2009

SUMMER YOUTH WRITING CAMPS

WRITE FOR FUN AT OUR MORNING AND AFTERNOON CAMPS!

For more information, call 610-285-5231or visit our Web site

New curriculum and programming every year!

9th Day of Writing Camps, 7/30

Picture of the day

THURSDAY

Check out the groovy green posts below to catch today's highlights!

Reader's Theatre

Today we enjoyed preparing for Friday's play by having a dress rehearsal! See the slideshow for a sneak preview of all of us in costume!

Wanna-Be Writers

We spent the day polishing our writing and getting ready to publish . We printed our final copies and practiced reading our stories and poems.

8th Day of Writing Camps, 7/29

Picture of the day...


WEDNESDAY


Enjoy the panther pink posts below for today's highlights!

Digital Storytelling

Wednesday, 7/28/08
Today, we examined how to write to a picture prompt. Using the five Ws (who, what, when, where, and why) help us to give the necessary content and create movies in our readers’/listeners’ minds. And, once again, we continued to work on our digital stories by using the Audacity and Windows Movie Maker programs. Some have already completed their projects and are moving on to a second one—impressive!


For Tuesday, 7/27/09
Today we learned about the importance of style in our writing. We learned that the words we choose to use, how long our sentences are, and our writing voices make us own our writing and make it unique. Looking at each other’s shoes helped us understand that each person has his or her own style in just about everything we do, and writing is no exception! We also continued to put all of the many elements of our projects together, with everyone helping our classmates all the way through.

Wanna-Be Writers

Wanna-Be Writers wrote poetry from music. We also prepared our writing for publication. Each writer shared something from his or her writing.

We practiced reading loudly, slowly, and clearly.

7th day of Writing Camps, 7/28

Picture of the day...

TUESDAY

It is hard to believe we are already in our 7th day of camp! Check out the popping purple posts below for a glimpse into today's activities!

College-Bound

Revising, editing...groan...all the pieces the kids have written got a fresh look. New intros and new conclusions have been adapted.

Newspaper poetry -- wow! Some great pieces with pizazz!

More SAT prompts -- getting better with practice. Practice makes perfect!

Creative Composers - 1

Today we discovered that adjectives are like chocolate chip cookies. We wrote limericks and a short story. We used 5 random words from the dictionary.

We also worked on revision and revised one piece, discussing

• what we liked,
• any questions we had,
• and what we wanted to know more about.
  

Wanna-Be Writers

Wanna-Be Writers shared some of their favorite poems and wrote some of their own. They continued writing their stories with a focus on concrete nouns and description.

6th day of Writing Camp

Picture of the day!

Monday

Read the ruby red posts below for today's camp highlights!

Author Adventures

Today we wrote stories about pictures that were handed out, Then, we read them aloud. My pictures -- I had three of them -- were like this:

• One picture was about a little boy who got an aquarium.
• Another showed him putting the aquarium together with his mom.
• The third picture showed the boy watching the fish with his mom.

My story was about a little boy who was very happy he got 5 fish!

This post was written by Author Adventure Camper, Elyse.

Great work Elyse and fellow campers!

College-Bound

First SAT Prompt today! Yes, the college-bound students were off and writing their first SAT prompt today. They first looked at what made a 6 essay, and then brainstormed ideas. Most of the students did a good job on their first one, although they did not like the time constraints.

The kids took time out from heavy duty work to send some Messages in Bottles. Fun replies!

Creative Composers - 1

Today was Monster Monday! We each drew a monster and used words to describe it. We checked the accuracy of our chosen describing words by asking another camper to draw the monster that we described. This was a blast! Each monster had two different pictures -- did they look alike?

Check out the photo of the day to see how we did!

But that's not all. We also wrote fairy tales and worked in the computer lab. Awesome!

Creative Composers - 2

We explored sentence combining to improve writing style. We also looked at Pennsylvania's scoring guide for the 5 writing domains. Anushka and Sneha are making great progress with their third chapter of their story. Terrific job, campers!

