Never did a day at camp ever begin with so much energy and excitement. And all Mr. Bob had to say was “make a puppet.” The room came alive and for the next half hour we were transforming paper bags and socks into characters that ranged from snake pirates to robots to magical spy creatures to demon consciouses to exploding princesses.
We took to the hallways to spread out and give our puppets room to talk and move. They came alive as characters with voices, opinions, thoughts, and points-of-view. With Mr. Bob’s help, we made them real. Then, we made them hurt. That’s right. Mr. Bobby made us give our poor, innocent little puppets scars. The snake lost its fang, the robot bled fruit juice, the spy sported a wound on its cheek and so on… and we told the story of those scars.
In the afternoon, first we revisited our puppets by writing from the perspective OF the scar. What stories would it tell? How does it feel, how WOULD it feel, if it were real? Then we gathered round an imaginary fishbowl with Mr. Bob and Mr. Eric inside and watched them give feedback to each other, a model of how two writers should communicate and help each other out. An important activity, even though we were just sitting there watching, because next we met our revision buddies! In pairs we helped each other move past “The End” to add questions and new ideas and help us all move into revision and beyond… that’s right, anthology pieces are well under way…
Tomorrow, Miss Mari takes us back to our childhood through tastes and smells, to write a recipe of our selves…
Quote of the Day: “Nouns paint the picture and verbs make them move.” ~Ms. Mari
Lesson Learned: You don’t have to have a pen and paper to write. ~Anna