I’m very excited to announce that I will be offering a creative writing workshop for young people ages 9-12 through the Winnipeg Public Library!
The fun workshop is called “Make Your Writing Shine!”. It is one hour long, and I will be sharing my FAVOURITE tips and tricks for turning good writing into GREAT writing! (If you’ve written something that you want to transform from marvelous into absolutely magical, bring a 1-2 page sample with you to work on!).
There will be three workshop sessions taking place during spring break at the following branch locations:
Westwood Library – 986-4747
Saturday, March 26 @ 11 a.m.
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St. Vital Library – 986-5632
Monday, March 28 @ 2 p.m.
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Fort Garry Library – 986-4919
Thursday, March 31 @ 6:30 p.m.
**To register, please call or visit the hosting branch.**
To read about my workshops in the library newsletter, please click here.
Plan a 5 day or more artist’s residency at your school with Karin Adams …
Plan An Artist Residency with Author Karin Adams
The Manitoba Arts Council’s Artists in the Schools Program brings together Manitoba artists and schools for 1 to 10 week residencies. Karin Adams is taking bookings now for literary arts residencies, offering her exciting creative writing program “From Spark to Finish!” for grades 3-8 (learn more about the program here).
An artist residency with Karin is a great way to get your students excited about the creative writing process and a wonderful complement to your ELA program. Karin has worked with hundreds of students in various schools throughout Manitoba,with wonderful feedback from students and teachers alike. Writing and working with young writers are for Karin personal passions that go hand in hand – she’d love to come to your school next!
Book a Creative Writing Workshop With Author Karin Adams!
I LOVE to visit Winnipeg-area classrooms to offer my fun and interactive workshop, “Make Your Writing Shine!”. Together, we’ll review my three essential tips for revising your creative writing, making good writing GREAT writing! I have some fun activities planned, and together we’ll learn just how important – and fun – re-writing can be (it may be the most important step of all!).
To book a workshop, please use my contact page to get in touch!
To read about my workshop experiences, check out my Blog. (I’ve met a TON of awesome young writers…I’d love to meet YOU!) Looking forward to hearing from you! 🙂
——————————————————————————– The song is here!
Lights! Curtains! Cows! now has a totally original, totally fun theme song! It’s called “The Legend of Cow Valley” and you’ll find the link to download it below.
Get out your cowboy hat and get ready to MOOOOO along with the chorus!
To save this file to your computer, simply right click on it and choose “Save As” (or “Download Linked File” if you’re using a Mac). I recommend you save it in your “My Music” folder (it’s inside your “My Documents” folder).
Once it has finished downloading, go to your “My Music” folder and double click on it to listen!
Here are the lyrics so that you can moo right along!
The Legend of Cow Valley Music and production: Paul Shrofel Lyrics: Karin Adams
In a town called Ellis Not too far from here There’s a legend that lives on ‘Bout the great stampedin’ steer
Every summer the townsfolk Come from near and far To see the legend live on On the Derksen farm.
Chorus
And the cows go Moooooo-oooo! And the kids go Woooooo-ahhh! The cows go Moooooo-oooo! That’s how the legend lives on
When the cows go runnin’ And the whole town’s buzzin’ As it did in days long ago
Each summer in Ellis The legend lives on!
Now Becky Kowalski Is a kid with one desire To play the hero of the legend Full of spirit, spark and fire
Now Becky has some good friends, Four guys and another gal There’s Leonard, Sam, Sarah and Mike And there’s Greg, her best pal
Chorus
Now it happened one day There were new folks in town And they thought it’d be a great thing To bring the old legend down
Them city folk brought a new show That they thought was fine and true Young Becky Kowalski Said “this’ll never do!”
Chorus
So if you’re ever down in Ellis And you’ve got some time to spare Remember Cow Valley It’s a legend beyond compare
And be sure that you stop by Old Mr. Derksen’s farm Where the cows’ll be stampedin’ And the legend lives on!
In my opinion, you can never have enough bookmarks! I’ve made a fun set of bookmarks for you that you can download, print out on your printer, cut out, and use in your favourite books.
For best results, you will probably want to print your bookmarks on a thicker-than-usual paper. Regular paper will work, but the bookmarks won’t be as sturdy as if you use something thicker, like card stock.
