Wow, what an amazing start to the second session of our program! We are always flabbergasted by the kids' energy first thing in the morning (considering that we're usually two coffees deep by that point), but they truly are the best jolt in the world. The minute we had everybody in our grasp, we immediately set off to settle under a tree and start our day.
Once we settled under a tree and laid out our trusty tarp, we had the kids slap on their name tags and start us off with a round of intros: name, a cool fact, their favorite animal and their favorite color. Romy and Rod learned about some interesting creatures within the first few minutes of the day: Ligers and Zonkys and Groler bears (oh my!) In order to get the kids' creative juices flowing, we decided to play a game of When Suddenly, where the kids sit in a circle and each individually add to one story, signaling the next person's turn with the transitional phrase, "when suddenly....". One of our methods of getting the kids to settle down and focus their energy is to have them engage in "Thinking Time", a phrase coined by our session 1 poet, Amelia. Our newest writer, Audrey, requested that we pair "Thinking Time" with a specific prompt. Today, we asked the kids to close their eyes and imagine where the tallest tree in the world may be and what animals lived there. The kids decided to incorporate this prompt into their "When Suddenly," and the results kind of speak for themselves.
When Suddenly...
My tree was in candy land and had ice cream hanging on it, and there was candy owls inside it, when suddenly / a big giant candy monster jumped out of nowhere. He destroyed the tree with all of his powers. He punched it down and there were still scraps left of it, when suddenly / a tree in Dubai appeared, as tall as the Burj Khalifa, when suddenly / the candy monster did nothing to the tree. Then suddenly / the candy monster just laid down, and it started to rain, but it wasn't your average pour: it was downpour—hard lollipops. The lollipops kept smacking that candy monster in the head when suddenly / the candy monster woke up and destroyed the tree, when suddenly / the tree's bits dripped all over him and he got all messy, when suddenly / a new candy tree came up, and it was different this time. This time it grew caramels on every leaf that the ligers came and ate for breakfast. And then suddenly / one of the mean ligers started scratching the trees and hurting them all, and the ligers were terrified when suddenly / the monster turned out to be good, and then a flying car came under the tree and into a womping willow, and the branches hit the car with all its might. The car got so scared that it drove away without the people in it, when suddenly / the liger walked away and the mean monster woke up and was good, when suddenly / the mean monster decided that the only way to make sure that no more disasters happened in this crazy candy-tree land was if he ran for mayor. So he became the mayor of treeland. He made sure there were no more downpours, and everybody lived happily ever after.
After wrapping up the oral poetry exercise and taking a break for a quick snack, we had the kiddos get up and get moving by playing a game of Zip! Zap! Zop! The game was meant to introduce our day's theme: noise and sound. Zip! Zap! Zop! is about sending focus and energy over to another member of the group by making eye contact, pointing with both hands and exclaiming Zip, Zap or Zop. The words have to go in order, which requires some listening, and the kiddos need to pay attention in order to keep the rhythm of the game. Once the game was over, we all got up, packed our things, and got ready to venture deeper into the park. We had the kids partner up with someone new and stand in a circle to establish Elm Tree's rules. The first big rule we landed on was an oldie, but a goodie: Don’t talk to strangers (unless Rod or Romy are present). The most important rule — no wandering off — helped establish one of our favorite things about Elm Tree, which is that we do everything together. This means helping with materials, collaborating, changing into bathing suits and venturing around the park.
The kids buddied up and we headed towards the picnic house to have them change into their bathing suits before setting off to the Natural Playground. The kids were rad and helped Rod push our trusty wagon without any prompting. With their help, we managed to cross the park effortlessly and set up camp under our favorite tree by the Natural Playground. We dropped our backpacks, splayed out our tapestry, and got started on our writing project for the day.
We introduced the day's theme by reading Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle (Newbery Honor winner!) and Rafael López. The book tells the story of a young Chinese-African-Cuban girl "who broke Cuba's traditional taboo against female drummers." This story is inspired by Millo Castro Zaldarriaga who, in 1932, was part of Cuba's first "all-girl dance band." Annabel exclaimed, "that's not fair!" when she heard that only men were initially allowed to learn how to play drums. The kids were extremely impressed by the way that Millo played her drums for figures such as FDR and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
While reading the book, Romy had the kids pay close attention to the book's use of onomatopoeia and sound play. Oona noticed that one stanza began with a lower-case letter, and asked if in poetry one can use choose whether or not to use capital letters. Romy said of course, and she was thrilled! Romy then explained that a stanza is similar to a paragraph, in that it separates a poem into parts that sometimes switch the course of the poem's tone or meaning. She also established the difference between a sentence and a line, emphasizing that a line does not require punctuation to be complete. While reading, Romy had the kiddos pick out words that conveyed certain sounds: pounding, boom boom, tap, woodpecker beaks, heartbeat. The kids loved the book and found it empowering to hear the journey of Cuba's first female drummer.
Once we finished, Rod lead our writing exercise of the day. He had the kids grab their notebooks and gather around the tapestry. Our lesson was guided by Kenneth Koch's Wishes, Lies and Dreams: with their eyes closed, we had the kids listen carefully to a series of sounds: a bag of markers falling to the ground; a shovel tapping against a metal water bottle; Velcro straps being pulled apart; two sheets of paper waving in the wind. After each noise, Rod asked the kids to write out the noise they heard phonetically as a word, and then write lines attributed to the sound. Below are a couple of our poets' brilliant examples:
Wack! A tree that fell on a metal fence. — Ajay
Psssh! The sound of Sarah as if she doesn't care. — Oona
Check out the wild sound poems that all of the kiddos concocted below!
by Gayatri
by Oona
by Jacie
by Annabel
by Audrey
by Ajay
by Enid
by Lyla
by Maren
As per usual, Zeeuh! The sound of the day flying by. After asking our poets to pair their work with a drawing that either exemplified the sounds they chose or just complimented the words, we had them dig into lunch and play at the Natural Playground. It was a jammin' way to spend the first day!
Boom Boom Boom! The sound of hearts beating for our beloved new group of Elm Tree poets,
Romy & Rod
Glad to hear that Maren is spreading the word about Ligers, Grolers and Zonky's. She's researched it alot! Looks like she had a fantastic day!
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