Camp Write a Lot with Susie

Today Susie presented her Camp Write a Lot to get 4th graders ready for the writing portion of TAKS which is their standardized test. We had a lot of fun.

Before school started, I started out by opening up the "windows" of the tent to get ready for the day. There were some pre kinders in the library waiting to go to their rooms so I decided to perform for them. I did crazy things in the tent while I was opening up the windows. I played peek a boo with them. I tried to fish inside the tent. I put on the plastic innertube and pretended to swim inside the tent. I pretended to take fish off the innertube and put them over our fire to cook them, and then I tossed them out to the kids. Anyway it was fun for me and for them.

Anyway back to Susie. She was a camp director giving directions over the bullhorn, fishing for tips for good writing, telling scary stories around the campfire, singing camp songs for writing, and handing out mail (smores for the kids), but she made the teachers perform for the mail for their students. The kids really liked that.

Here are some pictures of her. Notice her camp wardrobe. We went shopping at Goodwill for her camp clothes.

Here she is using the bullhorn to welcome the students and give directions. She made sure she had the horn turned up high so the camp static noise made it sound authentic. Inside the tent is a desk where she was writing while the students filed into the library.

I helped Susie fish. I was behind the stand, and I handed her the fish with the steps and pointers for getting ideas for writing.

She read a scary story in the dark with a flashlight to highlight her face for an eerie effect. Afterwards she challenged the students to write their own scary stories. It'll be fun to hear some of their stories tomorrow. To her right, notice the makeshift fire using UT pom poms.