Our creative writing challenge to you is to look at the image we post below and see where it may take you and your pen. Wake up your imagination and see where this takes you! Feel free to share anything spurred on by this week's photo in the Comment section below! Continue reading

The Art Edition: On Wednesday, students created wire "characters" to sketch in different poses to aid in drawing their book characters. We learned about perspective to create backgrounds and different points of view. We discussed "visual flow" to make our book and story look interesting with recognizable characters throughout. Today we had a busy and productive afternoon- it zipped by! All the students created their book cover and began pasting in the art they created and adding illustrations. I worked with each camper individually so they felt confident about pulling their book together. Tomorrow everyone will paste or write their... Continue reading

The East Bay Children’s Book Project is helping the Friends of the Oakland Public School Libraries re-stock and re-open shuttered Oakland public school libraries. But what if a school has a library but no librarian to run it and to guide the students who use it? You might be surprised at the bitterness of the debate on this question. According to the State Department of Education, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 2, 2012, fewer than one in four school libraries has a credentialed librarian. Perhaps even more shockingly, that number is plummeting: down to 900 from... Continue reading

Our campers explored two inspiring free-write prompts yesterday, one about their name and one about an emotion. Here are some of the results: My name is Dante. My name is made from plastic. I found my name in a cereal box My name can be a super-hero. If I lost my name I would change it. -Dante My fear is a haunted house. My fear is made from nerves. I found my fear in a graveyard My fear can be really scary. If I lost my fear I would be very happy. -Alicia My name is a flowing breeze. It... Continue reading

The Art Edition: The students are excited about writing and illustrating their Children's books and so am I! On Monday we looked at books and different illustration styles, tecniques and mediums artists use. We experimented with different tecniques and materials exploring pencil, sharpies, and watercolors. Students learned how to incorporate illustration into letters by creating their name as flowers, animals and patterns. The campers all received newsprint sketchpads and spent the end of the day sketching ideas for their book characters. On Tuesday we continued exploring different art mediums so each individual can choose a material they enjoy using the... Continue reading

Our creative writing challenge to you is to look at the image we post below and see where it may take you and your pen. Wake up your imagination and see where this takes you! Feel free to share anything spurred on by this week's photo in the Comment section below! Continue reading

The Art Edition: We started off Wednesday morning with some Observational Drawing. Campers first did warm up drawings called Gesture Drawings which are quick- sometimes only 30 seconds. From there we did extended Contour Drawings. Then campers selected a Gesture Drawing to translate into a 3-dimensional wire sculpture. Students spent the latter part of the morning working on preliminary sketches that tomorrow they will begin to transpose into illustrations of the stories they have been writing. Mira with Gesture Drawing Noah Drawing Maddie with Wire Sculpture Izzy's Wire Sculpture Charlotte's Preliminary Sketch The Writing Edition: Today campers finished up their... Continue reading

The Art Edition: It's been a busy couple mornings of art making. We've looked at various books for story illustration inspiration. Tuesday we focused on the painted paper collage work of Eric Carle. We've also talked about various media artists use: collage, watercolor or photography, for instance and have focused on developing painting techniques such as color mixing and watercolor paintbrush techniques. By week's end students will create at least one large finished original illustration for their story. Below are examples of what we've been up to so far. Books for Inspiration Izzy's Sketchbook Cover Noah with color mixing project... Continue reading

Our creative writing challenge to you is to look at the image we post below and see where it may take you and your pen. Wake up your imagination and see where this takes you! Feel free to share anything spurred on by this week's photo in the Comment section below! Continue reading

The Art Edition: On day 4 we finished our mixed media maps, using sharpie to accentuate the lines and then using watercolor and colored pencil to color it in. Also, we looked at the work of artist Alexander Calder who is well known for his mobiles and started working on aluminum mobiles. On to the Writing Edition: On day four we discussed the idiom "flights of fancy" and using our imaginations came up with our own definitions of what a flight of fancy was to us! Here are some excerpts: At the top of the hill an ancient evil lives.... Continue reading

So far it's been a great, fun week. Day 1 We made sketchbooks for students to use throughout the week. Sculptures of insects with a focus on bees. Some chose to make diorama environments for them. Notice Claire's "pirate bee." Day 2 We looked at various pictures of found object sculpture and talked about why artists might used found or recycled materials to make art. Then we made a sculpture of something that flies and wrote artist's statement. We also talked about the Studio Habits of Mind developed by Harvard researchers (pzweb.harvard.edu/research/StudioThink/StudioThinkEight.htm - for more info) and used them as... Continue reading

