Wow, is it Thursday already? This week has been flying by. Today’s book was Signed by Zelda by Kate Feiffer. In Signed by Zelda, one of the characters, Lucy, is obsessed with analyzing handwriting, and so we started off the day with some handwriting analysis of our own. Today’s writers grab bag was full of signatures by different celebrities, from Miley Cyrus to Picasso! After looking closely at the various signatures, we took handwriting off the page and went into the Thalia Theater where we learned how to “dance” our signatures with Chinese ribbon, in a session led by professional dancer (and Symphony Space staff member) Regina Larkin. Swishing the ribbons through the air, we spelled our names in flying ribbon, exploring how to use movement and space to express our identity.
Soon our author arrived, and we headed back to the camp room, where Kate Feiffer talked to us about her experience as an author and illustrator and the events that inspired her to write Signed by Zelda. We explored how writing can be visual, and used photographs as writing prompts. Kate even had us try our hands at forgery! Looking at the signatures of George Washington and Leonard Nimoy, we tried our best to copy them.
We moved on to discussing character traits, and created a blonde, strong armed, bearded man that we all drew pictures of and then wrote about in different scenarios. Kate concluded her presentation by sharing some details about her forthcoming book, which was very exciting.
After lunch, and vigorous game of Capture the Flag, we headed back to Symphony Space for some afternoon games and reading and writing (our field-trip was sadly canceled). We finished off the day with some observation-based writing exercises; sitting outside Symphony Space and writing down things we saw and heard!
Day 4 of camp done. Can’t believe tomorrow is the last day!
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