What better than a child’s fairy tale? In this mythology workshop, we studied the Popul Vuh, one of the most important indigenous texts of the New World, along with classic myths from Ancient Greece and Rome. We read multiple versions of Narcissus, then wrote about a character who was too vain. We read a Norse myth with the trickster God Loki and one of my favorites: Orpheus and Eurydice. The campers used their own knowledge of Chinese myths, their experiences, and their imaginations to build incredible worlds ripe with magic, fairies and hilarious narrators. We also worked to listen constructively and provide feedback to each other’s writing. We aimed to make each other laugh, to inspire each other, and enjoy our time together.
Rachel Gray
Badgerdog Teaching Artist
Jerry the Robot
Once there was a toy that every kid wanted. When kids have the toy they love the robot. It was a toy robot but over time there was new stuff coming out so the robot lost its popularity and it felt sad. But it became famous again because the robot had a jetpack and new attachments to it. Then at the year 3000 the world ended. The companies were so big it drained the oxygen from earth. There was too much co2 and it melted the earth.
Aidan Pierce
The Adventures of Mike the Monkey
Mike was shocked when the beam hit him. He wasn’t growing horns, he wasn’t transported inside a witch’s hut… What had happened? Had he received superpowers?
Before I can tell you that, I need to go back an hour before…
This story begins with a man. He’s an average man, nothing too special. He currently doesn’t have a job, and he can barely pay the rent for his apartment…
Which somebody is trying to destroy to build a giant arcade.
He hears the noise, waking him up. “HEY, WHAT’S ALL THIS???” He shouted as loud as he could. But it was no use, because they couldn’t hear him over the noise.
In frustration, he quickly packed everything just in case, and went down to speak to
the manager. But when he got there, they had disappeared!
He went all the way back up to his room and started hearing the noise yet again. He looked out the window and saw them there. “What…?” He said weakly, scratching his head. He walked out of his room… And the noise stopped.
Confused, he went back into his room, where the noise continued. He stuck his head back out of the room. Silence.
He continued by poking his head in, out, in, out, in, out.
He simply wanted to have a nap, so he moved his bed so that his head was sticking out of the room.
ZAP!
“What was that..?” He said, shaking. What was actually happening was that a UFO had punched a hole in his roof and was now zapping him with a beam.
Mike was shocked when the beam hit him. He wasn’t growing horns, he wasn’t transported inside a witch’s hut… What had happened? Had he received superpowers?
He got out of his bed, feeling dumb. He found himself thinking that a simple equation like 1+1 was 11. “What…” He tried to say. Instead, a strange blurt came out. “AAH!”
In fact, everything he tried to say ended up coming out as “OOH OOH AHH AAH!”
He looked at his hands and screamed like a monkey. HE WAS A MONKEY. Being broke, he decided to steal things in monkey form. He robbed a bank, took some woman’s wallet, and even stole money from the cash machine at Pete’s Pets! (Poor Pete)
Lots of police cars chased him as he swung in the air. “HOW IS HE SHOOTING WEBS FROM HIS TAIL!?” One of the cops yelled.
That’s right… Mike wasn’t just any monkey… He was SPIDER-MONKEY! To be more precise, EVIL spider-monkey.
The cops couldn’t hit Mike with tasers, so they threw blades at him. One hit him on the head, knocking him out but luckily not killing him. He was put in jail, just where he deserved to be, and everyone lived happily ever after (except Mike.)
Brandt Eggers
The Man, the Town, and the Spring
Once, in the cold town of Nome, there was a hot spring. It was the only way to get warm water, and it was how the citizens stayed warm during the winter. One day, a wealthy man came and said “I am the wealthiest man, so I am the leader of the town,and the spring is MY property. My first decree is making you pay taxes to use the water in the spring, and whoever objects gets thrown into prison!” Well, the townspeople didn’t like that. But they let it slide. But over the years, the man’s crimes were too great, so the townspeople began a revolution against the man. They stormed the mansion, threw the man into the damp, grim prison, and burnt down the mansion. When they found the money and gold, they donated it to the homeless and the needy. The next day, they celebrated their newfound independence by having a festival. Obviously, the central piece was the spring, which was now a fountain.
Andrew
Rivers of Milk
Hot chocolate bombs,
bursting through rivers,
rivers of milk,
with a taste as sweet as silk.
Marshmallows love it,
they say, “oh, this is the life!”
while exploding from the chocolate shell,
exploring their new home.
With the winter outside the window,
and no summer sun,
what could be better than the snowy fun!
Primrose
You notice a field
where flowers await
for the rightful time to stay awake.
A red robin beside me,
perched on a branch
stares at me with those hopeful eyes.
You notice the trees
against a brown and red fort
lay under it and old oak tree
expanding its roots under the primroses
and making the primroses as majestic as could be.
