First, I want to apologize that I didn’t get info about day 3 posted yesterday, actually on day 3. It was such a busy day that I didn’t have time to get the update done, and when I went home I was so tired I just didn’t do it. So I apologize. Day 3 was filled with writing about family and food. The morning session involved a prose writing in which students focused a memory or memories of their past that involved food. We had lots of great writing about holidays, picnics, Sunday dinners, and other special events inolving foods and family. The next writing activitiy involved a group collaboration on an “unusual” recipe. We brainstormed ideas about the parts needed for a good recipe. We brainstormed word lists for the kinds of words needed to construct recipes, then together collaborated on a group “unusual” recipe for “A Perfect Athlete”. Then students worked individually or in pairs to write their own unusual recipes. Those are the ones I’ll be posting for day 3 writing.
The afternoon was “family day” at camp. Parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and aunts and uncles attended to support their students. Mrs. Roeher and Mrs. McKnight provided a wonderful “country” lunch, with fried chicken, cornbreak, macaroni salad, cake cupcakes, and sodas. Lunch was enjoyed by all, then the leaders lead parents and students in writing activities. The first was a pre-writing activity in which participants drew a map of their community they most remember from their childhood. Parents learned about the importance of pre-writing in the process of writing, and they learned that prewriting can happen in many forms. The second part was to do a draft of a piece of writing. In this case everyone was asked to model the George Ella Lyons Poem “Where I’m From”. As they wrote parents learned something about modeling as an inspiration for writing. Students were willing to share their writing with the entire group, and even a few adults were willing to share their pieces. Parents briefly talked about revision, but we didn’t practice that part of the process. Finally families published their pieces by creating lamp shades that had their blended writing on them. They were truly works of art that will be cherised for years. A few parents and students were willing to share their pieces with me, and those will go up on the blog sometime today, as well.
