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Peanut Butter and the Pen

18 Reasons
San Francisco, CA

18 Reasons and Take My Word for It are excited to announce the second session of their 8-week after school creative writing class for 3rd-5th graders. This series is perfect for the kid who loves to write or loves to eat (or both!).

Each class meets Wednesday from 4-5PM at 18 Reasons. Parents may sign children up for the entire series or on a class-by-class basis. Those who sign up for the whole series receive a 12% discount.

New: Returning parents will get 20% off the series price if they refer a new student who signs up for the whole series.

More details
Grades
3rd-5th

Format
Class is once a week for 8 weeks, starting January 18th and ending March 7th, 2012. Each class is 1 hour, from 4-5pm. We will hold a reading for parents and friends at the end of the 8-week session

Price
Single class: $17 each
Whole series: $120 ($15 per class)
Referral rate: $96 ($12 per class)

Class content
Our focus will be on writing about many different aspects of food. Here are the class topics we are going to tackle together (subject to change):

What I Eat - Around the World in 80 Diets
http://www.whatieat.org/
Over the summer, a former instructor of ours worked for the couple that published this book. (They also put out The Material World.) We will use it as the basis for discussion and writing about our own diets and others' throughout the world.

Food and Color
Exploring food writing using color as the first consideration. What foods share the same color (bananas and lemons, eggplants and plums, chocolate and coffee)? How do certain foods of certain colors make you feel? Do you avoid foods of a certain color and/or gravitate towards foods of a certain color?

Food Comics
Using the comic strip format, the kids will create a comic hero (akin to their Food adventure character from last session) and learn how to tell a story using the graphic format.

Food Fright
What foods do you consider monstrous? What foods do you consider evil? Do certain foods give you nightmares? Exploring food and fears and how they sometimes go together.

The Life of a Seed
After learning about the stages of a seed's life, the hazards it can encounter as well as the things that help it grow, the kids will create their own seed character and write his or her life story.

There's a Fly in My Soup!
Create a funny (and mildly gross) story of a food mishap.

Pack Your Suitcase
Food Travels from the Farm to our Table
Present the story (through children's books and other resources) of how several different foods make it from where they grow to where they are eaten. Using the activity as a way to teach setting, the kids will write their own imaginary journeys for a food of their choosing.

About the instructor: Claire Rawlins is currently working on her MFA in poetry from the University of San Francisco while tutoring children through 826 Valencia. She has taught English in three different countries, worked with over 300 students, edited several non-fiction books, and co-wrote the literary website livethefood.com. This will be her second season teaching with "Take My Word For It!".

Peanut Butter and the Pen is presented in collaboration with the Bay area writing program, "Take My Word For It!". Through innovative and thought-provoking curriculum, their creative writing programs help kids get to know their author-selves in a safe, supportive setting. www.takemywordforit.net

Minimum Age: 8

Kid Friendly: Yes!

Dog Friendly: No

Non-Smoking: Yes!

Wheelchair Accessible: Yes!

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