Sample Writing Activities

This is a sample from one 14 sections in the Writing Activities Booklet. The student(s) can listen to the song, read along with the reading booklet, and then do one of the following writing activities. Because the songs are so enjoyable, students (of all ages) enjoy hearing them again, and again. Different writing activities can be used for each "listen".

These writing activities can of course be adapted for any theme, and other writing exercises can be used for the Coconut Moon songs as well. 

Wringer Washing Machine  

(Background: This song is about a true experience. My grandma washed my uncle's jeans when he was a young boy. He'd been out collecting frogs, and she forgot to check the pockets. She said, "The frog got washed once, rinsed twice, and then got wrung out. Boy it sure made a big pop!" She turned green for two reasons: she felt ill, and there was frog all over her. (Guess who got to clean out the pocket!) This is a photo of her wringer washing machine.

1. Write a letter to Granny explaining your concerns about the pocket problem.

2. Write and conduct a debate as to whose responsibility it is to wash the clothes and check the pockets. Whose fault was it that the frog died?

3. Write a eulogy for the frog.

4. Describe the events in a newspaper article. Answer the questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

5. Write 5 possible titles for this song. Why did Kitty choose this one? What do titles do? Could there be a better one for the song?

6. Write an advertisement/label for a fantastic soap you invented that will get out weird stains from your jeans.

7. Pretend you are Granny and write your autobiography.

8. Write a timeline of the events that happened with the wringer washing machine.

9. Draw and write a cartoon of the frog incident.

10. Write a conversation (dialogue) between Granny and you about the frog incident. Write and act a play about the song.

11. Write a joke about the frog incident. (What’s blue and green and has 6 legs? A pair of jeans with a squished frog in the pocket.)

12. Write a prophecy (fortune teller or horoscope or fortune cookie) of what will happen to Granny today.

13. Draw a wanted poster for Granny or the main character. Describe their crime.

14. Pretend you are a talk show host/ess. What would you ask Granny and the main character? What would they say back?

15. Write an argument for/against having to do your own laundry/chores.

16. Write about a situation where you had something important to you wrecked. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? What did you do about it?

1   7. Write a poem about what happens in the washing machine. Use your senses.

     8. Interview someone who used a wringer washing machine (someone older). Do they remember something going through the wringer that shouldn't have?

19. Write a comparison (Venn Diagram) of wringer washing machines and modern washing machines. Which are better? Why? (My granny always preferred the wringer washing machine because she says they got clothes cleaner.)

20. Write (seek and give, Anne Landers style) advice to the family on how to avoid these pocket problems.

21. Pretend you are the frog and write your autobiography, or a timeline of important events in your life.

22. Write a story about a frog who has nine lives.

23. Write an additional stanza for the song.

24. Write your own song about a washing machine or pocket experience (or another time you got in trouble!)  

25. Write and alphabetize things that could be put in your pocket.

26. Play a memory game with words of things that could be put in your pocket.

27. Write a list of other very strange things that could be found in pockets (don't be gross!).