Digital Storytelling

Today, Hansel and Gretel helped us examine the importance of organization in our writing. We created new beginnings for tired, old fairy tales. During writer's workshop, some of us continued to write and revise our digital stories; other continued laying down a voice track. We were also introduced to Windows Movie Maker, the program we are going to use to put together our digital stories.

Reader's Theatre

Today we began by creating personal crowns and performed Royal Simon Says. We enjoyed playing charades. In the computer lab, we revised last week's writing.

The following is written by Reader's Theatre camper, Lindsey:

We did a play called The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. We each got a script to read. We looked at theatrical language. We made invitations to our play of Cinderella Big Foot.

Before we left, we wrote a reflection of the day --

• what was challenging
• what was fun
• something I learned

Bravo, Lindsey and fellow campers!

Science Writers

Today we ventured out to the lawn to tie-dye our Penn State youth camp shirts (we liked being able to use these!). We chose from different patterns -- bulls-eye, diagonals, spirals, and stripes -- and enjoyed predicting what each of ours will look like. Claire and Lauren wrote books about tie-dye. Lauren's book was an informational book on tie-dye while Claire's was a story.

We're looking forward to doing some typing and more writing in the computer lab tomorrow.

Great job, Science Writers!

Wanna-Be Writers

Wanna-Be Writers read and wrote some poetry. We took a walk outside, made notes of what saw, and wrote about that. We also wrote more on our stories. Tomorrow we will bring in poems that we like.

5th Day of Writing Camps, 7/24

Picture of the day!

Friday

Check out the Penn State Blue posts below for today's camp highlights!

College-Bound

The day started off with the daily discussion about a quote by Beatrix Potter and continued with the college essay revisions. Break time was enjoyable thanks to the Munchkins and the Quadruple Chocolate Chip cookies that Gabriella C. brought in to share with the rest of the group. After the break, we got the chance to use our creativity to compose pieces of writing inspired by the interesting display of “show and tell” items. With plenty of time to work, input from the other students and a relaxed atmosphere, we were able to have a great time and be productive! --- Neha A.

Creative Composers - 1

Today was a fantastic, fabulous Friday. We wrote a poem about what bugged us, like bugs, siblings, and some friends. As a special treat we took a field trip to the vending machines.

In stations, we –
• made magnetic poems
• finished (or tried to finish) our fractured fairy tales

We played word games, including Scrabble, Upword, Bananagrams, and Scrabble Up.
We also revised our poetry.

In the computer lab, we –
• wrote
• enjoyed font Friday
• inserted clipart

And…WE WROTE THIS POST!

Digital Storytelling

We continued to revise our pieces by having our peers and Mr. Horn help us out. We went to Magnatunes.com to pick our perfect music for our stories. We then began laying down our vocal tracks. Finally, we learned how to organize our different files to prevent them from being messy like Mr. Horn’s!

Reader's Theatre

Today we talked about fairy tales and made puppets. We also created character resumes based on our personal favorite fairy tale characters. On Monday, we will continue to work on our written pieces, as well as a short reader’s theatre, where we can look forward to bringing our puppets from page to stage. This is a nice preparation for Tuesday, when our play for the end of the week will be introduced.

Science Writers

Today, our science writers made ice cream! They wrote stories, letters, and poems about ice cream.

Wanna-Be Writers

Wanna-Be Writers wrote about seasons, developed similes and metaphors comparing themselves to pine trees, limes, the color teal, and foxes, among other things. They created a list of cool sounding words (ravishing, narcissistic, portabella mushroom burgers). We also continued to expand their stories.

4th Day of Writing Camps, 7/23

Picture of the day...

THURSDAY

Check out the glowing posts below for today's camp highlights!

Author Adventures

Today we explored acrostic poems. We wrote four of these and illustrated the last one. In fact, the last one was quite special. It was inspired by the Nittany Lion statue that visited our room this morning!

College-Bound

Eleven students all in a row...writing essays on thoughts they know.

"Oh, wow! We are so cool! Our writing really does rule!"

Friday is almost here...party, new friends, weekend near.

Creative Composers - 1

Today we began working with fractured fairy tales. We are beginning to use words that classmates chose in magnetic poetry! Each of us created a meal for someone they love -- revenge meals were allowed, too -- which spiced things up a bit!

