-sponsored tool
  • Tikatok. Try for free.
  • ZimmerTwins. Both still and animation.
  • ZooBurst. Create your own popup book.
• Visual Stories
  • Free Verse Project

Animal Photo Sources

• Arkive
• Pics for Learning: Animals
• Wikimedia Commons
• National Wildlife Federation
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife
• NOAA Photos

Consider other ways students can share their imaginative stories in unique forms:

• Popular Prose and Poetry Forms
  • Six Word Memoirs (I Can't Keep My Own Secrets)
  • Tweet - 140 characters
  • Fifty Words - 50 words (examples)
  • Drabble - 100 words
  • Microfiction/Flash Fiction - 50-1000 words (examples) (definitions)
  • Short Short Story - 500-2000 words
  • Short Story - 1000-7500 words
• Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Fifty Really Short Stories by Jerome Stern
  
  • Article about Stern
• Knock by Fredric Brown (famous example) "The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door."

TRY IT
Explore Kerpoof, Kidsspace, and other simple story building tools.