Writing for an Audience

The first day of camp began with registering the campers and giving them their shirts. Once most of the kids were settled in the auditorium, our first presenter of the camp began. The presenters were from The Melon Project, a group devoted to helping impoverished children in Kenya receive a good education with all the supplies they might need. They shared many touching photos with the campers. This group comes every year on the first day of camp to introduce the campers to their audience. They are their audience because all of their stories, once published, will be brought to their school. Once the presenters were finished, the campers were divided into their classes based on their rising grade level.

In the classes, most instructors lead their campers in many fun get-to-know-you games and activities. These included an adapted version of bingo and a mock interview process. After this, the campers enjoyed some time outside as they ate their snack.

Once back in the classroom, the instructors started to get the campers to think about their writing pieces. Instructors helped the kids brainstorm ideas and think about important parts of the writing process.

Additionally, some of the younger campers worked on their presenting skills. They did this by drawing pictures of all the things they liked and then presenting those pictures to the rest of the class.
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This wrapped up the beginning of the day. But, campers staying for the afternoon session, ate lunch and awaited the next part. In this session students were able to choose between a fiction class, a spoken word class, and a podcasting class. This opportunity is new to the Young Writers’ Camp this year and allows campers to work on these specialized interests.