Today when we showed up at Kidswrite, we started our day out by going outside and stretching to make our blood flow to our brains like a river flows into a lake. After we did stretches, we came inside and worked on examples of figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, and onomatopoeias. Figurative language helps make your work of writing more descriptive. We use figurative language in our everyday speech, and today we learned how to put it into our writing. After we finished that, we split up into groups and worked on our plays we have been writing. Then we went outside to perform our plays. Outside, it was as hot as a sauna on the sun. The sweat trickled down our backs, and the sun glared down at us in anger. When the performance was over, we couldn't wait to come inside and drink our ice cold lemonade. Phew! What a day!
Written by: Payton, Darcy, Keith, Karim, and Megan
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
June 28, 2011 "Dialogue"
“I like the suspense of our quick write, because it allowed us to form us new ideas like having different occupations.”
“I dislike when people were talking over us while we were reading our master pieces.”
“I liked how Joy Fox taught us how to relax not only our bodies, but our minds.”
“I agree, and I also liked her shadowing technique for helping us explore the two sides of a subject.”
“I related to the fact that writers should be open to two sides of a subject.”
“That’s why I don’t like when writers aren’t open to different ideas.”
“I also loved how people were so devoted to writing during lunch.”
“Well, I cherished the play practices.”
“Me too, but I wished that we would have had more time to work on our plays.”
“I think that we both agree that everyone enjoyed Jessica’s wonderful cookies.”
“Mmmmmmm, delicious! OF COURSE, I agree.”
“ However, I think we also agree that we hate today’s adventure has to end.”
Today’s blog was written by:
Hannah, Jessica S., Matthew, and Sam
Monday, June 27, 2011
June 27, 2011 "Playwriting"
We will have an end of camp celebration at Jose's Mexican Restaurant on Dickson St. on Friday. We'll meet for lunch at 11:30. Following lunch, the Kidswrite participants will perform some of their favorite pieces from camp. Family and friends are encouraged to attend. We will provide lunch for the Kidswrite students, but everyone else will be responsible for their own tabs. After the performance, your child can ride home with you or go back to the Kidswrite room with the instructors for the rest of the day. We hope to see you there!
Setting: The Kidswrite classroom
Situation: The students brains are at work.
Scene 1
Instructor-- Oh, kids let's go outside and stretch. Touch your toes and reach high in the sky. Pretend you are reaching for something you want.
Student 1-- Ughh! I got it!
Instructor-- Let's go back inside and start our quick write.
Scene 2
Instructor--Kids, we have been hard at work on our quick write about having ten minutes stretched to a day. We wanted you to have concrete description. Does anyone want to share?
Student 1-- I made mine about riding a bike.
Student2-- I made mine about having an after school snack.
Scene 3
Instructor-- We brainstormed characters and broke into groups to make a play. What are your plays about?
Student 1-- Ours is a Harry Potter fan fiction. The boys wrote their play about aliens.
Student 2-- And ours is a romantic tragic comedy.
Student 1--Can we practice?
Instructor-- Sure!
Scene 4
Instructor-- We will now write a monologue. You will choose an occupation, a place, and a desire to write about.
(Everyone writes for fifteen minutes.)
Instructor-- All right. What did you come up with?
Student 1-- Mine was a tax collector going to Willy Wonka's factory, and he wants a giant gummy bear.
Student 2--Mine was about an artist wanting to go to Paris to draw the Eiffel Tower.
Scene 5
Instructor-- Okay, we will do response groups and author's chair now.
Class-- Yay!
The End
By Madeline, Qi, Andrew, Olivia, and Jessica D.
Setting: The Kidswrite classroom
Situation: The students brains are at work.
Scene 1
Instructor-- Oh, kids let's go outside and stretch. Touch your toes and reach high in the sky. Pretend you are reaching for something you want.
Student 1-- Ughh! I got it!
Instructor-- Let's go back inside and start our quick write.
Scene 2
Instructor--Kids, we have been hard at work on our quick write about having ten minutes stretched to a day. We wanted you to have concrete description. Does anyone want to share?
Student 1-- I made mine about riding a bike.
Student2-- I made mine about having an after school snack.
Scene 3
Instructor-- We brainstormed characters and broke into groups to make a play. What are your plays about?
Student 1-- Ours is a Harry Potter fan fiction. The boys wrote their play about aliens.
Student 2-- And ours is a romantic tragic comedy.
Student 1--Can we practice?
