Watch Us Grow!

Welcome to WordPlay 2011, a site created in a single day on Friday, August 12, 2011 at the end of our week-long summer program for students entering grades 7-9. WordPlay was sponsored by Emerson Preparatory School in Washington, D.C.

This blog will remain up indefinitely, so the WordPlay 2011 team and guests can check back over the weeks, months, and maybe even years as they grow up, learn more, and find their way with words.
~The WordPlay Publishers

From the Executive Editor

When we walked into WordPlay on Monday morning, we met people we’d never seen before. The first thing we did was a research project using our names. I chose nature--N for Nina, N for Nature. We walked around Dupont Circle noticing things we hadn’t noticed before. What I remember the most is retracing my steps to lead everyone back to school. Different!

When we walked into WordPlay on Tuesday morning, we did magic words. We played Apples to Apples and Dictionary. We then went to the courtyard at Emerson with some chalk, and drew cool pictures and words in different alphabets. We played a guessing game called Doctor. Fun!

When we walked in to WordPlay on Wednesday morning, there where doughnuts on the table and it was Amanda’s birthday. That day we went to the heart of Dupont Circle for lunch (with more chalk!). Max and I wrote out Deoxyribonucleicacid on the pavement, big enough to go halfway around the circle. Then under it we wrote DNA. Amanda wrote ABRACADABRA the same way. We saw a bunch of people reading it; it was very funny. Epic!

When we walked into WordPlay on Thursday morning, we played the Questions game, Scrabble, and Dictionary. We then later went to the Portrait Gallery and took a bunch of pictures on the way there and back: close-ups, color, things we thought looked really cool, and just some really random photos. Exciting!

When we walked into Word Play for the last day of camp, we started on making this blog. We uploaded pictures we took the day before. We all picked our avatars. We put up Amanda’s and Nanie's I Be poems, we put up Max’s and Mona’s riddles. I found out what everyone thought of the week. Intense!

Brief Impressions from everyone else:

Amanda: Portrait Gallery. Cool!
Max: Writing words in chalk. Fun!
Nanie: Creative writing. Calm!
Mona: Apples to Apples because I got to know everyone better. Charm!

~Nina, Executive Editor

Riddles

What is it? 
Object Riddles inspired by Mr. Brown

Mona~
Through you she saw kings and queens.
The surface did not deceive,

Leaned forward and fell into another world.

Glassy and reflective but still obscures.

ɹoɹɹıɯ ɐ :ɹǝʍsuɐ

Max~

Six angels sit upon a rectangle.

They get thrown, lost, flicked, picked and flipped,

Yet they still sit and watch.

pɹɐɔ buıʎɐןd ɐ :ɹǝʍsuɐ

Mona~

You wear broken color, red with light.

Bird flies past you in its flight;

Your pattern of rose,

Thorn and all,

Ignored,

Would  a Tide Stain Stick ruin you?

ʍopuıʍ ssɐןb-pǝuıɐʇs ɐ :ɹǝʍsuɐ

Amanda

I be me, myself and I.

(Amanda)

I be Oreo’s.

I be the classic combination because when the icy cold sensation meets the dark delicious chocolate its so hard to hide the kid inside.

I be a sister to Gracie Anne, a niece to Cherry, Deb, Karen, Joel, Tim and Tex, a cousin to Shayna, Kristi, Joe, Megan, Jeremy, Connor, Spencer, Braden, and Gregg.

I be a daughter to Big Dave and Dr. Hunt.

I be the 145, the Sheridan red line stop running down Irving Park, trying not to get hit by cars.

I be 60613.

I be Mandie Moore, Amanda Miguel.

I be sweat, grime, the works-- overwhelmed and filled with ambition.

I be a granddaughter of Papa Shirl and Mama Hunt.

I be stuck in between-- at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I be the wind.

I be the ball, the last winning shot.

I be the field.

I be number fifteen.

I be Ogden International School of Chicago.

I be born and raised, Chicago Illinois-- a brick, there to stay.

I be frosted flakes with no milk in the house.

I be street smart, waiting for the cops sirens to go off.

I be lying because I just don’t know what else to do.

I be C.P six years running until time gives in.

I be feather earrings and cross necklaces.

I be the best that I can be, even though I be getting let down by the people around me.

I be running home before the cops come because I know I’m out passed curfew.

I be the shame and the things that people are constantly trying to hide.

I be through alleyways-- in and out.

I be my best friend’s bailout.

I be the first one in and the last to leave.

I be game on thirty minutes before-hand.

I be the crack-head McDonald's-- Chicago and State.

I be gum-stained dirty chi-city streets, Washington park and Newberry Library.

I be kids getting jumped on the 66.

I be Bellevue Avenue.

I be sheltered from pills popping, weed rolling, guns shooting, blunts blowing and cops chasing.

I be Law & Order SVU on USA.

I be calling just to say hello.

I be cheating in math only because I can’t keep up.

I be taking stop signs with the one and only Tanovic.

I be just saying thanks because your hate is what gave me my strength.

I be me, myself, and I, all in one and at the same time.

Nanie

I Be Different

by Nanie

I be Nigerian and Liberian

I be me and you

I be fashion

I be help

I be computer

I be quiet

I be junkfood

I be a granddaugther of a Liberian man

I be be not American

I be sister

I be T.V. Addict

I be surrond by wealth

I be animal

I be I.D.

I be me

I be D.N.A.

I be family

I be secular

I be facebook

I be cells

I be blood

I be tradition

I be passwords

I be symbols

I be diffrent