This Winter in our "Shhh! Secrets" curriculum we focused on the worlds built up around the secrets we decide to harbor and share. We also broke down the elements of character and backstory with our activities in secret identities and secret recipes! Check out some of the excerpts below!
From various prompts on personification:
My secret is made from fur and stuffing and lots and lots of sleeping powder, the world’s largest grizzly bear, and lots of happiness.
I found it guarded in the core of the Earth. Guarded by a griffan and boa constrictor waiting for me.
My secret can fly and carry me in its arms. It can find answers for my problems and jump over danger.
If I lost this secret, the Universe would blow up and everything would be wrong.
-Zoe
My secret is made of shadows
Whose darkness spreads through the
Earth
Like a virus
Infecting the human soul.
-Wai-Kirn
My secret is born from an egg.
My secret is made of feathers.
I found my secret in a tree.
It could kill a lion.
If I lost my secret I would definitely go looking for it.
-Noe
My secret is made from the deep of my heart.
I found it in the beautiful
Sky, with pretty flowers and lovely animals.
My secret can surprise everyone, but not
Me.
If I lost my secret I would die a million times, with tears all over my face.
-Cecilia
My secret is made from lots of spices, the coldest ice on earth, and the hottest sand. I found it in a museum, guarded by lasers. If I lost this secret the ancients would come together at incredible speeds and the earth would explode.
-Michael
From our exercise on secret recipes:
The Recipe for Having a Baby
1. Drink 10 cups of coca-cola a day.
2. Kiss a Gorilla on the lips and put your tongue in the Gorilla’s nose.
3. Put 1 ½ Tablespoons of baking soda in a blender with 2 drops of your favorite soap. Pour in 2 cups of water, then blend until thick.
4. Drink it!
5. It will take 2 minutes for your belly to get fat. And then 9 months for the baby to come.
6. The baby will cry. A lot.
-Karina
Friendship Cake
Get a big bowl. Put in 10 teardrops with 9 candy hearts. Blend well for 17 minutes. Add in 1 cup of sugar, and mix well for exactly 1 minute. Combine with everything sweet— cookies, cake, juice, ice cream. Bake for 1 hour. When done, add your favorite bow on top.
-Josie
From our “I remember” exercise:
I remember our first play-date.
I remember when you told me of your fear of dresses.
I remember the awkward silence after you stole something.
I remember how it felt when you went skiing instead of coming to my birthday party.
I remember your friendship guarding me like a wall.
-Madeline
I remember lying to my sister.
I remember “No! That’s hot!”
I remember the time my dad’s bike broke.
I remember doing roly-polys down a steep hill.
I remember cracking up and spitting milk all over the table.
I remember my worst nightmare.
-Nial
I remember decorating my Christmas tree.
I remember my chores.
I remember clapping when my brother was in second-grade.
I remember getting my first stuffed animal, but I don’t remember what it was.
-Charlotte
I remember falling out of my dad’s arms.
I remember rain into a pool.
I remember crashing into a tree.
I remember when I got a dog.
-Ryan
I remember laughing with my friends.
I remember trying to make water.
I remember dropping an entire bowl of cake batter on the floor.
I remember climbing to the top of a pyramid in Mexico.
I remember tossing and turning in my bed.
-Emma
For this activity, the children were given a photo of a man dressed all in white with dark sunglasses and headphones, carrying a white case. They were asked to write about what could be in the case:
There are diamonds in the case, silver, gold, money. He just robbed a bank and is going to rob another. He has a car with jet engines, white like his outfit. He wears white so he doesn’t get hit by a car. His family kept turning him in so he had to run away. He used a jackhammer to escape. His name is Dottie, but his bank robber name is “The Impossible Robber to Catch.”
-Jakob
In the case is the Ruby of Death. And inside the Ruby is an Evil Eye. It looks for people who try to carry it away. He went to a helicopter and jumped in and told the pilot, “to China!” When he got to China he had some dim-sum, and left without paying, same as he did with the Ruby.
-Sommer
From a prompt that asked the students to create a character with a “Secret Identity”:
Her name is Wonder Girl. She wears a blue dress, blue high heels, and a headband in her blond hair. She pretends to go to the bathroom and changes by pressing a button hidden in high heels.
-Hana
Paul Kayman’s dad died when he was 6. Now he has secretly moved to the other side of the world. He is a journalist for the Daily Digest, and writes under the name John Hancock.
-Lukas
From an activity where the students chose a secret from a line and then developed a character who was keeping that secret:
Snivilus is a boy who, like many others, has a mom and dad. He lives in a mansion on an island with his mom, dad and of course his annoying sister Jane. Jane has a diary. While his sister was out he snuck into her room, six floors above his own. After one or two minutes, he found what he was looking for, her diary!
-Leila
From an activity where the students used basic decoder wheels to code and decode their own messages:
Code: YWL GML!! FG LAEW LE WPHDSF. YG.
Message: GET OUT!! NO TIME TO EXPLAIN. GO
-Jackson
