activities

Skits from The Riot Brothers books

Kids at Barrington Elementary School in Ohio acted out scenes from the Riot Brother books and posted them as a slide-show on their school website. What a great way to encourage reading, improvisation, and playwriting! Students can improvise or write short plays, based on scenes from their favorite books, and act them out.

A Riot Brother rule: If you draw a mustache, do not use permanent ink!

According to Wilbur Riot, there is nothing quite so frightening as your mom chasing after you with kissy lips!

Can you flare your nostrils and raise one eyebrow? These are essential Riot Brother skills.

The Riot Brothers' Secret of life is to make something exciting happen everyday.

Wilbur and Orville Riot give annoying lessons at school to earn money! Do NOT try this at your school!

If you laugh while your brother is drinking milk, and milk comes out his nose, that is a Snarf Attack!

Slobber Trivia Game (From Books III and IV of The Riot Bros)

Slobber Trivia Game Questions (From Stinky and Successful and Take the Mummy and Run)

In which Riot Brother book does Slobber, the pet rat, first appear?
One of the chapters in the third book is called “Slobber and Frank.” Who is Frank?
On April Fools Day, where does Orville first hide Slobber?
In the same chapter, when Lydia Riot finds Slobber, what does she do?
At the end of the story, the boys find a hiding place for Slobber that makes their mom scream. Where do they hide him?
Fill in the blanks of this famous Riot Brother saying about Slobber that Wilbur says at the end of the April Fools story: “Just remember, slobber is what goes __ ___ of a pillow and Slobber is what goes _____ a pillow.”
In Take the Mummy and Run: The Riot Brothers are on a Roll, the boys put Slobber in a bucket labeled ____ _____.
In “The Riot Brothers Solve a Mystery” Orville throws Slobber at a _____ who turns out to be a ___.
What is the real Slobber made of?
According to Amelia, if the boys miss Slobber, what should they do?

Slobber Trivia Game Answers

In Stinky and Successful: The Riot Brothers Never Stop (Book 3)
Frank is Wilbur’s pet eyeball.
Orville hides Slobber in his mom’s desk drawer.
Lydia Riot doesn’t scream when she finds Slobber in her pencil drawer. She calmly says, “Actually I believe that Slobber ate all my pencils.
The boys hide Slobber under their mom’s pillow.
“Just remember, slobber is what goes on top of a pillow and Slobber is what goes under a pillow.”
In Take the Mummy and Run: The Riot Brothers are on a Roll, the boys put Slobber in a bucket labeled free candy.
In The Riot Brothers Solve a Mystery, Orville throws Slobber at a _____ who turns out to be a ___.
The real Slobber is made of rubber.
If the boys miss Slobber, they should chew gum really fast so that they slobber.

Filed under: activities • Stinky and Successful • Take the Mummy and Run • teaching ideas • The Riot Brothers

Mushroom Recipes by Mary Amato

Trevor Musgrove, my character, learned a lot about mushrooms in Invisible Lines. To write this book I did a lot of research and became fascinated with mushrooms. I also began adding edible mushrooms to my grocery list. Here are some of my favorite recipes and some more information. –Mary Amato

Mushroom Burgers for One

Preheat a toaster oven to 400° F.
Chop and sauté mushrooms (one large portabella or a half-dozen small button mushrooms) in olive oil. Let them cool slightly.
Meanwhile in a bowl, beat an egg and add ¼ cup of breadcrumbs and any seasonings you like. Add the mushrooms to the egg mixture, add 2 oz of crumbled feta cheese and mix. Form this mix into two patties.
Place the patties on a well-oiled baking pan. Bake them in the toaster oven for 10 minutes and then flip and bake for 7 more minutes or until golden brown.
Serve with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt and a splash of hot sauce!

Stuffed Caps

Coat mushroom caps (you can use any type of edible mushroom. I prefer baby bellas) with olive oil & stuff with goat cheese. Season w/sea salt & your favorite herb. Bake on well greased (use olive oil) baking pan at 375 for fifteen minutes or until tender.

Mushroom and Pumpkin Soup

Saute your favorite type of edible mushroom and onions in olive oil. Add 1 t. curry powder and 1 T flour (or potato starch), stir in 2/3 can of pumpkin, add 28 ounces of any type broth. Cook for 30 minutes. Add 1 cup of milk (do not boil). At the very end, you can also add the following optional garnishes: chopped cilantro, chopped spinach, croutons. Delicious!

Shiitake Pasta

While you’re boiling up your favorite noodles, sauté some shiitake mushrooms in olive oil until they are thoroughly cooked. Add other veggies if you want. When the noodles are done, toss the shrooms with the pasta and add goat cheese. Stir until the cheese melts into a creamy sauce. Easy and yummy.

