So Much More Than Sugar and Spice

This week was all about the ladies as we met for our first of two Girl Power workshops in July!

Sugar and spice and everything nice . . .

That's what little girls are made of.

Come on, girls are so much more than that!

We started off by closing our eyes and thinking about our dreams for the future.  What do we want to be when we grow up?  What type of women do we want to be?  What will we do with our time and talents?

We did this in style, of course.

We wrote out our dreams. 

We shared them with one another.

It was fun to see what the others want to do, where they want to live, whether they want to get married or have children.

We are aspiring authors, artists, vets, wives, mothers, cityslickers, country folks, beach lovers, and European travelers.



BUT WAIT!  Girls couldn't always have such big dreams!

We spent the rest of our class reading and learning about women who did amazing things at times when women didn't have the same rights as men such as Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Blackwell, and Amelia Earhart.  We also read about women like Rosa Parks, Sally Ride, and Sandra Day O'Connor whose more recent contributions also show some serious girl power!

What will we contribute?

  There's no chance unless you take one!

Join us on Tuesday, July 31 at 6:00 pm for another Girl Power workshop!  









Review of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puppet-Style

It was a stormy morning in Nashville and YAY to all the parents and grandparents who dragged their kids out in the pouring rain to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the downtown Nashville Public Library!  I was right there with you, people, hydroplaning on I-40 but very determined to see some Shakespeare.  What a huge crowd! 

This production is the second of three puppet show adaptations of William Shakespeare's works offered by Wishing Chair Productions at the Nashville Public Library this year.  According to Wishing Chair Productions, "This series is intended to open the door to the world of classical theater and text by providing young audiences with a clear plotline and some verse so that the stories they are sure to be asked to read in high school will become familiar ones."   I seriously want to hug these people.

The puppetry is incredible.  Adult-size King Oberon and Queen Titania have illuminated, searing eyes.  As I understand it, some of the puppets were crafted at the library in the puppet workshop by the Wishing Chair Productions staff.  Wow.  The adults were as fascinated as the kids by the puppets and scenery.  The vocal talent includes Denice Hicks, Brain Russell, and Mark Cabus, some of Nashville's finest actors.  The original score was composed by Belmont University's Dan Landles. 

Shakespeare's most performed play has something for everyone:  whimsical fairies, swooning lovers, bloody swords, a girl fight, a wedding, a donkey (whose ears and hee-haw were incredibly funny), and some of the most recognized lines from Shakespeare: 

"The course of true love never did run smooth."

"Reason and love keep little company together nowadays."

And, one of my personal favorites, "Though she be but little, she is fierce."  I know a lot of girls like that!  Puck's journey around the Earth drew cheers from the crowd.

Be advised:  this performance is recommended for ages 6 and up for several reasons.  It is long (70 minutes) so the little ones get restless and disruptive which isn't fair to the otherwise entranced audience members.  It has some scary stuff for the toddler crowd, like loud noises, smoke, and a few moments of pitch black.  Finally, it is Shakespeare, so two people in the play within the play kill themselves with swords and blood is represented by a red scarf.  The scene itself is funny (I know, sounds weird) but I can imagine that some parents might not want to expose young kids to it.   Finally, Shakespeare uses the "a" word for donkey and so does Wishing Chair Productions; if you're especially sensitive to that sort of thing, you'll hear it at least 3 times.

Overall, in my opinion, this production was a real treat!   Me thinks I am enamored of it.   Better than what Titania was enamored with.  

Recommended reading for before or after: 
For the younger kids
A Midsummer Night's Dream for Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun!) by Lois Burdett.  Favorite quote from book:  "I think Shakespeare should have called it A Midsummer Nightmare!  I mean who would want to fall in love with a donkey?"  by Ellen, age 7.
For the older kids
Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream for Kids by Brendan Kelso and Shana Lopez.  I love that the authors call it "The melodramatic version!"
  
The next puppet show is Hamlet!  Really?  I am intrigued.

And We Didn't Even Break Anything at Firstlight

This Tuesday's No Girls Allowed workshop was so much fun that I was shocked when the clock said 8:00.  I don't think I'm the only one who had fun!

What do you get when you combine a group of first and second grade boys with their imaginations, a bunch of Nintendo DS devices, modeling clay, cool music, paper, pens, and encouragement? 

1.  You get boys drumming with ink pens to "I Like Captain Underpants" which, by the way, is actually a catchy tune.  If you can't appreciate that and a little reasonable potty humor, well, you shouldn't be in charge of a group of 1st and 2nd grade boys.  There's a time and place for most everything, and we weren't in the presence of the Queen.

2.  You get really cool superhero figurines made out of clay.  This is Carson's C-Man.  Wish you could see it up close.

3.  You get boys whose brains are buzzing with all kinds of funny, action-packed, and original ideas.  And they want to get those ideas down on paper which means they are writing . . . during the summer . . . with no one standing over their shoulders forcing them to do it.

4.  You get boys who ask if they can skip the next group activity because they "just want more time to work on my story."  

5.  You get boys who are reading poetry and rating each poem.  Are you kidding?  Everyone knows real men read poetry.

6.  And, you get boys who are totally cool if they have to borrow some girl's pink DS for the workshop.  Because you can be comfortable in your masculinity if you just wrote a story about a superhero who can run faster than 5 cheetahs and you just defeated Water Ninja.

