2010 6, 7, & 8 Grade Camp on YouTube!
After all the hard work on their storyboards, filming and editing, Scott Gowans and Cindy Gaillard from WOSU posted our campers
COSI Public Service Announcements on YouTube. They did an awesome job and we’re so proud of them! Enjoy!

2010 Summer Camp Writings
Enjoy this poem from our camper Gus from this year's Summer Camp!

I see the words appearing
on the page,
I feel the excitement as I
see what I am creating,
I hear the scratch of the
pencil on the paper,
I taste nothing, for I am
not paying attention,
I smell the fresh paper so
close to my face
I am a writer.

-Gus, Age 10

2010 Summer Writing Camp

Jazz up your characters, experiment with new voices, and put it in writing during the 15th Annual Thurber House Summer Writing Camp. Stretch your creative muscles as you join forces with the Thurber House team of writing specialists to create cool stories, add punch to your poetry, and find innovative solutions to your characters’ challenges. Fantastic field trips are planned that will make for another fabulous summer camp experience. All we need is YOU!

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the brochure

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the registration page

Basic Camp Information

All camp sessions are held at the Thurber Center, 91 Jefferson Avenue, next door to Thurber House. Enrollment is first-come, first-served, and each week of camp is limited to 40 students. Campers will be split into four groups of ten, with one counselor per group. Grade levels refer to the grade the student will be entering in the fall. Deadline for registration is Monday, May 10. Our camps fill quickly so get your registration in soon.

Thurber House is excited to announce that we have added a second week of 2nd and 3rd grade camp. Students going into 2nd or 3rd grades will have two weeks of half-day camp from which to choose. Students going into 4th or 5th grade will choose from three week-long day camps. Students going into 6th, 7th, or 8th grade also have a choice of three week-long day camps. Students going into 9th grade are encouraged to attend our Young Writers' Studio sessions that meet every other Wednesday evening throughout the year.

Thurber House Strives to Meet New Education Challenges

Our summer camp philosophy is to provide opportunities to explore creative
writing in many different forms. Thurber House recently joined the Ohio
STEM Learning Network and will be incorporating STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math) approaches into our camp offerings. Critical thinking,
innovation, and problem solving have always been the foundation for good
writing skills and are needed for future scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the brochure

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the registration page

Scholarship Information

Students whose families need financial assistance may apply for one of a limited number of scholarships, thanks to our generous sponsors. They are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Full scholarships require a $10 non-refundable registration fee and verification of enrollment in a free school lunch program or letter from a school official stating financial need. Partial scholarships require verification of enrollment in a reduced school lunch program or a letter from a school official stating the need for partial financial assistance, the $10 registration fee, and one half of the tuition fee ($48 for grades 2-3, $83 for grades 4-8).

Scholarship spaces are reserved in the requested week along with all other registrations. Since our camps fill quickly, we highly recommend submitting your scholarship requests as soon as possible. Deadline for scholarship requests is Monday, April 26, 2010.

Four special full scholarships, also based on financial need, will be given in memory of Thurber House Volunteers Babette Sirak, Ruth Spain, Norm Spain and Jan Hammock. To apply for this scholarship, follow the guidelines and deadlines as listed above.
We are no longer accepting scholarship applications.

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the brochure

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the registration page

2010 Summer Camp Schedule:
June 14-18:
2/3 grade camp; 1-4:30 p.m.This camp is full. The waitlist is closed.
June 21-25: 2/3 grade camp; 1-4:30 p.m.This camp is full. The waitlist is closed.
June 28-July 2: 6/7/8 grade camp; 9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.This camp is full. The waitlist is closed.
July 5-July 9: NO CAMP
July 12-16: 6/7/8 grade camp; 9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.This camp is full. The waitlist is closed.
July 19-23: 6/7/8 grade camp; 9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.This camp is full. The waitlist is closed.
July 26-30: 4/5 grade camp; 9:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m.This camp is full. The waitlist is closed.
Aug. 2-6: 4/5 grade camp; 9:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m.This camp is full. The waitlist is closed.
Aug. 9-13: 4/5 grade camp; 9:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m.This camp is full. The waitlist is closed.
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FOR GRADES 2 & 3: June 14 - 18, June 21 - 25 1:00 - 4:30 p.m.

Start with a sentence that grabs the reader and pulls them into your story. Create characters who keep you turning the pages. Sprinkle in sensory details and weave an ending that will bring a smile, a tear, or a twist that surprises everyone. All this and more will entice our young campers to fill their notebooks this year. Each day includes a mid-afternoon snack.Please register for just one week.

