After-School Student Writing: Havens Elementary

At Havens we had all sorts of writing adventures. Here are some of them:

Alyssa

Compose a Metaphor

The moon is a big white rat sleeping in a ball.

Angela

Compose a Poem about your family using metaphors.

My mom is the changing sky from gray to blue

My dad is the funky balloon that floats next to me

My brother is the sour lemon that turns into sweet lemonade

One of my sisters is the American Flag that we need to respect but it floats around freely

The other sister is pictures on photo booth that have weird faces

My grandma is the warm blanket that you can hug

My grandpa is the wooden chair that is stable and holds you up

My house is the blanket that wraps around the sun

My family is the bundles of flowers that sometimes dry up or loose petals,

but always bloom in the sun.

Finn

Compose a Metaphor.

My mom and dad are helpful like a huge library giving me knowledge.

Jack

We learned about the ancient poetic form of praise: the Ode. 

Ode to Sleep

sleep

always

plays its game,

it follows you

to bed, it strikes at night

to its game it seems to

work every night. But at

morning if you try to

catch it, it has already

snuck away.

Jenna

"I Am From" Poem. Describe where you are "from" using memories, colors, textures, smells, etc.

I am from a rainbow up high

I am from beautiful spring flowers

I am from sweet soft fruit

I am from a soft warm blanket

I am from sweet candy

I am from good food

I am from a soft comfy bed

But most of all I am from a cozy, funny, loving family.

Jihae

We learned about the ancient poetic form of praise: the Ode.

Ode to Jellybeans

I love the sweet taste

of jellybeans the nice

way they feel inside

your mouth

I really like the red ones.

The pink taste just fine,

the orange delicious and

blue spectacular

All the jellybeans more and more

Rootbeer, bubblegum, licorice, too.

All of them swirling, twirling in my eyes.

Judge

Compose a Metaphor.

The moon is like burnt marshmallow with cheese.

Sadness is like an ogre that is mutated and weighs as much as twenty elephants.

Kyle

"I Am From" Poem 

I am from the living room watching The Simpsons

I am from the freezer full of ice cream

I am from outside on my BMX

I am from the dirt courses doing tricks

I am from the rush of the water ride at Legoland on my birthday

I am from the snowboard riding on the white hill with my uncle

I am from a good life.

Madeline

Compose a Metaphor.

Hufflepuff (a stuffed animal) is a threadbare couch

Stuffed full with kindness, patience, loyalty

Secure and warm

With sunlight streaming in

A fresh cooked meal

Just waiting to be wanted.

Margaret

Writing prompt: I reached into my pocket and found…

I reached into my pocket and found an orange, and yellow rock. It reminded me of the sun, the bright powerful sun that shines over us.

Mirabel

Compose a poem about your family using metaphors.

My dad is the glowing beam that flies above my head

My mom is the Easter egg of my life

My two brothers are small stars always protecting me

and my little sister is the tail of my family.

Will

Start your story with the line, "One day I received a mysterious letter…"

Once upon a time I got a mysterious letter and when I opened it a big flash of light and a loud voice screamed,"TACO TIME!"

I jumped back. The voice said, “YOU’VE JUST WON A LIFETIME SUPPLY OF TACOS AND SOUR PATCH ICE CREAM!” 

My jaw dropped. Then I heard a loud crash and I saw a huge flash of light and a giant portal opened up, so I stuffed my tacos and sour patch ice cream in a briefcase and jumped into the portal.

Yanela

Writing Prompt: I reached into my pocket and found…

I reached into my pocket and found a cloth and the cloth was folded. I unfolded it and it took a long time to unfold. I found a dress. A magic dress.

Meet Our Staff

Emily Phillips, Program Coordinator

Emily has worked with Bay Area youth of all ages in several different capacities, as a creative writing teacher for elementary school kids with "Take My Word For It!" and SF Arts Ed, as the Middle School After School Program Coordinator at Oakland School for the Arts, and as a high school tutor, mentor, and substitute teacher. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from California College of the Arts in 2008 and when she's not doing fifteen things at once coordinating our growing writing program, she writes as much as possible.

Kim Bielak, Social Media Marketing Intern

Kim is a current Media Studies major at UC Berkeley. She found that her heart aligned with "Take My Word For It!" 's mission to give kids the opportunity to express themselves creatively and is thrilled to be able to employ her studies in digital media to interact with our online community. She finds her own creative outlet in dance and art and is excited to further her studies abroad this spring in Spain.

