In our last writing camp session for the summer, we invited the therapy dogs to come one last time. Campers enjoyed quality bonding time with the dogs (big and small). Although the visit was a welcome break from the drafting process, we got right back to writing once the dogs left and wrote "Thank You Odes" about the dogs. This year's "Pet Parade" theme has inspired countless stories and brought much joy to campers and Peninsula Young Writers staff alike.
On the first day of Session 4, we kicked off the week's "Time Travel" theme with a time machine experience. Each camper received a ticket to travel back in time. Campers entered the time machine (bottom far right), received a time assignment, then exited with information about a certain time period.
Campers "arrived" deep into the age of Ancient Egypt, Rome, China, and Greece or into the more modern times of the American Revolution, World Wars and the 1920s. Later, these very same time periods appeared in their stories along with many other original time travel locations. We had a visit from three different Pet-Assisted Therapy dogs and their owners on Thursday of Session 3. Although each dog ranged in size, breed and personality, all three of them brought joy and inspiration to the campers for their pet-themed stories. The dogs also listened with rapt attention as the campers read aloud stories and poems. One dog even performed tricks as a reward for a well-read piece of writing!
In accordance with our "Time Travel" theme, campers created old fashioned paper fortune-tellers. Making these fortune-tellers sent everyone into a frenzy of telling each others' fortunes, but poetry was not left behind that day (each fortune contained an alliteration).
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