Class

Creating Fantastical Worlds (for Ages 9 to 11)

This full-day summer writing experience invites young writers to explore language, imagination, and storytelling from around the world. Mornings focus on poetry as a creative passport—introducing students to poetic forms from different cultures through writing, art, and play—while afternoons expand those ideas into fantasy storytelling through worldbuilding and map-making. A midday lunch and enrichment break offers time to recharge and explore before returning to the page. Together, the day blends reading, writing, art, and critical thinking in a supportive community that encourages curiosity, creativity, and confident self-expression.

SESSION 1: Poetry Passport (for Ages 9 to 11) with Ellen Fee

Poetry can take you around the world! In this class, we’ll explore poetry forms from different countries and cultures. Students will learn poetry basics—like rhythm and figurative language—while earning stamps on their poetry passport. Then, students can take home their passport, which doubles as their own original poetry collection.

Sometimes the hardest part of writing poetry is knowing where to start. Poetry forms can provide a helpful structure that makes it easier for the poet to let their words shine. Through popular poems like the haiku and limerick, as well as lesser-known forms like the pantoum from Malaysia and the gabay from Somalia, we’ll learn about the poems as well as the places they come from. Each session will also have lots of opportunities for art, brainstorming activities, and games.

After each poetic adventure, students can design a “stamp” and add a page to their poetry passport. By the end of the class, students will have created their own miniature keepsake book, full of their poems and artwork from their week of literary globetrotting.

LUNCH AND ENRICHMENT:
We'll break for lunch with more activities that will inspire us to express ourselves while having fun! We may explore Gold Medal Park to seek creativity outside the classroom! Please bring a packed lunch.

SESSION 2: World Building and Fantasy Writing (for Ages 9 to 11) with Holly Day

In this class, we’ll learn how important geography is to our stories by building workable fantasy worlds for our characters to live in.

We’ll start with drawing out maps of the place we’d like our characters to inhabit, with special attention given to geographical features such as waterways, mountains, and even nearby planetary bodies that can be incorporated into our stories.

We’ll talk about the common-sense rules of writing place-based fiction (ranging from the basic laws of science to the physical limitations of characters), and how to step outside those rules to make our stories even more interesting. We'll discuss contemporary authors students have read or are reading on their own, and discuss what makes those stories work, and how we can apply the lessons we've learned through critical reading to our own writing.

Aspiring writers, grab your notebooks and pens, and let’s write at the Loft!