Creative Composers, Session 2 -- Center Valley -- August 12th

Here is our collaborative story we created by using Story Cubes...

One night I saw a UFO. An alien came out with a bow and arrow. He shot down all the pretty flowers and all that was left were weeds! With a magic key, he made new flowers because at first he didn't like flowers, but he had changed his mind. I was so freaked out tht I called 911 with my new cellphone. when the alien saw the police care, he teleported to Egypt. The police chased all the aliens and they landed by parachute. Then the aliens, who saw the police chasing them, ran to their spaceship and zipped out of planet Earth. When they were in their spaceship, they ate three apples. Just then, their burritos caught on fire (they had overheated in the oven powered by milk). Four beetles, which were on the spaceship, survived and hurtled back toward Earth, found some mini-guitars and a min-drum, and they became the Beatles!

Creative Composers, Session 2 -- Center Valley -- Day 8, August 11th

To get our minds working first thing in the morning, we played a game and used a mystery box to use adjectives to describe the contents that we could touch but not see. Later we worked with similes and a bit with metaphors. We revisited dialogue and watched a short video about the different uses of dialogue in our writing. There are so many different ways to say things!

The anthologies will be published in the fall. We prepared by practicing peer editing in a new way that was fun. Later, we went into the computer lab to edit and revise and to finish our pieces that we chose for the anthology that will be published in the fall.
We worked hard today, but we are just about ready!

EXHIBITION FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Please join us this Friday, August 13th at 11:15 a.m. for some light refreshments and a joyous celebration of the young writers' work!

Creative Composers, Session 2 -- Center Valley -- Day 7, August 10th

Today we brainstormed ideas for our writing. We used a smiley graphic organizer to help us think of things that make us laugh and things that make our eyes water. We saw that many of these things have some kind of story behind them that we can write about.

We also explored favorite author websites because they offer tips to help us become better writers. On one site, we saw how they turned a book into a movie. (We also liked the book trailers!)

We chose pieces for publishing for the anthology and worked in the computer lab.

EXHIBITION FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Please join us this Friday, August 13th at 11:15 a.m. for some light refreshments and a joyous celebration of the young writers' work!

Creative Composers, Session 2 -- Center Valley -- Day 6, August 9th

This post is by Auroni. Today we wrote what we would invent if we could and why we would invent that. And later on today, we made lists of what we don't like and what we do like in a limited time. We also played a game called Headbanz to show how we can be more descriptive in our writing and how we add enthusiasm. We wrote haikus and checked them together. A little bit later, we had our snacks in our classroom. As soon as we finished our snacks we went to the computer lab where we typed.

EXHIBITION FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Please join us this Friday, August 13th at 11:15 a.m. for some light refreshments and a joyous celebration of the young writers' work!

Creative Composers, Session 2 -- Center Valley -- Day 5, August 6th

Today we made a collaborative story which is when everyone makes a part of the story. As every day Peter wrote about cheese. We also did a I used to... but now I... poem which we shared with the class. Our teacher read a book called The Holes in Your Nose to show how you can write about anything and how details count! We discussed story beginnings, transition words, and endings --and including onomatopoeia even in the beginning of our stories. We talked about how we plan our stories with beginnings and include problems that should be solved at the end. Finally we went to the computer lab as usual to work on our stories and create new ones.

This post was collaboratively authored by Sahil and Peter.

Here is the story we wrote together and this is how it was done. Each of us thought up a word, wrote it down without showing it to anyone. We used the word in a sentence when the notebook was passed to us and that's when we could read what was written as a story so far. Here it is...

I was in the middle of eating some Swiss cheese when someone knocked on the door. It was an archer! It was so surprising! The archer was 99 years old and he was ancient. He was so hairy that if you shaved his hair, you could make a fuzzy sweater. His nose hair was very messy and that wasn't very nice. So, whenever he went swimming, he had to use a hair tie. He said to me "Please give whatever you can to whoever you can tomorrow and you will be rewarded." Then, he turned around and disappeared into thin air. Suddenly, Alexandra's true love showed up! It was like slow motion and then he tripped but jumped back up. So he decided to take a nap because he was very tired from all of that. When he woke up, he saw Alexandra in front of him. She asked him "Are you hungry?" He nodded, so she gave him some cheese. After he ate, he thanked her and after talking for awhile, he left for home. Then she chose some more cheese. This time she chose the AWESOME cheese. Suddenly she turned even more awesome and got together with her true love. They lived happily ever after.

Creative Composers, Session 2 -- Center Valley -- Day 4, August 5th

Today's blog post authors are Kevin and Haley.

Today we journaled about where we would go-- real or imaginary-- and what we'd take, who we'd bring along, and WHY.

Before it got hot, we went outside to share, peer edit, and discuss. (We had to be careful our papers didn't blow away with the wind!) This helped us brainstorm even more ideas for our writing. We talked about details and strong words and added them to our writing.

We went out again later to enjoy our snack outside and then came in to work in the computer lab to type what we wrote today and work on other pieces.

Ideas included;
cheese, flying trampolines, collecting different currencies, going to Boston, sisters, brothers, double-decker buses, and so much more!
Each camper worked on goals they wrote for the day.

Creative Composers, Session 2 -- Center Valley -- Day 3, August 4th

Wow! Are these creative campers!

Today campers explored concrete poems -- each camper thought of a topic, brainstormed words related to the topic, and then shaped a poem using those words. Each piece is a treasure!

We worked on cinquains and reviewed parts of speech and word choice. Campers are beginning to think about publishing for the anthology, which will surface in the fall.

We enjoyed working in the computer lab and sharing our ideas and pieces with our fellow campers.