We're off to a great start with a great bunch at Piedmont Parks and Rec! Exploring the theme of flight through art and writing, we've dipped our wings into personification and pondered what it might be like to fly. Here are some of the fanciful notions that were written today! Fireworks by Claire She plummets in pieces he explodes in color they rise and fall they dance to the beat of the cheers she twirls he leaps and the crowd goes wild. the people all watch in amazement as the dancers dance. costumes of color and a background of black... Continue reading

Our creative writing challenge to you is to look at the image we post below and see where it may take you and your pen. Wake up your imagination and see where this takes you! Feel free to share anything spurred on by this week's photo in the Comment section below! Continue reading

Aarushi Creeeek...I suddenly woke up in the middle of the night screaming AAAAA! But when I got out of bed I heard a noise downstairs. I tiptoed to the bottom of the steps and I saw the fridge open and the tomato sauce was out and the mustard. And the radishes, cucumbers, lettuce, and the ice, and everything was out. All the food started moving. They started fighting. The ketchup squirted everything. Then the blue police potatoes said “Clean up!” because it was morning. Then my mom came and said “Did you clean the kitchen?” That was a mystery. Maison... Continue reading

Every Wednesday our creative writing prompt challenges you to pick up your pen and indulge your author self! List ten grumpy words Share with us! Post your descriptions in the comments section of our blog. Continue reading

Our creative writing challenge to you is to look at the image we post below and see where it may take you and your pen. Wake up your imagination and see where this takes you! Feel free to share anything spurred on by this week's photo in the Comment section below! Continue reading

Teachers feel the brunt of educational budget cuts in many ways. In a field where in good times about 20% of teachers leave the profession in the first three years, budget cuts mean less incentive for educators to continue teaching. Following are ten ways that budget cuts harm teachers and accordingly their students. Less Pay Obviously, this is a big one. Lucky teachers will just have their pay raises reduced to close to nothing. The less fortunate ones will be in school districts that have decided to cut teacher pay. Further, teachers who work extra by taking on summer school... Continue reading

Every Wednesday our creative writing prompt challenges you to pick up your pen and indulge your author self! What would happen if everyone lived in space? What type of houses would they live in? What type of clothing would they wear? What type of food would they eat? How would they travel? Share with us! Post your descriptions in the comments section of our blog. Continue reading

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. Every sentence must do one of two things–reveal character or advance the action. Start as close to the end as possible. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them–in order that the reader may see what they are made of. Write... Continue reading

Summer camps are in full swing, but there's still time register. Check here for info! Plus - we've just added a new camp in August! *Camp at The Booksmith, San Francisco* Peanut Butter and the Pen – Food Writing for Kids© Kids ages 8 – 12 August 6th – 10th (1 week) M-F, 9:00-12:15 Location: In the cafe at The Red Vic (1665 Haight Street, across the street from The Booksmith) Cost: $250 per camper, includes a journal, pen, and snacks Continue reading

Our creative writing challenge to you is to look at the image we post below and see where it may take you and your pen. Wake up your imagination and see where this takes you! Feel free to share anything spurred on by this week's photo in the Comment section below! Continue reading

Every Wednesday our creative writing prompt challenges you to pick up your pen and indulge your author self! I wish everyone would learn to...then everyone would... Share with us! Post your descriptions in the comments section of our blog. Continue reading

Our creative writing challenge to you is to look at the image we post below and see where it may take you and your pen. In honor of summer, we've chosen this beautiful beach scene...Wake up your imagination and see where this takes you! Feel free to share anything spurred on by this week's photo in the Comment section below! Continue reading

As more of our lives become virtual and make their way online, standard ways of doing things are evolving and transitioning online as well. Some translate quite well, and make life more efficient, such as online banking, and online DMV registration. However, the debate is strong and the jury still out as to how online learning compares to traditional live learning. There are pros and cons to both, as well as hybrid programs that incorporate a little of each format. Let's compare each method, shall we? Traditional Live Classes Pros Traditional classrooms give you the type of responsibility to showing... Continue reading

Every Wednesday our creative writing prompt challenges you to pick up your pen and indulge your author self! What would happen if children ruled the world? Share with us! Post your descriptions in the comments section of our blog. Continue reading