Another enjoyable prompt that I did with my students was in response to;
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/05/19/080519sh_shouts_handey
Every student had to write a poem about the symbols that they would put on their flag with explanations for each of them. Who says the New Yorker is too pretentious to use in an 8th grade classroom? This is mine...I would love to read yours!
My Flag
By Andrew Fersch
My flag has many symbols
no single one more valuable than the next
A box of Kleenex
emotions are alright, go ahead and let them out
A multi-colored slinky
be flexible (and look cool while doing it)
A cold pizza being put into a microwave
don’t be wasteful, especially when it comes to pizza
A hippopotamus
even things that seem harmless totally want to eat you sometimes
A broken down car
don’t rely on technology (too much)
A rack of ribs
ribs are delicious and I had them for dinner last night
An astronaut’s helmet
Explore the world, there’s some neat stuff out there
There were more -
But I went exploring in Africa
A hippo charged me and knocked some of the symbols off my flag
That’s when I added him to it
So maybe that is more valuable than the rest.