A "Big" Brainstorm

For the past two weekends, I have been spending time at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center working with a Big Brothers/Big Sisters arts-in-education program through the New York State Alliance For Arts Education. In teams of big and littles (mentor and student), we are creating living history books, much like the picture book I wrote for Milton Hershey School.

Today, we got our creative juices flowing by brainstorming descriptive words. The first two and last two sheets here are words selected to describe individuals in the program. The middle sheet focuses on an animal -- the wolf.

To create these books, each writer will select an animal or plant with which to parallel his or her life. For example, a 14-year-old in the program will show significant life events over her fourteen years, while sharing the life cycle of a plant or animal for that same time period. Eventually, we will each create an illustrated picture book to capture these parallel events.

Stay tuned for regular updates on our progress! Great books are emerging!