Isha Ladha
The Greedy Farmer
Once there was a farmer who was barely getting enough money to pay for food and shelter. One day he went outside to pluck and replant the crops when he struck something hard. The farmer dug around and pulled out a…. pot. The farmer looked at the pot perplexed. He finally went inside and put the pot down and headed off to the market. At the market the farmer sold his crops for 51 gold coins. The farmer was happy because for once in his lifetime he had some extra money.
With his fifty gold coins he bought enough food until the next harvest. The farmer went home and put the extra coin in the pot, had dinner, and went to sleep. The next morning the farmer woke up, ate breakfast and then checked on the one gold coin. But the one gold coin wasn’t in the pot, instead there were two gold coins in the pot. Startled, the farmer took out the 2 gold coins and put them back in the pot. The two gold coins clinked and fell in the pot where nothing happened. The farmer had lunch, had a nap, had dinner, and fell asleep. The next day the farmer woke up, had breakfast and checked up on his now 4 gold coins.
This continued and at the end of summer the farmer had a vault of gold coins. The farmer now had a mansion and servants to do everything he asked. One day someone knocked on the door and asked to talk to the farmer. As the person went in the farmer sat down on his chair and asked the stranger what he wanted. The stranger sat down and then told the farmer, you know that you are stealing money right?” The farmer was confused. All he needed was one gold coin and he could make as many as he wanted. The stranger explained that the pot duplicated the money by taking the needed money from other people.
The farmer dismissed this and demanded the stranger get out of his house and go back to where he came from. the end
Jahan Patel
Sonic Boom
A kid has seen a sonic boom on TV. He decided to search up Sonic boom. Here is what he learned: “Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to the human ear.The altitude of the supersonic vehicle affects how far sonic booms can travel. They’re heard based on the width of the “boom carpet.” The width ends up being about one mile for each 1,000 feet of altitude. Most bullets make small sonic booms when flying through the air, which to our ears sound like a loud “crack!” For the special forces, that makes it hard to be sneaky about what they’re shooting and doing.The power needed to move an object faster goes up roughly as the cube of the speed – so the energy per-linear distance travelled goes up roughly as the square of the speed. That energy goes largely into the sonic boom; it will be louder when the object is faster.” He printed it out on the printer and computer and showed it to his friends. ”DID YOU GET THAT FROM THE INTERNET!?” They screamed so loud that the boy’s eardrums almost split in two!
John Kim
West-Field Meadow
Violet was reading in her normal reading spot in the west-field meadow, but today something felt different. Distracted by this strange new feeling she decided to go explore the meadow. She came across a pond with tadpoles, a patch of yellow and pink flowers but nothing out of the ordinary.
Then suddenly she saw a beautiful tree with golden leaves and next saw a pink light blink, then purple then yellow! She tried to chase one of the lights and suddenly came to a patch with tiny little mushroom’s.
She looked closer and realized that those mushrooms had tiny little windows and doors inside. She peered inside the small windows and saw a fairy cooking what looked like tiny pasta! She took a peek into the next fairy house and saw tiny fairies reading tiny book’s! It was a fairy book club! She looked into the next mushroom and saw a fairy’s ballet studio with lots of little fairies with tulip tutu’s! She took a glance into the next mushroom and saw fairies having a tea party with a purplish-blue tea! “That must be bluebell tea, not sure how good that would taste though.’’ She then saw tiny dragonfly cars with fairies driving it and hopping from one mushroom to another!
She couldn’t believe her eyes. She was enchanted and entranced in this new world. Then she heard a zap and felt her eyes get heavy, and suddenly she fell to the ground and hit her head. When she woke up it was dark outside and she was back at her usual reading spot under a big oak tree. She was very confused. Was the fairy real or was it all just a dream?
Misha Patel
2173 MEGA MAC SCANDAL
The year is 2173 and McDonalds is going crazy. They released the mega mac and the ads made it look like the best triple-triple burger ever made although the burger in reality is a squashed piece of garbage. McDonald’s scheme has worked and their goal is to scam people. But, the angry populus stopped buying McDonalds and went to buy other fast food franchises. McDonald’s bought Culvers and Sonic is going SSSSSPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEDDDDYYYYY their delivery is transferred via quantum tunneling. So Wendy’s buys Sonic and In-N-out but McDonalds is broke from so much scamming and Culvers becomes itself. Also since Sonic is 2fast4U Sonic also becomes itself. How many kingdoms? Count them; 1, 2, 3. 3 kingdoms but they’re not kingdoms they’re fast food franchises (idea from oversimplified.) The war of fast food has begun. For 35 years nothing happened until Sonic did an invasion of Culvers which fell in 20 years then they renamed it to sulvic and invaded Wendy’s and did it successfully and reunited the food franchises. Just remember this all happened due to Mega-Mac :).
Thomas Gong
unbound 