Creative Composers - 2

Today we explored the Famous Mystery Box. We described what we felt inside and then each of us drew our perceptions of the mystery object inside. This was no easy task. For example, after feeling one mystery object, we could determine it was hard and not soft and squishy. We described it as having a capital C on one end, being long and straight in the middle, and having the letter O shape at the other end.

Did you guess what the mystery object was?

A wrench!

Today we also continued our writing in the computer lab, strengthening our stories. We are looking forward to tomorrow!

Digital Storytelling

Today we chose which types of digital stories to do for our projects. Some campers are making commercials, some are putting together personal narratives. Still, some campers are taking their own pictures, while some using their own drawings!

We wrote and wrote and then began revising. We also investigated some websites for music and sound effects to use.

Reader's Theatre

Campers enjoyed another action-packed day! Each acted in a tableau, maintaining a pose from a story, while the audience guessed which story. They also acted in and videotaped their infomercials! What a blast!

Science Writers

Campers demonstrated Newton's Third Law by making balloon rockets. They also tested bottled water and identified the unknown water sample.

Wanna-Be Writers

Today we wrote from pictures. Students developed interesting stories based on photographs they selected. Afterwards, we conferred on stories students were writing and discussed "signal" or "changing" events that we could write about.

3rd Day of Writing Camps, 7/22

Picture of the day...

WEDNESDAY

Highlights of today's events rest in the ruby red posts below.

Enjoy!

Creative Composers - 1

Campers paired two animals together to create a brand new animal, which they named. They wrote about habitat and food, incorporating details into their writing.

Today we also worked on revision and ways that we can add additional details into a piece. As an example, we used the 100% Me poem. We also came up with more adjectives and adverbs to use for magnetic poetry.

Digital Storytelling

We finished up our first (goofy!) Photo Story 3 project by adding dialogue, music, and transitions. We brainstormed our own stories to tell digitally. Last, we learned about the writing domain of content, which is, as Peter Elbow says, "creating movies in the minds of those who hear our stories."

Reader's Theatre

Today we talked about writing dialogue. We learned about giving stage directions, then we worked hard together to write our first scripts!

We took advantage of the nice summer weather to do our read-aloud. Also, we put our ideas down in the computer lab!

Science Writers

Science Writers investigated acids and bases by using litmus paper, pH paper, and natural dye. They wrote letters describing how acids give foods a sour taste.

Wanna-Be Writers

We wrote a lot about a place where we lived or went to school.

To critique for revision, we learned the ARMS:

Add
Remove
Move
Substitute

We helped Mr. Van Doren revise his writing. Also, we did a personal space/body language exercise.

2nd Day of Writing Camps, 7/21

Picture of the day...

TUESDAY

Today we enjoyed our second day of writing camp! Grab a hold of the groovy green posts below for a glimpse into today's activities!

Author Adventures

Campers practiced illustrating with simple drawings. We met Beatrix Potter and read Peter Rabbit.

College-Bound

Brainstorming! Super discussions! Writing! Today, taking ideas from two videos and the excerpt from Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind, the kids began a persuasive piece written to the Secretary of Ed, school administrators, College Board, etc. Left brain/right brain assessments were completed and shared. Good to see that even the teachers have a whole brain!

Creative Composers - 1

Today campers wrote a poem, 100% Me.

We explored magnetic poetry and parts of speech.

Also, we imagined being stranded somewhere and how we would feel.

Creative Composers - 2

Today we practiced tips for style, using a cool sentence tip. We talked about similes and voice. Also, we read Lon Po Po and talked about elements of the plot.

Digital Storytelling

Today we learned that writing is like a wild river: it starts out, twists and turns, and ends up in a totally different place. We learned about storyboarding and how we can rearrange images to play with time and order within a story. We searched for images online and made sure we complied with copyright laws. Finally, using Windows Photo Story 3, we began creating a digital story for a really bad story by Mr. Horn!

Reader's Theatre

Today we explored the non-fiction genre by looking at the “Art of the Infomercial.” After viewing a few of the “classics,” we collaborated to develop a product we could sell! In the computer lab, we typed up our great ideas!

