[Mentor Text Monday] Creative Collections--more from UPPERCASE Magazine

Last week I talked about using UPPERCASE Magazine and their focus on "sticky things" as mentor texts. I also alluded to the fact that I would use more from this magazine.

While the theme of this issue is collage, there is a "Creative Challenge" on page 75 that suggests collecting artifacts. There is a great page on which you can cut and paste images physically or digitally.

From UPPERCASE: In our current issue, we provided a page with an image of an empty typecase. Since this is our collage and assemblage-themed issue, we encourage you to glue and modify this page, take a picture or scan of it and send it to us!

The process of collecting items, like in the abecedary in the previous post, has many possibilities in the classroom.

The UPPERCASE blog is showcasing reader collections.  Here are some of my favorite--with an eye to teaching possibilities:

Another creative challenge submission! This box of treasured things is by Lisa Fitzhugh of Wideyed.

Read Vanda Vilela submitted her response to our earlier creative challenge.  Thank you to all who submitted over the past couple of months. I guess it is time I issued a new challenge! I will be posting all the open calls for participation very soon.

Kathryn Cole submitted this one: "Inspired by your call for creating a shadow box, I created one with my favourite shells that I collected at the my favourite beach in Florida and some fresh roses from my yard."

UPPERCASE subscriber Cornelis vanSpronsen writes: 

"I received my copy of UPPERCASE today and was immediately inspired to respond to the creative challenge on page 75. For many years my wife and I have collected special mementos that were both of great importance as well as those that were memorable for just a small moment in time. This is some of that collection. Going through these is like leafing through a photo album but only better because there are memories attached to these things that photos could never capture."

As springboards for writing, illustrations for published pieces, or even the act of collecting and labeling as a writing task. I am tickled by the idea of this simple wooden type case and the fun of filling it up.

Some of us are participating in a photographic collection--SDAWP Photo Voices. On a weekly or monthly basis, we curate our images from a designated time period and display them in a collection (of one or many). Previously I've collected images on symmetry,  the color green, and the color yellow (I did well with colors).

For the month of October, we have the theme "writing." Oddly, I've struggled. Combining my SDAWP Photo Voices theme and this idea of collections, here is my "writing" collection so far:

Where do you think you take this in your classroom? What collections do you have or would you have? How would you fill in this amazing wooden typecase?