Guest Teachers and Activities:
• Where do you find character ideas? Artist Ginny Baughman uncovers characters in the most unusual places, including the junk pile. Take unlikely items, put them together, and create a creature that sparks a new story or poem. You might recycle, reuse, and repeat for fun that lasts all summer long.
• Storyteller Sally Crandall finds music a source of inspiration. With Sally at the lead, campers will walk to the Jazz Arts Group’s Jazz Academy and explore writing poems that when put to music become a new rhythm and blues sensation.
• Picture books, comics and graphic novels show us how illustrations can complement the words of a story. Campers will craft their own animal tales with Kathy Matthews and then head outside with O’Linda Jansupka to put chalk to cement and bring their stories to life on the sidewalks of Jefferson Avenue.
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FOR GRADES 4 & 5: July 26 - 30, August 2 - 6, August 9 - 13
9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Imagine your own cast of characters and give each of them a voice, a home, friends, enemies and all in the span of a week at Thurber Summer Writing Camp. Explore new points of view, problem solve, and let your creative juices flow as guest authors inspire you to reach new heights. Campers will bring their own lunch each day; Thurber House provides an afternoon snack. Please register for just one week.

Guest Teachers and Activities:
• Put on your thinking cap and join Dr. John Becker, Bob Claymier, and Kim Byerly as they challenge campers to find new approaches to a sticky issue –recycling. Brainstorm creative solutions, write up your ideas on recycled paper, and create a book that will be on display long after camp is over.
• What are the challenges facing your character? Educator and storyteller, Jim Flanagan uses role-playing, problem solving, and brainstorming, to discover ways for your characters to overcome even the worst situations you can throw at them.
• What brought them together? What are they thinking? Where are they going? Answer these questions and more as Sarah Magill leads campers on a quest through the Columbus Art Museum’s Fur, Fin and Feathers family-friendly exhibition about animals in art, showcasing works from their permanent collection.
• Included in the week is a special all-day field trip to the brand new Grange Insurance Audubon Center. Campers will spend the day exploring the grounds around the Scioto River, where thousands of birds migrating from Central and South America stop during their long journeys. Observe, collect data, inquire and share your findings through your writing and along the way, inspire others to care for our fragile environment.
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FOR GRADES 6, 7, & 8: June 28 - July 2, July 12 - 16, July 19 - 23
9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Are you ready to put beats to your poetry? Maybe you want to film a cutting-edge video short on your way to becoming the next Steven Spielberg. Rev up your imagination, revise your best stories and dazzle fellow campers with your best work at the open mic session at the end of each day. Be prepared for anything and everything at this year’s Thurber Summer Writing Camp. Campers will bring their own lunch each day; Thurber House provides an afternoon snack. Please register for just one week of camp.

Guest Teachers and Activities:
• Thurber House has joined forces with the Jazz Arts Group (JAG) to take your poetry to new heights. Work with one of JAG’s talented artists at the Jazz Academy as you create rhythmic rhymes, coupled with off-the-hook beats, and impress friends and family with your trend-setting performance.
Chiquita Mullins-Lee, playwright and poet, returns to Thurber camp this year to delve into creating characters, fictional or real, present-day or historical. Get inside their minds to determine motive, attitude, background, and personality, all the traits that affect how a character thinks ans acts. From this information, craft dialog that tells their unique story.
• Writing for film is a whole different story, as campers will discover when cartoonist and artist, Russell Merritt, brings his storyboarding expertise to Thurber Camp. View your story through the lens of a camera, learn how film can express emotions, and even tell what your character is thinking without uttering a word.
• Thurber House is thrilled to be working with our friends at WOSU-TV
to continue the video experience. During our visit to the WOSU studios at COSI, campers will shoot their own one-minute video, edit it using computer software, and share the finished product with the rest of camp. Who knows? Your video may even make it on-line!
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Click here for a downloadable PDF of the brochure

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the registration page

 

2009 Summer Writing Camp

Catch some of what we did last summer:

A few of our 4th and 5th grade campers describing the intricate entrance to the Bar of Modern Art.

Campers creating stories and illustrations using the Topiary Garden as a backdrop.

Hard at work with one of the character activities.

Thurber House's Children's Writer in Resident, Hope Anita Smith, working with one of our campers.

Guest teacher and puppeteer Nancy Lacher working with the students.

One of our brave campers sharing her work at open mic.

A glance at our campers during their tour of the Lincoln Theatre.

The amazing Word Wall created during the 2nd and 3rd grade camp.

A few campers working together during the activity with the Columbus Council on World Affairs.





Thurber House ould like to extend a special thanks for their generous support of our Children's Programs to PNC Bank, Grange Insurance, JP Morgan Chase, State Auto Insurance Company, and Charles L. Bluestone, Esq.

We also thank the Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Ohio Arts Council, and the Robert Bartels fund of the Columbus Foundation for their ongoing support of our programs.
PNChttp://www.jpmorganchase.com/cm/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1159304834085&pagename=jpmc/Page/New_JPMC_Homepage

http://www.stateauto.com

http://www.gcac.orghttp://www.oac.state.oh.us http://www.columbusfoundation.org