Using Inkblots to Spark Ideas

In writing these days, our lessons often come back to how we can generate ideas of what to write about. So often, I hear "but I don't know what to write". We often brainstorm ways we can fix that writer's block and one of the ideas that always comes up is: just using our imagination.

So putting that to the test, we did an activity where they put little dots toward the middle of a piece of paper (you want to make sure they avoid the edges or it will squeeze out) of all different colors. I wanted it to be random, not that they were planning to make a butterfly or something. We folded the paper smushing the paint and voila! we had an inkblot design. The assignment was to use that image in a short poem. Many turned them round and round for some time, some saw their idea right away. Here's what they came up with:

My favorite one:

A lady angry, all day angry, angry

 So mean, like a witch

Witch green, green

nani-nani-boo-boo

When I play hide-and-seek, I say nani-nani-boo-boo

and run away.

A flying fish

A bighorn sheep

                                                        My dog is purple but also green, how can that be?

Brain

Go up up up, come down down down

Go up again and believe your life.