Instructor-- Sure!
Scene 4
Instructor-- We will now write a monologue. You will choose an occupation, a place, and a desire to write about.
(Everyone writes for fifteen minutes.)
Instructor-- All right. What did you come up with?
Student 1-- Mine was a tax collector going to Willy Wonka's factory, and he wants a giant gummy bear.
Student 2--Mine was about an artist wanting to go to Paris to draw the Eiffel Tower.
Scene 5
Instructor-- Okay, we will do response groups and author's chair now.
Class-- Yay!
The End
By Madeline, Qi, Andrew, Olivia, and Jessica D.
Friday, June 24, 2011
June 24, 2011 "Monologues"
(This is a day in the life of a Kidswrite journal.)
Sitting on the table, I hear people chatting all around me. Then, I hear a new voice. Miss Ellie introduces him to the class. His name is Mike Thomas. He's an actor, a playwright, a director, and a teacher.
I am now being flipped open, and the kids have been told to make an inanimate object have a voice. My kid starts scribbling furiously on me and it tickles. Stories of water bottles, gum wrappers, trash cans, and fire alarms come to life on the pages of my brothers and sisters. This was actually pretty fun!
After Mr. Thomas talks to us about how to write monologues and plays, some of those silly Kidswriters went to the front of the room for improv games. They had to communicate by using only questions. It was pretty weird. While the kids enjoyed the improv games, I felt lonely and betrayed sitting on the desk and not being used.
All of a sudden, I am lifted into the air. What's happening? Where am I going? Whew, it's hot out here. I'm afraid I'm going to start sweating and my pages are going to stick together.
As we enter the student union, I feel cooler. The aroma of French fries, fried chicken, tacos, and pizza greets us. I'm thrown onto a table and trays of food are piled on top of me. Feeling neglected and mistreated, I shout, "Hey, I can't breathe. Open me and write in me some more." The kids can't hear me through all the chattering of diners and the growling of their stomachs.
Finally, I'm tickled again by my buddy, Bic Pen. He's penning a review of the place, "greasy rice with a hint of salt and spice", "the food puts a smile on my face", "the meat in the sandwich tastes like tofu, like nothing", "mumbling voices surround me", and "the pizza from Mama Logan's is exquisite" while "the chicken from Chick-fil-A is extraordinary".
Again, I'm scooped from the table and carried away on a new adventure. This time, I'm taken to the lobby of the union to use my senses to get ideas for dialogue. My owner keeps acting like a secret agent, listening to people's conversations and creating stories.
By the end of the day, I feel used and loved. I'm worn out like I need tape to hold in my secrets. This morning I couldn't wait to be used, but now I need a break.
Written by: Darcy, Megan, Payton, Keith, and Karim
Thursday, June 23, 2011
June 23, 2011- Poetry
On the last day of camp (July 1st), we will be having a luncheon and celebration at Jose's Mexican restaurant on Dickson St. at 11:30 am. We will provide lunch for the kids, but everyone else will be responsible for their tickets. After lunch, the kids will perform some of their pieces.
Poem About Today
Kidswrite started at 9 o' clock.
Everyone was tired and didn't talk,
So we went outside and did some stretches.
Then we were ready to start the lessons.
Case Dighero came. He's a restaurant writer.
He is very famous. He's a hunger fighter.
We all were excited to get some lunch,
So we bunched together then went to munch.
After lunch, it was poetry time.
We sat at our desks and created great rhymes.
Picture poetry was right after.
It was accompanied by fun and laughter.
Then it was time to creatively write.
This filled our hearts with such delight.
by: Hannah, Chloe, Matthew, Samuel, and Jessica S.
Poem About Today
Kidswrite started at 9 o' clock.
Everyone was tired and didn't talk,
So we went outside and did some stretches.
Then we were ready to start the lessons.
Case Dighero came. He's a restaurant writer.
He is very famous. He's a hunger fighter.
We all were excited to get some lunch,
So we bunched together then went to munch.
After lunch, it was poetry time.
We sat at our desks and created great rhymes.
Picture poetry was right after.
It was accompanied by fun and laughter.
Then it was time to creatively write.
This filled our hearts with such delight.
by: Hannah, Chloe, Matthew, Samuel, and Jessica S.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
June 22, 2011 "Plot"
*Friday we will be having lunch at the Student Union. Student's may bring money to purchase lunch there or may bring a sack lunch.
