Today we had a visit by Pets in Need. Campers enjoyed reading aloud their stories and poems to an attentive dog audience: puppy Margarita and her dog friends Luna and Scarlett. Thanks to Pets in Need's Marsa Hollander and her colleague for bringing their canine friends!
Definitions of Poetry:
Poetry is like a rainbow; it is made when opposites work together to create something beautiful. Melody Poetry poetry poetry Is like reading a book when it is raining outside Patter patter patter - Sami Poetry is flowers blooming with wet raindrops on the petals. - Mia Poetry is happiness. - Iris Poetry is like going to a new place — there are always new things. Poetry is like a chocolate chip cookie. You have no idea where the letters will go and in which order. Poetry is like pieces of grass waving in the wind. Poetry is like dandelions blowing away. - David Poetry is like ice cream — each scoop is special and has its own flavor or detail. Poetry is like a kitten chasing a ball of yarn. - Arjun Poetry chases the rain of doubt away, and lets the sun of joy shine. - Leah Poetry is like oatmeal — occasionally bland, but occasionally sweet. Poetry is like a present; you never know what’s inside. Poetry is when your imagination comes to life and has a mind of its own. - Amy V. Poetry is the ocean. Poetry is the universe. Poetry is like the ocean, its depths unknown. Poetry is like fire, spreading warmth. Poetry is a field of ideas and emotions. Haiku: Cheese is made from curd Tastes chewy, stretchy, stringy Cheese is my favorite - Annika, Amy J., Hem Good cakes are quite moist Some cakes have frosted layers All are different tastes - Evelyn, Carter, David, Lulu Twisting and turning Doughy, yeasty, flour, too Delicious pretzels - Melody, Iris, Sami, Mia List Poems: The way to eat duck soufflé is to not get electrocuted. The way to eat ribs is to ensure your kitchen is not looted. The way to eat a muffin is to peck it like a puffin. The way to eat pasta is to fill your belly up with a side of turkey stuffin’! - Lulu, Carter, David, Evelyn To eat a muffin, peck it like a puffin. To drink wine, is to ignore it like a feline. The way to eat something fried, is to eat it eagle-eyed. The way to eat barbecue is to caw like a cockatoo. Brussels sprouts you can do without. Chocolate mousse, what’s the use? Sloppy joes? This is getting gross, so I’m gonna stop. - Evelyn The way to eat ice cream is to lick it like a lollipop. The way to eat a raspberry is to gobble nonstop! The way to eat pasta is to spin and slurp. The way to eat a chocolate churro is to make sure you always BURP! - Mia, Sami, Iris, Melody The way to eat a Subway sandwich is to gulp it whole! The way to eat a pickle -- it’s so nasty, I’d spit it in a bowl! The way to eat a pizza is to throw it at a troll! The way to eat an apple is to put it in an egg roll! - Leah, Arjun, Kimberly, Amy V. In January I play in the snow In February I go to Lake Tahoe In March I use a bow and arrow In April for my birthday I eat cookie dough In May I go with the flow In June on the 12th I go on a canoe and row In July I watch the fireworks glow In August I watch Kung Fu Panda and Po In September I figure out my foe In October I stay up late eating candy and Oreos In November I stay up watching my favorite TV show In December I play in the snow - Arjun Recipe Poems: Recipe for a Poem First, take air from a day full of feelings. Add the beauty of nature and butterfly wings. Don’t forget to take some clouds and add them to the mixture as well. Mix everything with ink and dip in your feather and write what you feel. The most important is to use your imagination. - Melody A Recipe for Alligator Cookies First you take the dough and then You put the chocolate chips in — yum! Alligator teeth for a crunch and a crack And then the alligator, it makes it Luscious and sweet, that everyone loves to eat. - Mia Recipe for Friendship Using 1 tablespoon of charm and 3 quarts of care Then a gallon of kindness and 3 gallons of laughter. Next, throw in one adventure Where we worked together And 10,000 Christmas trees That provoke those memories to me. 1 moon, a billion stars, and the night sky That looked down upon us. 30 cars that we saw And finally 2 small trees That we danced together with. The last ingredient is 1 football That shows the 90 recesses we spent together And that’s the recipe for how This robber stole my heart. - Leah Recipe for Internet Cake 2 cups of memes, 1 quart of Wikipedia. Just a pinch of online games And a gallon of YouTubers. 