Stuffed Caps

Coat mushroom caps with olive oil & stuff with goat cheese. Season w/sea salt & your favorite herb. Bake on well greased (use olive oil) baking pan at 375 for fifteen minutes or until tender.

Mushroom and Pumpkin Soup

Saute mushrooms and onions in olive oil. Add 1 t. curry powder and 1 T flour (or potato starch), stir in 2/3 can of pumpkin, add 28 ounces of any type broth. Cook for 30 minutes. Add 1 cup of milk (do not boil). At the very end, you can also add the following optional garnishes: chopped cilantro, chopped spinach, croutons. Delicious!

Shiitake Pasta

While you’re boiling up your favorite noodles, sauté some shiitake mushrooms in olive oil until they are thoroughly cooked. Add other veggies if you want. When the noodles are done, toss the shrooms with the pasta and add goat cheese. Stir until the cheese melts into a creamy sauce. Easy and yummy.

More Information about Edible Mushrooms

Hidden Superfood: Some people believe that mushrooms have little nutritional value. Wrong. Mushrooms are good for you. They contain protein, fiber, essential amino acids, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, ascorbic acid and Vitamin D. Mushrooms produce strong antioxidants, antibiotics, and antiviral compounds. Scientists are studying their medicinal compounds to cure cancers and small pox, to treat diabetes, obesity, immune disorders and more. See Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World by Paul Stamets.

Cook Before Eating: Make sure you thoroughly cook your mushrooms. White button mushrooms are commonly eaten raw in salads, but many mushrooms will cause digestive problems if eaten raw.

Filed under: activities • Invisible Lines • mushrooms

Mary Amato’s Tips for Parents: How to Encourage Creative Writing

How to encourage creative writing in children

Create a time and place for writing. Children will want to write if you make it a fun activity to do together. “Let’s write a story!”

Use my WOW story technique to get started. See What is a WOW Story below.

Accept your child’s ideas. Your child may create a character/story you don’t like. Be open, and your child will want to keep writing.

Allow your child to dictate to you. Be a scribe, not an editor. Use your child’s words.

Allow mistakes if your child is writing. The goal is to increase creative fluency. Save the grammar and spelling lessons for later.

Ask questions if your child gets stuck. What is the story about? What does your main character want?

Talk it through one sentence at a time. If your child has trouble organizing or keeping track of thoughts, ask him/her to tell the story aloud one sentence at a time. Write down one sentence at a time. Model enthusiasm by writing your own creative stories and poems.

Create venues for sharing writing. Have a “literary reading” when Grandma comes over, send poems and stories as gifts, help your child submit work to local venues.

What is a WOW story?

WOW is an acronym that I created to help kids remember a simple story structure.

The story has a main character who Wants something. This is the beginning of the story.
There is an Obstacle that gets in the way of the main character. This is the middle of the story.
The main character either Wins or loses. This is the end of the story.

How to make up WOW stories

Choose a main character. This can be a person, an animal, or even an object: for example, a boy, a grandmother, a soccer star, a sock, or a paintbrush!
Decide what the main character wants. What might a paintbrush want? Some paint to play with? To belong to a famous artist? Try unexpected ideas. A grandmother might want to ride a motorcycle!
Decide what will get in the way of the main character’s desire. Brainstorm lots of obstacles and decide which one is the most fun or engaging. Obstacles can be simple. A rabbit wants to eat grass on a hillside, but a tiger lives on that hillside. The tiger is the obstacle. A boy wants a new bike, but his father says no. His father is the obstacle. Obstacles can also be emotions. What if a girl wants to ice skate, but she is afraid that she’ll fall down? Fear is her obstacle.
Decide how/if the main character will “win or lose.” Does your main character get what he or she wants in the end? How?

Write or perform WOW stories

Write or dictate your story: Write your stories on paper. Or make a book by folding pages and stapling them together. If your child hasn’t learned how to write yet, ask him or her to tell you the story and write it down word for word.

Act your story out: For reluctant writers, try acting out the story first. After you have brainstormed the basics for a specific WOW story using the steps above, act out the story. Choose a narrator who will tell the story and provide cues for the actors. This can be the job of the parent or a child. The narrator should be very clear and say “The End” so that everyone knows when the story is over. After acting out stories, the child may be more interested in writing them down.

Filed under: activities • teaching ideas • tips for parents • writing tips

Mary Amato’s How to Become a Writer

Writing

Write a lot of stories, poems, songs, essays, articles, plays: whatever you’re interested in writing. Your work will improve if you keep writing.