Attention Grabber
We stretched high in the air, breeze flowing through our arm pits. We stretched our bodies and our minds. Then feeling refreshed and stretched, we work on our quick write. We start on our who, where, and why quick write. An example is: A boy named Dean, who lives in L.A and his closet is empty because he is going to a surfing contest in Maui.
Exposition
Characters have a big impact on our Kidswrite Students’ for we believe every day is a story and we are the characters. Our setting is East Maple and our situation is that we want to learn how to write creatively.
Rising Action
Our rising action is that we read a story and 2 conflicts were that there was a cobra under the table and the men thought that the women are scared of everything. However, in the resolution we found that the hostess knew there was a cobra in the room the whole time.
The Climax
The climax was our lunch. At lunch we were socializing and we learned about each character. We continue with our imagination and share our ideas.
Falling Action
The falling action was that we learned about our speaker for tomorrow by reading his food article and added Descriptive, Review and Magazine articles to our genre list. Then we talked about conflict and played a mind stretching activity. We learned about Man vs. Etc. After that we chilled out and had our snacks and lemonade.
Resolution
Our resolution is that we did revision for 10 minutes. We then moved on to our response groups. Now we are ending the day with an article for our blog.
Today’s Blog was written by:
Olivia, Madeline, Jessica, Qi, and Andrew
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
June 21, 2011 "Setting"
Today we learned about appealing to the senses in our writing and how to make our setting writings descriptive.
The walk down to the Fayetteville Public Library was interesting yet very painful. As we followed behind Mr. Brian like ducklings up and down Fayetteville's hills we were assigned to notice everything surrounding us. Bees were zipping past our ears and college students were glued to their phones. Workers were shouting and fire alarms were sounding in the distance.
The Fayetteville Public Library smells old fashion. But it has a lot of great books that i could read. It's like im in book land and the computers are awesome. The pillars are very well designed. Also, the chairs are extremely comfy. There is a x-box and a x-box connect also there is a wii. They sound really fun.
We passed by the farmers market with an aroma of onions. Our class bought a few things here and there, but mostly sun flowers. We sat down to add on to our poems about scenery. Here is a list of the things that they were selling: cucumbers, zuchinni, sweet onions, small cabbage, new potatos, sun flowers and raddishes.
On our walk back to the building we stopped at the garden next to the Walton Arts Center. Tiered rocks sat in rows neatly and specifically placed. The green grass blew in the light breeze while people were walking past the garden with out noticing its simple beauty. Trees swayed with the breeze, dancing in the wind until we had to leave.
After a long day of walking to all these amazing places we were happy to get back inside the building. When we first stepped foot in the building there was a sigh of relief as we felt the cold air touch our skins. The room is a perfect place to write. It is quiet, not to hot and not to cold, just perfect. The room is not to crowded, 8 tables fit in there comfortably. Like I said the room is a comfortable and relaxing place to write.
Today's blog was written by:
Payton, Megan, Darcy, Keith, Karim
The walk down to the Fayetteville Public Library was interesting yet very painful. As we followed behind Mr. Brian like ducklings up and down Fayetteville's hills we were assigned to notice everything surrounding us. Bees were zipping past our ears and college students were glued to their phones. Workers were shouting and fire alarms were sounding in the distance.
The Fayetteville Public Library smells old fashion. But it has a lot of great books that i could read. It's like im in book land and the computers are awesome. The pillars are very well designed. Also, the chairs are extremely comfy. There is a x-box and a x-box connect also there is a wii. They sound really fun.
We passed by the farmers market with an aroma of onions. Our class bought a few things here and there, but mostly sun flowers. We sat down to add on to our poems about scenery. Here is a list of the things that they were selling: cucumbers, zuchinni, sweet onions, small cabbage, new potatos, sun flowers and raddishes.
On our walk back to the building we stopped at the garden next to the Walton Arts Center. Tiered rocks sat in rows neatly and specifically placed. The green grass blew in the light breeze while people were walking past the garden with out noticing its simple beauty. Trees swayed with the breeze, dancing in the wind until we had to leave.
After a long day of walking to all these amazing places we were happy to get back inside the building. When we first stepped foot in the building there was a sigh of relief as we felt the cold air touch our skins. The room is a perfect place to write. It is quiet, not to hot and not to cold, just perfect. The room is not to crowded, 8 tables fit in there comfortably. Like I said the room is a comfortable and relaxing place to write.
Today's blog was written by:
Payton, Megan, Darcy, Keith, Karim
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