Education
Time Out
A Writing Prompt for Kids (of all ages)
One of the many reasons I love teaching is the “excuse” it offers to learn. Enter an opportune excuse through the lens of time.
Time is more than a ticking clock and numbers on a calendar.
It’s a waiting seed, a blooming flower, a growing tree, a growing you.
The above magical words are from the gifted mind of author and illustrator, Julie Morstad. Fun fact: the award-winning illustrator, Vancouver-based talent illustrated a stamp for the Canada post — how cool is that?!
Time is…What?
While we are on this ever-spinning planet Earth, an elusive, unstoppable force is occurring: the passage of time.
Sure, we can measure it with our clocks and calculators. We can qualify the passage of time with the accumulation of lines etched in our skin.
But time, as a concept, is a human construct.
We don’t see kangaroos or dogs running to catch a bus or make a meeting. No ants are lying in bed, anticipating the first day of school or their wedding day.
We come into this world without the construct of time. Time is taught to us. Before we are introduced to the march-and-measurement of time, we are blissfully dwelling in the ever-now.
As we age, responsibilities arrive with time:
“It’s due now.”
“My car needs to be serviced tomorrow.”
“The mortgage is paid the 2nd Tuesday of every month.”
As we age, so too, time quantifies our expectations:
“I’ll go on a diet after the New Year.”
“I’ll finish that manuscript before I’m thirty.”
“I need to have a child before it’s too late.”
Time: The Silent Speaker
To make matters even more complicated, Time doesn’t speak. Since it is a human construct, it exists in our world but doesn’t actually say or do anything.
Time regularly eludes us. It is the great hide-and-seek of Life.
Is it any wonder we find ourselves asking:
Where did the time go?
How much longer until we’re there?
When will the pain go away?
Yet, we humans continue to chase time, hungry for more — or less — depending on the situation. We try to:
- play with time
- buy time
- make up for lost time
- remember a time
Deep down, when we allow ourselves to grow quiet, the truth hits us:
Now is all we have.
Teaching Time
Nope. I’m not writing about the literal hands of time here. The hour and minute hands are relatively straightforward — like most things created by human minds.
The concept of time itself is the fun writing prompt I’m sharing.
If we adults have a challenging time making sense of the figurative sands through the hourglass, how easy it the concept for kids?
Time is a Flower
The eponymous sub-title above is the actual title of Julie Morstad’s children’s book.
Time is a Flower uses powerful imagery (both through illustrations and words) to articulate the enigma of Time.
Morstad’s book explores the idea of time through the lens of nature and shapes, choices and activities. Make no mistake: this picture book is a philosophical symphony for the soul.
Time: a Writing Prompt
What does time mean to you? How does its effect color and shape your world?
My Take on Time:
Time is the calculation of cells multiplying to form Life
Time is the replay button of regret
Time is growing pains on body and soul
Time is an ever-changing melody plucking the strings of my heart
What is your take on time?
Ideas for Teachers
Looking for ideas to get your students’ waxing creative? Young writers can:
- sketch an hour glass and put words associated with Time (to them) throughout the image.
- create a personified poem about Time
- write/sketch a comic strip of themselves through Time regarding the chronology of their own lives
- sketch a flower with each petal filled with words relating to a Time specific event (i.e. seasons, life cycle)
Tagging some talented writers and educators to consider the writing prompt — no pressure:-)
Aiden Writes pockett dessert Fatma Yazıcı Katherine Myrestad Joejohn Black Jan Sebastian 🖐👩🦰 David Perlmutter Neha Sonney, Speaker Ravyne Hawke Carolyn Hastings Ossiana Tepfenhart Jason Edmunds