Summer is the perfect time to write a chapter book or a series of short stories! It's so much fun and you'll be amazed at how much your child's writing improves when they tap into their imagination. This is suitable for any kids, from avid writers to ESL learners and struggling writers…it is designed so that they’ll all have fun.

I have easy skills and harder skills. 

**Make sure you look for a message from me with things to expect in the camp and to help them brainstorm a story idea and main character before class. It will also show you how to share your work.**

This camp will help any child become a better writer and develop their confidence in every area of writing. They get to think up their chapter book idea or they can write a story each day of camp. I'll give them prompts to help them write. We have a lot of fun and they'll improve their writing a lot. 

I also give kids a more advanced guide along with bonus videos to help them write outside of camp. This is really for the kids who are very comfortable writing. If you have a beginner writer who may need more help, let me know and I'll get them started with some skills before camp. 

They can sign up for more than one week of camp if they want a longer chapter book. Every week is different...even most of the bonus videos are different! They can also continue on to my weekly chapter book class. Or they can finish in a week!

My style is gentle and kind, and I like to laugh a lot with the kids, and use multi-sensory props, which is why they'll bring fun and unique objects to every class. 

Your child can go to my public YouTube channel @authorkimpurcell for more fun bonus workshops to get started before our live class.

Here are the skills we'll work on each day of camp. 

Day One : What does every story need? A hook, interesting characters, a strange/scary setting, a problem
Writing focus - Details, use of colors and light, voice and personality
Grammar focus - POV, capitals and periods, paragraphs and quotation marks. 

Day Two: How do you describe the setting and characters? 
Writing focus - Describe using all the senses, learn to use metaphors and similes, dialogue
Grammar focus - Use correct punctuation for dialogue.

Day Three: How do you build a scene so that it's full of tension and excitement? How do you balance thoughts, reactions, dialogue and actions in order to pull in a reader? 
Writing focus - Use specific nouns and listing, use strong verbs, start each sentence in a new way.
Grammar focus - Indenting paragraphs, verb tense (present/past)

Day Four: How do you add in surprises and twists? How do you give information? How do you shock the reader? 
Writing focus - Reveals, Beautiful Language - Alliteration, Repetition, Onomatopoeia
Grammar focus - Use correct punctuation for dialogue especially. 

Structure of the class:
15 min brainstorming and talking about skills
15 min speed writing
10 min talking about a skill and giving creativity gifts (everyone brings interesting objects)
15 min speed writing

Every Week Is Different - You can sign up for multiple weeks because every day is different. If your child wants to keep writing a book, but the live class is too much of a challenge with your plans, you can add on the flex summer class and I'll keep encouraging them along through videos and emails.

Community: I love to build a positive community in my classes. We don't have time to read aloud because I give them a lot of writing time, and also, the Zoom environment is not great for reading aloud. However, students can always post stories to the classroom so everyone can read. We say only positive things. Everyone encourages each other!