Hello from Cat's CE Class!!!

Hi Parents, our Creative Expressions group is off to a roaring start.  We had a great first day in our CE class.  We opened Day 1 with daily journaling, followed by a fun icebreaker activity where the kids get to ask each other silly questions like:  “If you could be a cartoon character, who would it be and why?” and “What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?”  We got some fun and interesting answers:  Phineas (because he can build anything) and Deadpool (because he can’t die); octopus tentacles and cow’s tongue topped the list of weird foods.  We also did an acrostic on the word Possibility and got some really interesting results.  We finished Day 1 with an “I Am” poem.  I particularly liked Ashley’s first stanza, it has a very concrete progression:

I Am a person with a goal,

I Wonder if I might complete that goal,

I Hear you have to work for it,

I See that I am on a path to complete my goal,

I Want to complete it,

I Am a Vet.

Last night, the campers got to see a performance of “Hairspray” at the Chance Theater.  What a great show!  Like many musicals, it was lighthearted but also had a very serious side, set as it is during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.  As a tie in, this morning I showed the campers a copy of the Norman Rockwell painting “The Problem We All Live With.”  The work is a depiction of the 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, an African American girl, being escorted to school by federal marshals.  Many of the campers were familiar with the work and had some insightful things to say.  I asked the campers to do a free write about the work and Alyssa produced this great haiku:

Black girl off to school,

Whites protesting on the street,

She’s brave, she walks on.

Thanks to our great director, Kjersti, for this idea, it really got the campers thinking.

We finished today by doing a group poem write I call “Ancient Doorways.”  Each small group (2 or 3 campers) gets a small photo of an ancient doorway.  Each camper must contribute at least two lines to the poem.  The idea is to discuss what the possibilities are if you go through the door.  The results were really wonderful!  Here’s an example from Crystal and Elmier:

The dark blue door

Separates us from the dungeon

In between the stone walls

Buried deep under the ground.

I wish I could include all they have done so far, there is so much they have written already and I’m really impressed with the group.  They seem to have little trouble expressing themselves creatively!  My CE group is Rosamund, Crystal, Mowpheth, Sofy, Jacob, Ella, Sami, Kole, Trish, Jenna, Elmier, Jenny, Alyssa, Desiree and Ashley.  Thanks for sending your kids to Arts-X-Press, I am enjoying working with them and getting to know them, they are truly amazing individuals!

Cat