I had so much fun visiting Prairie Rose School on Wednesday, February 16! (Did you know that this school was built on the site of what was once Prairie Rose Dairy Farm? How cool is that – and the perfect backdrop for a discussion about “Lights! Curtains! Cows!” 🙂 )
First of all, I would like to thank the teachers and librarians who organized the visit, the two students who showed me around the school and made sure that I got to the appropriate classrooms, and of course all the amazing students and teachers who invited me to read and chat with them! The school even presented me with a lovely thank you gift full of tasty treats – well, THANK YOU!
What can I say about the impressive students at Prairie Rose? First of all, they had GREAT ideas! In each class, before reading Chapter One of “No TV? No Fair!”, I asked them what they thought the book was about and what might happen in it. I heard so many different and creative ideas, I thought “wow – they could all write their own books, and they would be fantastic!”. I was thrilled to hear that many of the students actually do have an interest in creative writing, and maybe even being published. We talked a lot about how important it is to edit, edit, edit and make sure that our writing is the best it can be – students had great ideas about how to do this, and I was happy to share some of my tips, too. To all you budding writers, I say: Follow your dreams, work hard, be patient, and always remember to write for the love of telling a great story!
Speaking of great stories, when I asked students what they liked to do instead of watching TV and playing on the computer, students couldn’t wait to share all of their hobbies and pastimes – reading, basketball, snow angels, snow forts, playing with brothers and sisters, drawing, music – the list goes on and on. This is obviously a very talented bunch with a lot of energy…way to go!
In each class, we shared many laughs as we read “No TV? No Fair!” and imagined what Chloe would do without her TV and computer for a whole month (yikes!). In one class, we also talked about how there is also a serious side to consider whenever we’re using the computer. Being safe is “key”, of course . Also, we talked about how being kind and thoughtful to others is just as important online as it is offline. Excellent points – thanks for a great discussion!
Thanks again for a super visit. It’s always inspiring to meet young readers, and makes my job of writing books even more fun. I hope we meet again soon…enjoy the rest of I Love To Read week, Prairie Rose – and have a good year!
On February 8, I visited Arthur E. Wright school – this makes visit number 3 – woo-hoo! I always feel welcomed here, and this time there wasn’t even a fire drill! (the students from last year know what I mean!) – and thank goodness for that as it was AT LEAST -40 out there – yeesh!!
This was a super fun visit, with a cool twist. I’ve been having an awesome time introducing my latest book (“No TV? No Fair!”) to students at various schools, but this time I got to read a couple of the later chapters of “Lights! Curtains! Cows!” with a class that’s almost finished the book…I don’t often get to read these chapters, so that was super fun! I’m glad you are enjoying the story (and think that Mike’s costume in the chapter “Dress Rehearsal Disaster” is as funny as I do – that’s one of my favourite scenes in the whole book!).
This class definitely has a sense of humour! I loved your questions, and the funny stories that you shared. I also loved hearing about your favourite books and authors – it’s so cool to hear how much you love to read!
I’m so glad we had time to chat after the reading. It was really nice to get to know each of you a little bit better. Sounds like I’ll be back in a couple of months to read from “No TV?”…I’m already looking forward to it!!
Keep on reading throughout I Love To Read Month (and after that, of course!).
Imagine my surprise when I stepped through the doors to Greenway School, and there stood a funky, colorful, flashing sign saying “Welcome, Karin Adams!”. This school certainly knows how to welcome its guests – thank you to teacher organizers and hosts, and all you fantastic students for instantly making me feel at home! (Student volunteers who led me from class to class also made sure I didn’t get lost in this beautiful two-storey building – thank you! 😉 ). This was my second visit to the very awesome Greenway School, and it was just a superb as the first.
One thing that I noticed right away in the classrooms I visited was this amazing, positive energy – a real passion for learning and trying new things! From grade one to grade six, I was met by class after class of attentive listeners who were also bursting with ideas and questions to share when we chatted. It was also super cool to see posters in many of the classrooms with tips about observing, writing, and editing one’s creative writing work. I know that you had questions for me, but I learned a lot from you, too!
I also noticed a passion for creative expression. I loved how many students “mimed” Chloe’s facial expressions and body language as I read from “No TV? No Fair!”. Not only does this tell me you were “into” the story, I could tell that there is a huge love for drama and acting at this school – which is very, very cool (I adored acting and putting on shows with my friends at school – I actually still take theatre classes, and as you know, “Lights! Curtains! Cows!” is all about a super fun show). Also, there was gorgeous artwork all over the halls and classroom walls (keep reading “No TV? No Fair!’ and you’ll see that Chloe would LOVE Greenway!)
Thanks once again for having me at Greenway – till we meet again!