Nancy Schneider, Social Media Marketing Intern: 

Through a meandering personal history, Nancy Schneider finds herself with a deep and enduring commitment to childhood literacy, a major in Geography from Middlebury College, several languages, a handful of pending law school applications, and an internship in Social Media and marketing with “Take My Word For It!” She believes in following her instinct, especially when it means trying something new. Nancy hopes to explore how social media and the Internet can work positively to form a community around young creative writers. She looks forward to engaging with and connecting parents, teachers, and students.

What have "Take My Word For It!" kids been up to? Check out Thornhill Elementary 2nd grade:

Students in our after-school and community classes are exploring all the different ways writers generate ideas, and put captivating words on the page.

Here are writing excerpts and some photos of our young authors working with instructor, Emily Phillips at Thornhill Elementary in the East Bay: 

2nd Grade:

By Anneke:

Carrots are a crunchy orange and they vibrate in my mouth. They make me feel silly.

Chocolate tastes like dark oceans swelling.

By Austin:

Recipe of Me

To make an Austin you have to have:

2 pounds of toys

1 pound of golf

1 cup of soda

Blend it. Add 1 cup of milk. Mix it up one more time. Have it after you have eaten a lot of sugar. Use a straw because this smoothie bites very, very hard.

By Emma:

Dear Tortellini,

I think you are a sweet sun-shaped thing of a food. Your best friend is pesto. You walk around in my plate until you fall in my trap. You hang on to pesto while you float through my mouth. Pesto is brave and you are too, but you both are scared as you fall down, down, down.

Love,

Emma

By Gwen:

Dear Chocolate,

You are so good and tasty. When I eat you, you feel soft. When I suck on you, you start to dissolve in my mouth. Can I marry you? You are the best.

Sincerely,

Gwen

By Michaela:

ALLITERATIONS

Sofia’s sausages smell.

Snails sniffing sandwiches.

I AM FROM POEM

I am from the all the animals.

I am from the smell of good.

I am from the unknown.

I am from the smell of the wild.

I am from magic.

I am from the smell of flying and spying.

I am from the beauty of nature.

I am as a delicate as a feather.

I am from the sound of water.

I am as a light as a feather.

I am from the chirp of a bird.

I am from the gift of happiness.

By Nuala:

Dear Spaghetti,

You are as slimy as a snake, as white as a beluga, as pretty as a dolphin. Oh my spaghetti, you are most excellent.

Love,

Nuala

By Rachel:

Dear Bagels,

Your best taste is cheese. You’re crunchy. You’re good. You’re surprising. I wish I could have you every day.

Love,

Rachel

By Sidney:

Dear Ice Cream,

Thanks for writing to me in your ice cream pen. (Can you write in strawberry next time? I did not like the earwax so much). You’re so tasty, cold, delicious, and a sweet yummy chunk of yummy-ness. Please send me 1,000 strawberry, 500,000,000 cookie dough, 4,000,000 mint chip and infinity spoons.

Love,

Sidney

By Sophia:

Persona Poem- The Shark

I am fun and dumb

I wonder who you are

I hear blupe-blupe

I see a fin

I want some food

I am fun and dumb

I pretend to eat a fish

I feel water on my tail

I worry I will die

I cry because I can’t find food

I am fun and dumb

I understand I might die

I say I need to find some food

I dream that I will not die

I try to find fish to eat

I hope I find my parents soon

I am fun and dumb

What have "Take My Word For It!" kids been up to? Check out the Young Writer's Lab:

Students in our after-school and community classes are exploring all the different ways writers generate ideas, and put captivating words on the page.

Here are writing excerpts and some photos of our young authors working with instructors, Sondra Hall and Emily Phillips at The Young Writer's Lab in the East Bay:

By Nora

(Nora's piece was inspired by pulling the word "brook" from a word pool created by the group of writers)

The small dirt trail overgrown with leaves and plants lead down a steep mountainside ending in front of a small brook, with algae flowing to the current. Above, trees and twisting branches towered over the rocky shallow waters.

By Isabelle

(Isabelle's was inspired from pulling the word "summer" from a word pool created by the group of writers)

I lick my lips, tasting the coconut lip balm I had just recently applied. The red cap snaps on and I shove it in my pocket. I can feel my hand reach toward it again, but I’m stopped by Sam.

“Don’t!” she snaps.

As a reply, I groan and lick my lips again.