5 teaspoons Fortnite And 2 pints Google 3 quarts fake news, One dash of fandom. Mix, stir, whip, and beat it Shape the batter and throw it in the oven. When it’s done, decorate with 10 google images, 1 search bar, 3 advertisements, and 1 Gmail. - Amy V. Recipe for Summer Vacation Sprinkle stretches of sand Add 100 cups of water Just make sure it’s not too high. Place many shells, have buckets And shovels to create sand castles. Bring your sunshine umbrella and Don’t forget chairs. Sunscreen, Cold drinks, and watermelons are Sure to make this a masterpiece. - Hem Recipe for My Dog Grab a big bowl Add lots and lots of fur Mix in a cup of hungry Toss in a dash of crazy Now, toast until a golden brown To test if it is ready, time how fast It eats a bowl of dog food. If less than 30 seconds, then you’ve Got my dog. - Annika State Soup CAUTION! IF YOU ADD TRANSYLVANIA, YOU COULD GET DRACULA DISEASE. First you add a cup of Michigan Then Californians How ’bout Pennsylvania? Don’t get mixed up with Transylvania! Virginia? Carolina? Yes, add them too! Then you have the wonderful smell of hot state soup! - Evelyn K. Reci-me A few gallons of creativity A pinch of procrastination Lots of puns and lots of fun And a thousand story ideas Three dashes of fandom craziness And an artistic flair Puppy love and some humanity And musical talent Mix the ingredients up And add a truckload of magic This girl is done and coming On strong Congratulations! - Kimberly Persona Poems: Pizza Person Party Peter Pepperoni is oh so hot and mean Charlie Cheese is happy everywhere -- a traveler supreme. Tim Tomato is jolly, rosy-cheeked and round Caitlin Crust holds them together with her doughy mounds. All of these mixed together make a tasty treat, We love pizza — what everybody loves to eat! - Mia, Iris, Melody, Sami In a shell reside the peas All part of the oddest family. Piper Peas and Papa Peas Buy popcorn and purple soda. Penny Peas publishes a pop-up book on popping boba. Peter Peas publishes his poems on pinkish popcorn, but all the Peas passed away, and Peter was left to mourn. - Arjun, Kimberly, Amy V., Leah Little Miss Gingerbread dressed up in the most extravagant way, And she left her gingerbread house, one fine, sunny day. Her dress was made from a fine gelatin, And she wore a hat made from a mint thin, She wore a pair of gloves and a muff, Both made from pieces of a cream puff. Her shawl was the most beautiful thing, Why, it was made from butter cream frosting! Miss Gingerbread started to daydream of fondant silk, But she didn’t pay attention and fell into the river of buttermilk. - Kimberly Mystery in Cereal Land Ruth Raisin Bran and Fred Frosted Flakes were living a normal life Until Helen Honey Nut Cheerios came to them with a knife She devoured the cereal like a cannibal would Then Landon Lucky Charms said that not what she should. They fought each other with all their might But Helen won the fight. She ate the town, but Reynold Rice Krispies thought it was a movie thriller. Then he discovered she was a cereal killer! - Leah Apricot pie is rude and sassy, Apple pie is kind and classy. Pumpkin is often shy and mellow, Pecan is a sweet but nutty fellow. Lemon meringue is greedy and rich, Peach is clumsy — she fell in a ditch! With all these wonderful flavors of pie, I’m so stuffed that I might die! - Carter, Evelyn, David, Lulu Campers in Session 4, our last session this summer, have been busy mixing and kneading dough for pretzels, tasting various flavors from mint to pickles and writing sensory descriptions, and drafting their "food fantasy" stories. Yesterday they created clever and beautiful poems as they rotated through 4 different poetry "stations"--haiku, list poems, persona poems and recipe poems. We'll share some of these poems on the next post! We spent another camp session learning about "rubbish," that is the 4 Rs of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and "Rot," (Compost) as campers drafted stories with ecology themes, visited Shoreway Environmental Center, and played with various forms of poetry: "trash" found poems using scraps from newspapers and magazine, silly rhyming poems riffing off poets Shel Silverstein and Jack Pretlutsky, and odorous odes. The week ended with another wonderful celebration of words. Here is a small sample of our poems from the week followed by a few photos: Chocolate Dark, rich Eating, licking, melting Pod, tree, extract, bean Consuming, tasting, harvesting Creamy, sweet Vanilla by Evelyn, Emma, Henry, Jack, Jesse Diseases Scary, harmful Coughing, sneezing, dying Virus, rat, needles, medication Injecting, hurting, helping Useful, awesome Vaccines by Jack Pink Why do I have to clean my room
When I would rather play? The dirty clothes and toys Are hardly in the way. I almost never trip upon The moldy fries and rotting steak, And I don’t pay attention To cookie crumbs and broccolini cake. --Eva, Andrea, Hayden Victoria, Jonnie Why do I have to clean my room When I would rather play? The books and papers and Legos Are hardly in the way. I almost never trip upon The stuffed eagle or fake snake, And I don’t pay attention To the cookie crumbs and cake. Why do I have to clean my room When I would rather read? The words and paragraphs are better Nag my brother; he’d Also argue, fight, and shout But he’d eventually agree He’d pick up all his useless junk Best of all it wouldn’t be me. Yes, I’m quite sure I’m good as I am I really don’t have to clean I’m content to be barricaded in my room Where I’m the absolute queen. --Evelyn M. Ode to the Trash Pile Like you hadn’t showered in decades, Full of the unplaceables, Gooey, moldy, oozey, So exciting to my lunch It wanted to escape. Oh trash pile! Enormous mountain, Takes what we don’t need Buried under the earth. --Evelyn, Emma, Henry, Jack, Jesse Here are some group and individual poems campers wrote during our Food Fantasy Session 2:
The Pizza Construction Crew Handy Ham the architect draws out all the plans. Papa Pepperoni the contractor comes over to manage the demands. Crummy Crust lays the foundation of crusty, fragrant bread. Tommy Tomato comes next to sauce the foundation red. Chucky Cheese, the third layer, spreads himself smooth and thin, While Positive Pineapple chunks will bring us all a grin. Olive Operator arrives to lift our project high Into the oven we go, a marvelous pizza pie! by Carson, Henry, Hayden, Alaina, Jovi, Katie, Anika and Beth World Cup for BBQ It’s the World Cup for BBQ and there’s a tie Between the Hamburgers and Garlic Fries. Cheesy Garlic fends off a shot by Salty Sam. Pickle Pete scores with a big Kazam! The Hamburgers are ahead one to zero. But then Potato Percy scores and becomes a hero. It’s the final quarter and the score is again a tie Then Cheesy makes a goalie shot super high And so the Hamburgers win the World Cup of BBQ. The Monster Pizza Gather the slimy, hairy and googly-eyed monsters. Pound the living bread flour on a dreadfully horrid mat. Next the sauce needs spreading. Add the gross toppings. Then you have to do some mopping Cook it over a volcano. Take it out, smell and say, “No!” Off to a friend you go. by Gio, Vanita, Zaria, Allison, Samantha, Sophie and Kyle Taco Escape Molly Guacamole falls to the floor pretending to be a spot on the ground, As Mr. Guard bends to see the odd spot, Tommy Tomato jumps on his back, And everyone thinks he’s bleeding. Beefy Bob makes a ruckus to attract the guards, While Shelly Shell holds the group together. While all that is going on, Leo Lettuce steals the keys And opens the door to freedom. All slip out unnoticed. . . By Emmy, Sawyer, Braxton, and Julia The Way to Eat The way to eat your chocolate chip cookies is to save out all the chips. The way to eat your spicy bacon is to tear it into strips. The way to eat your smoothie is to make sure it doesn’t drip. The way to eat your pudding is to take it in small sips. The way to eat your spinach is to find out all the tips. The way to eat your fruit loops is to tie them around your hips. The way to eat your penne pasta is to not let it touch your lips. The way to eat your carrots is to soak them in good dips. The way to eat this poem is to read it in a zip! By Sophie On Monday I eat strawberries and peaches with a pinch of cream. On Tuesday I eat a delicious wrap with cheese, mustard, salami and turkey. On Wednesday I eat a wonderful meal of steak right off the grill with a side of carrot sticks and cucumbers. On Thursday I eat a great cereal bowl with my favorite mix of Grape Nuts on the bottom and Cheerios on the top. Yum! On Friday I eat mac and cheese and a side of veggies and fruit. On Saturday I eat a great deal of scrambled eggs and bacon to soothe my tongue. And on Sunday I eat a piece of chocolate cake instead of my break. By Kaitlyn Today for our second day of our second session we invited guest chefs DeeDee Stovel and Marianna Raymond to bake pretzels with our 27 campers. Each group of 6 campers had a chance to mix batter, knead dough, shape pretzels--and of course eat the finished products! We also had a food tasting and wrote 5 senses poems using attractive adjectives and vigorous verbs. There was also time to continue drafting the stories we started yesterday. Campers were excited to take home a fresh baked pretzel to share with their families. Last week Peninsula Young Writers held its largest summer session ever at Taft Elementary School in Redwood City! We had 40 campers in two classrooms all learning about ecology and writing stories and poems with ecology themes. Tuesday we took a field trip to Shoreway Environmental Center in San Carlos where we learned about recycling, composting, and solar energy. Friday we held a lively "literary salon" in the Taft School Cafeteria with a large parent audience and special guests including PYW board members and Jack Johnson from the San Mateo County Office of Sustainability. Today Peninsula Young Writers campers in both morning and afternoon sessions "warmed up" to poetry by writing similes and playing rhyming games. Then they crafted "monster" limericks, and wrote scrambled acrostic poems and secret codes to include in their stories. See the "poetry" page to read some of the campers clever limericks! Our third and final session of "Flight" finished this Friday with campers reading from their stories and poems. We had a very talented group of 12 campers ranging in age from 7 to 13 and who wrote stories including such characters as flying golf balls, space aliens, dragons, turtles and more. Parents, friends, and PYW board members attended our "literary salon" to listen to story excerpts, odes,and haiku. See the poetry page for samples. All the campers received enthusiastic applause before we celebrated with refreshments and sparkling cider. The first two days of Session 3, Mystery Writing, have flown by. Using "story starters," campers plunged into their mystery plots and eagerly drafter early scenes. In the meantime we began solving our own "Library Mystery," in which a dragon escapes from a fantasy novel and our whole group of detectives has to examine clues and interview suspects to apprehend the criminal. Stay tuned for Thursday! Tomorrow we will write mystery poems as clues for our stories. |