Creative Composers, Session 2 -- Center Valley -- Day 2, August 3rd

Today we talked about strengthening our writing. In our search to power up our writing, we explored sentence variation and word choice. For sensory words, we ventured outside to observe our surroundings. We explored onomatopoeia (words that look like the sounds they make) and discussed ways we could use those words. We discussed what it means for a writer to take risks.

We read a book about a very young boy who helps a very old woman find her memories. We considered how feelings are attached to memories and how these influence our writing. We journaled about our own memories -- and everyone loved those fortune cookie prompts!

Creative Composers, Session 2 -- Center Valley -- Day 1, August 2nd

Campers spent time today getting to know one another. We enjoyed an activity called "Message in a Bottle" by answering questions about ourselves. Later we shared these and had fun guessing who authored each one. Lots of laughs! We also liked working in the computer lab, writing our stories on the new computers as well as saving our pieces to flash drives. We will keep the flash drives when camp ends.

Creative Composers -- Center Valley -- Day 10, July 30th

Today was our celebration. We had great fun displaying our work. We read a piece aloud to our parents.

Haley shared a story called The Case of the Milk Carton.
Dana read her piece about writing camp.
Calista read her poem about fighting with her sister.
And so many more!

As you can see, it has been another wonderful year at writing camp!

Thank you, Maya, for writing this post.

Creative Composers -- Center Valley -- Day 9, July 29th

Today we wrote:

• our final copies of Bubble poems,
• final invitations for our characters,
• descriptions for our puppets,
• final touches on our writing (in the computer lab), and
• found poems from looking at articles in newspapers.

This is one line from Maya's found poem called "Cranes":

three-feet tall, red-crowned birds.

Great job, Maya!

Today's post was authored by Sandhya and Aditi and no one else.

Creative Composers -- Center Valley -- Day 8, July 28th

Dana is today's willing writer of the blog. Thank you, Dana!

Today is Birthday Bash Wednesday in honor of Mrs. Rodgers's birthday.
Happy Birthday Mrs. Rodgers!

We filled out our journal activity that was a birthday guest list and activity page. We were entitled to three famous people to come to our party for two hours. Then, we started to write an invitation for a book character's birthday party. We planned activities for their birthday as well.

In the computer lab, we worked on some last-minute revising details. Some of us even got to the point where we got to save two pieces for the book that will be published in early October.

For poetry time we were inspired by bubbles. We blew them, watched them fly away. and then POP! Also, we wrote poems about how we were inspired by bubbles.

Today was a very fun day! I wonder what Mrs. Rodgers will think up for tomorrow.

Creative Composers -- Center Valley -- Day 7, July 27th

Today was Tough Tuesday...

We worked in groups revising each other's stories. During poetry, we worked on cinquain poems, which include nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

Brittany is working on a story about a girl who can talk to ghosts.

Aman is working on a story about campers who make toys for monkeys, but the toys get stolen by chimpanzees.

Sahil is working on a story about a guy who can freeze time.

Amazing! Today's blog post was authored by Calista, Haley, and Jordynn. Terrific job!

Creative Composers -- Center Valley -- Day 6, July 26th

Today was Mystery Monday! We talked all about mysteries. We even made our own mystery story.

In poetry, we described emotions with our senses.

Dana worked on a mystery that was about macaroni and cheese getting stolen.
Elyse is working on a stolen ring mystery.
Matthew worked on a baseball story.
Ben worked on a poem about something furious.

Today's blog authors are Lindsay, Priyanka, and Grace. Thanks, campers!

Creative Composers -- Center Valley -- Day 5, July 23rd

Today we went further into our superhero story, as well as drew our superheroes. We worked on a poem, "100% Me," which was about what we like to do. Also, we wrote in our journals about our favorite sports scenes.

Priyanka is working on a story about Healthy Girl, a superhero who goes around the world helping children's eating habits. Nice influence, Priyanka!

Aman's poem showed us that he enjoys sports and science. Good job!

Praneel wrote a creative sports scene about the IronPigs. It was a disappointing loss. Sounded realistic, Praneel!

Awesome job, campers! Have a wonderful weekend. See you again on Monday for more writing fun.

Creative Composers -- Center Valley -- Day 4, July 21st

Today we were at the brainstorming stage of our superhero stories. The campers had great ideas and got really far in their work.

Here are two lines of Maya's poem:

I never scream or kick,
but I might shed a tear or two.

Aditi wrote about her superhero, Write Girl, and her sidekick, Write Boy. This story sounds COOL!

Grace wrote about superhero powers in school...

Super Knowledge and Teacher Disintegrator.

LOOK OUT WORLD!

Today's post authors: Praneel, Aman, and Sahil. Terrific job!

Creative Composers -- Center Valley -- Day 3, July 21st

We finished our puppets and did further work on dialogue, specifically working on the mechanics of dialogue, such as grammar. We ended our day by creating poems based on our favorite childhood toy, including some of the the nice and not-so-nice adventures we had with our toys. Jordynn, who especially liked her computer time today, wrote about Cubby, her white stuffed toy -- not so white anymore since it was showered with love!

Creative Composers -- Center Valley -- Day 2, July 20th

Today we journaled and shared our favorite writing pieces. We also explored dialgue and poetry. We worked on editing and revising our work using the computer.

Ben's "Star Man" reminded us that the words "to be continued..." can be quite a cliffhanger! Great use of dialogue, Ben!

Sandhya's "Pets That I Want" not only demonstrated her love of animals, but also her creative use of numbers within her poetry.
10 hamsters...
9 cats....
8 dogs...
7 guinea pigs...

Well done, Sandhya!

Dana brought in a piece that she wrote during the school year. Her story was about a girl named Molly who fell into a ditch in the park. In the ditch she found a dog -- a Collie-- that she could keep forever. Your heart was in that piece, Dana!