Read like crazy. Read for enjoyment first; but if you really love a book, read it again. Try to figure out what techniques the writer used to make the book so good.

Invite others to read your work: friends, teachers, parents, etc. Ask for feedback. What do you like about my work? What can I do to make it better?

Tackle revisions with gusto! Don’t be afraid to change your work. Every writer needs to revise. Revising is the real writing.

Exercise your imagination and observation muscles by being an active part of the fascinating world around you. Keep a journal of your notes, thoughts, and ideas.

How do I get published?

Start small. Many local newspapers have a children’s page that features poems and stories by kids. That’s a great place to start.

Understand the market. If a children’s page only prints short poems, don’t send a long story. Read the newspaper or magazine carefully to see if they publish work similar to yours. Often, a publisher will list info about what they accept and where to send it.

Be professional: send in your best work, neatly typed. Put your name and address (and age if they request it) in the top corner. Include an SASE: that’s a stamped envelope with your name and address on it, so they can send you a response.

Move on. Don’t sit around waiting to see if your work will be accepted. Keep writing new material. If you’re going to be a writer, you must write, write, write.

Interpret rejections as necessary stepping stones to success. Publishers get many more submissions than they can use. Expect rejections. Take comfort in the fact that the most famous writers have received rejections.

Try again. Keep revising your work, writing new work, and submitting. The writers who become successful are the ones who don’t give up.

A writer’s glossary

Work : the stories, poems, essays, plays, or songs you are writing. It is also called material.

Market: the magazines, newspapers, and book publishers who publish stories, poems, plays, etc.

Submit: to send in your work to a publisher to be considered for publication.

Acceptance: Great news … the publisher decides to publish your work!

Rejection: Not such great news … the publisher decides not to publish your work.

Masthead: information in a newspaper or magazine that lists the staff and publisher’s address.

SASE: a self-addressed, stamped envelope, which should be included in all submissions.

Filed under: activities • teaching ideas • writing tips

How to write to an author

William Shakespeare

You can find a lot of information about authors on the computer. But nothing beats writing a real letter to a real author. If you write an author, you need to send your letter to the writer “in care of” his or her publisher.

Here’s how. Look in the hard-cover edition of the author’s book for the publisher’s address inside a book. Usually, the mailing address will be listed in the first few pages of the book.

Address the envelope to the author in care of the publisher. For example:

Author Mary Amato
c/o Holiday House, Inc.
425 Madison Ave.,
New York, NY 10017

Will an author write back? Some authors write personal letters in response. Others send printed material, such as a flyer about an upcoming book. Others receive too much mail to respond to all letters.

Here’s how to increase your chances of receiving a response:

Get the best publisher’s address for your author. Some books are published in hard cover by one publisher and reproduced in soft cover (paperback) by another publisher. Get the address of the hard-cover publisher because that’s the publisher who has a real relationship with the author. Also, choose the most recently published book to get the address from (even if it’s not your favorite book). If you get the address from a book that was published a long time ago, that publisher may no longer be in business.
Include a self-addressed stamped envelope for the author—that’s an envelope with your name and address (written neatly) and a stamp on it, ready to go. Make it easy for a busy author to respond.
Write a thoughtful, personal letter. Don’t just ask questions. Tell the author something about yourself and why you enjoyed his or her book. Writing is a lonely business. Authors enjoy hearing from readers. Your letter may inspire an author to keep writing!

Filed under: activities • teaching ideas

Mary Amato’s How to Make Mini-Books

Mini-book

Materials needed:

Heavy 8 ½ x 11″ 110-lb. paper, such as “heavy card stock” copier paper
Standard copier paper
Stapler
Black masking tape (optional)

To make the cover:

1. Cut card stock or heavy paper in half (lengthwise).

2. Cut into thirds.

The template below will give you an idea of how to cut and fold an 8 ½ x 11″ sheet of paper to make mini-books. One sheet of heavy weight paper will give you six book covers. One sheet of standard paper will give you six interior open sheets, which when folded makes a 24-page book (because you’re using both sides).

Template

3. Fold along fold lines (you should get six books for every sheet of 8 ½ x 11″ paper). Crease this well.

4. Put masking tape on fold of book to make binding (optional).

To make inside pages:

1. Follow instructions above for #1-3 using standard weight paper.

2. Place six open sheets inside one open cover. (Six open sheets will make a 24 page book. Use fewer sheets if desired.)

3. Staple along fold on outside of book.

Making the cover

4. Fold and enjoy!

Filed under: activities • teaching ideas

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