This summer, campers in grades 4-6 joined us for three weeks of stories and imagination at our Youth Writing Center. Each week, we paired a fun writing theme with hands-on art and learning activities, matching performances with playwriting, comics with superhero stories, and science fiction with circuit-building.
In addition to penning the finest stories around, our young authors traded friendship bracelets (and wove together friendships for a lifetime), learned how to play kickball, and had some good old-fashioned fun in the sun at our local park.
During the first week of camp, students entered The Secret Laboratory and imagined inventions for a better world. They wrote stories about sentient robots, created adventures for their “kid genius” characters, and came up with gadgets to solve everyday problems (like learning how to dance before prom!). They got to bring some of these ideas to life using LittleBits kits, cardboard, and other materials. At the end of the week, students presented their ideas in 826 “Shark Tank”, and were rewarded thousands of 826 Bucks for their efforts (not redeemable in store).
During the second week, students got in touch with their dramatic side. They created original characters, practiced emotional monologues, and wrote thoughtful and funny short plays. They learned the art of improv, created puppets, and built spaghetti-and-marshmallow towers to work on their team-building skills. At the end of the week, students performed their plays and monologues in an epic staged performance—stories about Greek God descendants, to finding the last cup noodles at the end of the world, to treating a concussion, and so much more!
During the final week, students created comics and illustrated stories. No capes were required though—they learned about superhero comics, graphic novels, webcomics, newspaper comics, and manga. They created compelling origin stories, put together stories without words, and even made artist avatars in the spirit of Akira Toriyama. At the end of the week, they celebrated their original comics in 826NYC Con, a comic convention where they could dress as their characters and talk about their art & story.
We’re a little bit bummed that camp is over, but we can’t wait to welcome students back this fall. Check out what we’ve got cooking for the 2024-2025 school year and sign your young writer up here.