Founder Sondra Hall sat down with Carol Miller of Rarebird Radio to talk creative writing, processing trauma, and fostering a regular writing practice. Bonus poetry readings included - have a listen!
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writing exercises
Mother's Day is coming up - a day to celebrate mothers, of course, as well as all of the other fabulous women in our lives: grandmothers, sisters, aunts, daughters!
In honor of those women, why not write about them? Here are a few prompts to get you started.
Describe your grandma. What doe she smell, feel, look like? What reminds you of her?
OR
Pick a woman that you are close to in your family. Does she have a particular way of making you feel special? Write her a thank you poem using sensory details.
OR
Write about a famous mother (or aunt, sister, daughter, grandmother) in the world that you admire. Why do you admire her?
We're old school - we ask that our students write with pencils on paper and discourage them from using iPads or laptops.
There's a reason behind our request: writing on paper exercises a different part of our brains.
In a Wall Street Journal article, Gwendolyn Bounds cites research supporting this fact. It turns out that forming letters by hand enhances overall learning, idea comprehension and expression. The hand has a special relationship to the brain so when forming the shapes that create letters it is "working harder" and creating more neural connections than when selecting a button with a character on it. In addition, our handwriting becomes part of who we are - think of how we feel when we come upon a letter handwritten written by a favorite grandmother, an old family recipe written on an index card, or a page from a diary.
So, at "Take My Word For It!" we're not only cheerleaders for the art of creative writing, we're big believers in the importance of using handwriting to compose it.
Here's to paper and pencil!
Every Wednesday our creative writing prompt challenges you to pick up your pen and indulge your author self! Dance is a great way to shake up the everyday. Write about the muscles and movements that would bring your body to life if you were to go through your day dancing.
The Art Edition:
On Wednesday, students created wire "characters" to sketch in different poses to aid in drawing their book characters. We learned about perspective to create backgrounds and different points of view. We discussed "visual flow" to make our book and story look interesting with recognizable characters throughout.
Today we had a busy and productive afternoon- it zipped by! All the students created their book cover and began pasting in the art they created and adding illustrations. I worked with each camper individually so they felt confident about pulling their book together. Tomorrow everyone will paste or write their story into the book. WOW!
Take a look at preview photos of some of their book covers and illustrations.
-Laurie Croft, Art Teacher
The Writing Edition:
We started off the morning talking about kids who don't have access to books and don't have a bookshelf crammed with their own favorite books at home. Campers brought in some of the books they're ready to part with to donate to The East Bay Children's Book Project. Founded and run by retired librarians and teachers, the EBCBP get books to kids who would otherswise not have them. www.eastbaychildrensbookproject.org.
To get the creative juices flowing, our first writing activity today was a free-write prompt: "What I hate about being a kid is..." Here are some of the sentiments expressed:
"What I hate about being a kid is I can't go to the moon, I can't drive, I can't stay up all night, and I don't got dat ca$h..."
- Adrian
Adrian and Claire (Instructor)
Amira
Milagro
Fatima
Diego, Lucas, and Dante
Emily and Simone
Tyler
What I hate about being a kid is that grown-ups never understand you when you are explaining something."
-Arielle
Arielle
Sophie
Elizabeth (Instructor), LyLy, and Alicia
"I hate that I have to live with my family. (Actually I don't hate living with my family, it's just that I want to live by myself!)"
- Alicia
We spent the rest of the morning finishing, editing and proofreading our children's books which are shaping up to be quite impressive.
The Art Edition:
The students are excited about writing and illustrating their Children's books and so am I!
On Monday we looked at books and different illustration styles, tecniques and mediums artists use. We experimented with different tecniques and materials exploring pencil, sharpies, and watercolors. Students learned how to incorporate illustration into letters by creating their name as flowers, animals and patterns. The campers all received newsprint sketchpads and spent the end of the day sketching ideas for their book characters. On Tuesday we continued exploring different art mediums so each individual can choose a material they enjoy using the most. We got tempera paints out, learned how to mix colors and created paintings. We also made bold oil pastel drawings on black paper. Students pulled out their sketchbooks and we practiced drawing faces that show different emotions. I've been talking to the campers individually and working with them to develop their character and background art and some of them are already sketching illustrations for their book.
-Laurie Croft, art teacher
The Writing Edition: Bedtime Story Excerpts
Tyler- My character’s name is Bob, and he lives on a farm.
Adrian- My character is fat kid named Poncho and his challenge is the Super Taco Grande Mucho Gigante.
Arielle-My character’s name is Saddy, and he is a blue sphere.
Diego- My character’s name is Bob-John-Joe-Jack and he can fly.
Simone- My character is a little boy named Tommy and he gets lost from his family.
Amira- Mine is about a boy named Carmu who dreams of being a farmer.
Jiana-My character’s name is Cleo and she lives in a cave.
Dante- My character is a kid named Jimmy Bean who lives in Mexico and his parents work at Mexicano McDonalds.
Milagro- My main character is named Shirley and whoever makes her mad in the story falls into mud.
Fatima- My character is named Speedy-Deee and he is a dinosaur who can outdrive the police, in a sports car.
Sophie- My character is a pig named Scooey that goes to Piglet High School.
Alicia- My character’s name is Payson. She is a swimmer and she is an Olympic gold medalist.
Grace- My character’s name is Graffiti Can Sam, and he is a can of spray paint who goes out and paints stuff.
Emily- My character’s name is Amanda Bobbleton, who does not want her baby sister to be born.
Lucas- My character is a kid named Freddy, and he lives in a casino in Las Vegas.
LyLy- My character’s name is Emily Roberts and she has a magic teddy bear that takes her to different places in her dreams.
Aaron- My characters is Mader and I am still deciding what he’s going to do but it has to do with movies.
Sophia and Milagro
Diego and Adrian
Simone and Emily
Tyler
Arielle
Giana, Alicia, and Amira
Lucas, Grace, and Dante