The summer air is thick, like a layer of smog in the city and the wind offers no relief. My toenails—painted poison apple red—are already chipped, though I’d only been here less than 24 hours. I kick off my cheap drugstore flip-flops and take step after step toward the edge, the door step turning to cracked path, and cracked path turning to sand, and finally sand turning to hard ground. Pebbles dig into my feet with every step and, as I near the edge, I slow. I imagine my father when I was little, about three years old, as I sat on his lap, in this exact same spot ten years ago.

“It’s a long way down, Maggie,” he warned.

“How long, daddy?” I asked, curious.

“Long enough for you not to want to jump.”

Well I was older now and I wanted to jump.

“C’mon Sam, we’re not gonna die.” I say, reassuringly.

“I’m not worried.”

But I could tell by the shake in her voice, she most definitely is nervous.

“One,” I say.

“Two,” she answers.

I hold my breath.

“Three,” we say in unison. The wind whistles as we take a step off the cliff.

There is a splash.

There is a shriek.

Sparkling water envelopes my body, and I hold my breath, sinking down until my ears hurt and my lungs feel as if they would burst. My feet hit the sandy and rocky bottom. My head is getting light.

I push off and shoot to the top. I smile and then let out a laugh.

When I see Sam’s head pop up, about a hundred feet away, a smile is on her face.

“Told ‘ya!” I say and we start to swim to the island.  

By Lizzie

(Lizzie's piece was inspired from pulling the word "universe" from a box of Magnetic poetry words)

Universe

When most “normal” and “ordinary” people are asked to write five word on the universe, their answers are something like: sky, stars, planets, aliens, and sun. Eighty percent of people include at least three of the above, and ninety percent of the one percent that didn’t use at least three used two

I, however, as a self-proclaimed “abnormal” and “unordinary” person, one of the tiny percentage that isn’t predictable, think of words that are entirely different.

Magic.

Hoax.

Denial.

Wizardry.

Lies

The universe isn’t what it seems. 

By Meta

(Using the letter format, we asked our Young Writer's Lab students to write a letter to something they wished they could ask questions of and converse with. Meta chose fire.)

Dear Fire,

I’ve always wondered what your secret is. I stare into your flames, catching each flicker and twist. When you wink at me, I wink back. You’re mesmerizing, fire, but I have to ask…do you ever get tired of being feared and extinguished, forever destructive, being the keeper of dark secrets? You take lives, destroy evidence, and you never stop to look back. But I’m intrigued, nevertheless. For now you’re just the shadow of a story, a small spark in a big world, wanting to be wanted. If you ever need to confide in someone, I’ll be waiting

Until then,

Meta

By Emma

(Emma's piece is a response to our challenge to write a synopsis of their life in 6 words - an exercise known as the 6 word memoir.)

6 Word Memoir

Bustling streets and syrup-dipped pancakes.

Leah was absent. Piece to come...

What have "Take My Word For It!" kids been up to? Check out Beach Elementary:

Students in our after-school and community classes are exploring all the different ways writers generate ideas, and put captivating words on the page.

Here are writing excerpts and some photos of our young authors working with instructor, Emily Phillips at Beach Elementary in Piedmont:

By Mikey:

Limerick

There once was a man named Rezon.

His will was to free a bad con.

He set out by car

And traveled very far

But got distracted and watched Tron.

By Azul:

Limerick

There once was a girl named Lu

Who swam in the ocean blue.

A shark came up

So she beat him up

And threw him to Timbuktu

By David:

Limerick

 There once was an old man named Rob,

who had a friend named Screaming Bob.

They went to a park

and had so much fun.

When they left, they began to sob.

By Gabby:

The Opposite World

Long ago people did things differently. They would start off the day with a bowl of TV while watching cereal. Then they would get groceries so they could buy money. They would go to the park to swing on the slide and slide down the swing. Then they would play fetch with the cat and give dog-nip to the dog. Then they would go to the bathroom in the bed and go to sleep in the toilet.

By Griffen:

I don’t know what happens underground, but I suspect that they have a tri-species party (unicorn, leprechaun, troll) and they do the hustle till they pass out drunk, but if there is an earthquake everyone retreats to the bunkers and they resume the party on twitter.

By Jack:

Brussels Sprouts

The first time I tried it I ate it really, really fast. So fast I thought it didn’t have a taste, but then came the kickback. The second time I tried it, it was a kind of paste like thing on a cracker. When I heard it was Brussels sprouts, I immediately started rubbing my tongue on my sweatshirt.

By TH:

There once was a dragon named Joe.

He had always been filled with woe.

He went to Zion

And ate a lion,

Said, “Tasty, I’ll have a HO-HO!”