Word of the day — credibility

Science Writers

Today campers made Silly Putty and wrote a short story about it. They also had fun making wordles, which centered around “Silly Putty.”

Wanna-Be Writers

Today we explored the writing domains. We shared leads of our favorite writers.

Campers did a lot of writing. The instructor commented on this highly motivated group: “I was impressed. I said 10 minutes and they wrote for half an hour!”

Great job campers!

First Day of Writing Camps, 7/20

Monday

Welcome! We hope you enjoyed your first day of camp. Wasn't it a blast?

Check out today's highlights, brought to you in the popping purple posts below.

Author Adventures

We learned about the steps in the writing process. The first step is prewriting, which is often just thinking about things. We read Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown and made our own Flat Stanleys, who will be going on new adventures!

College-Bound

Campers got to know each other with 2 Truths and a Lie. They wrote Where I am From or I am poems. They watched and discussed a video called “Did You Know? 2.0″ by Karl Fisch and wrote a journal response. Alisha found another video online on the same topic about the history and future of education and how students should learn. For tomorrow, they are reading an excerpt from A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. Joe helped us figure out where to plug in our flashdrives!

Creative Composers - 1

We began our day imagining it was 20 years into the future and we were invited guests to a fancy dinner party. What would we be famous for? What accomplishments/inventions would help us to be famous? We wrote what we wished/wanted in Lab — stories of fantasy and more. We ended our day writing acrostic poems outside.

Creative Composers -2

The first day beckoned (that is our word-of-the-day) and we dove right in; we brainstormed “family trivia” to begin writing our Where I’m From poems (based on George Ella Lyon’s poem of the same name). Tomorrow: Elements of a plot!

Digital Storytelling

We learned that writing in a journal is like creating a diamond mine: You need to dig through a lot of dirt to get the gems! We saw some different examples of what to do — and what not to do — when creating a digital story. We learned about focus in writing. Most importantly, we learned that to be alive is to be a storyteller!

Reader's Theatre

We had a blast by introducing the cast! Getting to know each other was the first item on our agenda. We learned about soliloquy and monologue, shared our favorite poems, and began writing all about ourselves, inspired by nature.

Science Writers

Campers learned about chromatography by using markers and filter paper.

Wanna-Be Writers

Today we introduced the writing process, got to know one another, and developed topics for writing. “We also learned how to make writing more interesting by substituting words for the word said.” -Alli

Author Adventures

Come on a real adventure! Read, write, and learn about your favorite authors. You’ll create your own book and become an author, too.

Students entering grades 2-3

College-Bound

Sharpen your skills to prepare for college. Write in a variety of forms, including memoir, personal, and expository. Extra attention will be paid to developing writing skills for college application essays and SATs.

Students entering grades 10-12

Creative Composers - 1

Creativity is the name of the game at this camp! Use your imagination to enter a a world of fantastic fictional fun. You’ll learn that your ideas and ingenuity are virtually endless.

Students entering grades 4-6

Creative Composers -2

Creativity is the name of the game at this camp! Use your imagination to enter a a world of fantastic fictional fun. You’ll learn that your ideas and ingenuity are virtually endless.

Students entering grades 4-6

Digital Storytelling

Use a variety of technologies to publish stories that include images and sound. Compose your own stories with dimensions of personal voice and music. Incorporate your own digital pictures/video and spend time capturing footage…all leading up to a technological masterpiece!

Students entering grades 7-12

Reader's Theatre

Join us as we bring to life some of our favorite stories in a dramatic and interesting way! Participate in an array of collaborative script-writing activities in which you can entertain and “be” entertained by fellow creative authors.

Students entering grades 2-6

Science Writers

Silly putty, sunblock, and short stories! Become a summer scientist while creating essays, poems, and songs about chemical reactions, pH levels, and fun chemistry experiments!

Students entering grades 4-6

Wanna-Be Writers

Wanna be a writer? No, you are gonna be a writer! Explore a wide range of writing styles and discover the author inside you. Mystery, Fantasy, Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction–you decide!

Students entering grades 7-9