7.  You get boys who are writing together, assuming the identities of their superheroes, collaborating on story lines, and having a blast!

8.  You get boys who run to their parents and ask for the first edition copy of Captain Underpants and the latest Shel Silverstein book of poems.

Last night, I was introduced to Bertha, a superheroine who turns into a bear when people are in trouble; Bart, a superhero who can fly and breathe underwater; Lightning Hero, a superhero who shoots lightning balls out of his ear; Water Ninja, whose nemesis is the Ice King; and C-Man, who uses his powers to battle Zombies.  

What were you doing last night?  What were your kids doing last night to exercise their imaginations and nurture their love of reading?

What Happens When the Girls Aren't Around

Boys' Night this Tuesday at our first of two No Girls Allowed workshops!  Our reading for the evening included Captain Underpants, Diary of A Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and Shel Silverstein.

After talking about those very cool books and their very cool authors, we used our imaginations to envision our own superheroes.   After all, Dav Pilkey, author of the hugely popular Captain Underpants series, developed his wacky superhero while he still a kid.  We could be authors, too, and write stuff that other kids would like to read.  The only rule:  no copies of existing superheroes.  

We brainstormed on paper, considering what superpowers our superhero would have. How did he get those superpowers? Does he have a supervillain nemesis? After jotting down our preliminary ideas, we took to the Model Magic. We tried to mold with the Model Magic the superheroes we were seeing in our imaginations.

Sometimes we changed our minds about colors or superpowers.  It didn't matter.  It was a work in progress.  We could be as crazy as we wanted!

We could be as loud as we wanted! 

Look at some of our cool creations!    

But a superhero story is B-O-R-I-N-G if all your superhero does is sit there.  Nobody would want to read that book!   So, to get our minds thinking about action, we made some paper airplanes.

What do airplanes do?  They fly!  They shoot guns!  They drop water on stuff on fire!  People jump out of them!  All this action gave us ideas for plot for our own superhero adventures.

 

If you're a boy in elementary school, you can join us on Tuesday, July 10 for our second No Girls Allowed workshop!   If you missed the first one, it's ok!  Have your parent send us an email and we'll get you ready to roll.   Girls, your time is coming . . . it's all about GirlPower starting July 17.

New Workshops Nearly Every Week in July

July is here, and we're offering 3 workshops this month to keep kids' brains buzzing this summer.  "Like" us on Facebook to receive updates and more information.  Register for any workshop by commenting on this blog or by posting on Facebook.  Email is fine, too.

More Than A Book Club Session 2   

Mondays, July 2, 9, 16 & 30 (skipping July 23)                           

6:00 to 7:30 p.m.         $150 for all 4.  If you need to miss one, we'll adjust your cost.

Recommended for rising 3rd through 6th grades.

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan (Newbery Honor Book)

"Will anyone take on Jake Semple?  Jake Semple is notorious. Rumor has it he burned down his old school and got kicked out of every school in his home state.   Only one place will take him now, and that's a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic and hilarious family of artists. The only one who doesn't fit the Applewhite mold is E.D.—a smart, sensible girl who immediately clashes with the unruly Jake.   Jake thinks surviving this one will be a breeze . . . but is he really as tough or as bad as he seems?" 

This book especially speaks to those kids who are a little different, who may have some trouble fitting in at school or even within their own families. It's about finding your purpose, passion, and place in the world. Author Stephanie S. Tolan is known not only for her fiction but also for her writings and advocacy in the field of gifted education (Is It a Cheetah?). The sequel to this book is hot off the press. We may take it on if time permits.

More Than A Book Club: No Girls Allowed!                                                                       

Tuesdays, July 3 & 10 from 6 to 8 pm.  Come once for $35 or twice for $60.  Each date is different.  Recommended for rising 1st through 5th grades.

What do boys want? More! More adventure, more silliness, more noise and more humor. So, boys will be boys--but what's wrong with that? Nothing, during No Girls Allowed!

With the help of boy favorites such as Captain Underpants and Shel Silverstein, we'll celebrate all the wonderful things about being a boy.  This is an all-boys class--and fun is the fun, as boys learn that reading is a fun choice!  It's a world where boys get expelled from preschool at nearly five times the rate of girls, are diagnosed with attention problems or learning disorders four times as much as girls, and are twice as likely to get held back.  What's the solution?  Engaging boys in a way that excites them, and closing the expanding gap between the sexes in the areas of reading and writing.

No Girls Allowed! is literacy-rich and filled with boy-friendly activities in the areas of reading, writing, and out-of-the-box thinking.  Paper airplanes will soar and so will your son's imagination!

More Than A Book Club:  GirlPower                                                                                              

Tuesdays,  July 17 & 31  from 6 to 8 pm.  Come once for $35 or twice for $60.  Each date is different.  Recommended for rising 1st through 5th grades.     

Sugar and spice and everything nice . . . come on, girls are so much more than that!  In GirlPower, there are no damsels in distress!  We'll discover smart, daring, and sweet women who have contributed to our world in all sorts of amazing ways.  By these examples girls will see that it's who you are inside and what you contribute that's important -- not how you look or what peers tell you is right for you!   Besides, who says you're not perfect?  That you're not worth it?  We'll improve girls' self-esteem and ability to resist peer pressure through the books we read, the music we listen to, and our own special GirlPower ceremony.

See you there!