Cat's Creative Expressions Group

My "kittens" were busy creating great stuff right away.  I have never been so impressed by the quality and creativity of a group!  So amazing!  On Day 1, we started with the usual journaling and then went into an icebreaker activity which they enjoyed.  Then, they did an acrostic on the word "Happiness."  We had many truly wonderful results!  Some of the campers finished quickly and were able to go individual prompts.  Here is what Audrey created on her prompt:

I know it's a little hard to read.  It says: "List of things that have no weight: A feeling."  I just love that!

Mircea also created an amazing poem on a prompt.  It's called "The Horse and Rider."  Here's the beginning:



Rider and horse

We are one

I see the sky

Endless blue, a work of art

Little white shapes here and there

Horse and rider

We go further

Onto plains.

 

Isn't that beautiful?  What's more amazing is that he didn't even know he could do that!

 

On Day 2, we went a little serious.  Our first activity was to look at Norman Rockwell's painting entitled "The Problem We All Live With."  This is the famous painting of little Ruby Bridges being escorted to school back in 1960 which currently hangs in the White House.  The kids came up with some very insightful and heartfelt journal entries.  We moved from there to one of my favorite activities called "Ancient Doorways."  The students get into small groups (2 -3) and receive a photo of an ancient doorway.  The idea is to dig deep and think about what's on the other side.  Once again, they came up with some truly wonderful work.  Emma and Lara produced this gem:

 

A towering arch standing tall

A secret doorway leading all

Mysteries on the other side

Unknown happiness is waiting for me.

 

For Day 3, we lightened the mood.  The kids had seen "Tarzan: The Musical" on Day 2, so I gave them a fun assignment called "Who's Your Mama?"  Each camper got a picture of an animal and had to think about what it would be like to be raised by that animal. I don't hate to say that, once again, they were amazing!  This elegant diamante turned out by Lauren was so beautiful, I just have to share it:

 

Butterflies,

Colorful, graceful,

Floating, flying, caring

Wings, tongues, abdomen, antenna

Crawling, swiveling, running

Scary, cool

Insect.

 

 

Today was our final full class of CE, so the kittens were finishing up, getting ready for parent presentation (tonight at 6:45 p.m.!), and doing some additional writing and/or drawing on prompts from the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts.  Needless to say, there were some wonderful results.  I would have loved to post it all, but I'm sure they'll be showing you what they did themselves and I do want to leave a few surprises!

 

This week's group has been so wonderful!  They have done so much and grown so much over the past few days.  Thank you, Parents, for sharing your talented children with us.  It has been a joy and an honor to have them in my CE class these past few days.  My CE class is Emily, Haydee, Cade S., Mircea, Lara, Audrey, Sydney, Donna, Lauren, Hollis, Samantha H., Carol, and Emma.