Academic Workshops

  • Newsela & Storybird, Unite! July 2017 (Grades 3-6)
  • Write. Observe. Revise. Discover: Building Confidence & Creative Identity on the Blank Page July 2017 (Grades 5-7)
  • Grammar, Reading & Study Skills Boost. August 2017 (Grades 3-5)
  • Word! A Writing Skills Intensive. August 2017 (Grades 4-6)

Newsela & Storybird, Unite!

July 2017 (Grades 3-6)

2 weeks $1300, 1 week $650

  • Just 16 spots open for both weeks!
  • Located at 15871 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049
  • 9am–3pm (learning blocks: 9-10:30am & 10:45-12:15 Newsela nonfiction; 1-2pm Storybird fiction /// 2-3pm swim, snacks, play, create)
  • All supplies provided; BYO snack & lunch
  • For incoming 3rd – 6th graders, all abilities
  • 4-1 student-to-mentor ratio
  • For more details, contact info@sakensportscamp.com

Let’s power up your student’s reading and writing progress this summer! Our new, two-week workshop for incoming 3rd-6th graders, designed and taught by professional educators, utilizes two of the best education technology resources available!

In our first learning block, we’ll work with Newsela, an online platform that’s transforming the way learners access the world through words. Newsela publishes high-interest news articles at five levels of complexity for grades 2-12, complete with standards-based quizzes, color-coded notemaking, and writing prompts to give rapid, individualized insight into each student’s strengths and weaknesses in nonfiction fluency and critical thinking skills that are necessary for mastering informational texts.

Our second daily learning block features Storybird, a safe and positive online environment that helps all ages and abilities find their creative voice and boost their literacy, inspiring learners to write better and read often. Powered by a library of 10,000 eye-popping professional illustrations, student creativity is jumpstarted, avoiding the blank-page problem. Simple tools keep kids engaged in the writing process as they develop original poems, picture books and chapter books, each automatically formatted into beautiful stories available online, as eBooks, or in print.

New! Write. Observe. Revise. Discover: Building Confidence & Creative Identity on the Blank Page

July 2017 (Gr. 5-7)   $650

  • 1 workshop only! Just 16 spots open!
  • Located at 15871 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049
  • 9am–3pm (learning blocks: 9-10:30am, 10:45-12:15, 1-2pm /// swim, snacks, play, create: 2-3pm)
  • All supplies provided; BYO snack & lunch
  • 4-1 student-to-mentor ratio
  • An upper-level workshop for strong, eager writers, and those in the making!
  • For more details, contact info@sakensportscamp.com

Developing your creative voice takes practice, patience, and a willingness to play. Our new, weeklong workshop, designed and taught by professional educators, provides upper-level students with a unique opportunity to nurture their creative identity, strengthen their writing stamina and quality, and learn how to live a writerly life. The array of strategies and techniques we use will enhance students’ personal writing style in all genres. As we tinker with idea generation, expansion and compression, organization, sound and syntactical structure, explore published gems and meaningful memories, students will come to recognize and honor their own authentic voice. A brief sample of our activities include:

  • Storytelling through song lyrics, music playlists, and 140-character tweets
  • 6-word memoirs
  • Storybird poetry and picture books
  • Parlor games like “Ask the Oracle,” Mad Gab, and Taboo
  • The Imitation Game
  • 20+ “What to Write When” playful prompts for all occasions and moods

Participants will at various times collaborate in mentor-led peer critique groups, partner up, and go solo in our writing adventures. A single week of creative exploration can unlock a lifetime of inspiration, and take-away toolkits will remain a valuable resource for years to come!

Grammar, Reading & Study Skills Boost

August 2017 (Gr. 3-5) $650

  • Back by popular demand! Just 16 spots open!
  • Located at 15871 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, CA  90049
  • 9am–3pm (learning blocks: 9-10:30 reading, 10:45-12 grammar, 12:45-2 study skills // 2-3pm swim, snacks, play)
  • All supplies provided; BYO snack & lunch
  • For incoming 3rd – 5th graders, all abilities
  • 4-1 student-to-mentor ratio
  • **This course is a prerequisite for any 4th grade students, and strongly recommended for any 5th grade students, who wish to join the following week’s Writing Skills Intensive**

Presenting a weeklong Grammar, Reading & Study Skills Boost, designed and taught by professional educators, uniquely structured for incoming 3rd-5th graders! Take advantage of this opportunity for your student to catch up or get ahead on fundamentals before the new school year! We start each morning off with reading strategy practice that targets grade level comprehension standards. In our middle learning block, students dive into grammar exercises that first emphasize a sentence’s core parts, then encourage students to stretch their content and arrange new ideas in various ways by understanding what information they convey and what punctuation we must use. After lunch, we regroup to practice key study skills such as summarization, notemaking methods, test prep strategies, material organization, and long-term assignment planning. Please note! Our Grammar, Reading & Study Skills Boost is a prerequisite for any 4th graders, and highly recommended for any 5th graders who wish to join the following week’s Writing Skills Intensive. Only 16 spots available!

Word! A Writing Skills Intensive

August 2017 (Gr. 4-6) $650

  • Back by popular demand! 16 spots open!
  • Located at 15871 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, CA  90049
  • 9am–3pm (learning blocks: 9-10:30, 10:45-12:15, 1-2pm /// swim, snacks, play: 2-3pm)
  • All supplies provided; BYO snack & lunch
  • For incoming 4th – 6th graders, all abilities
  • 4-1 student-to-mentor ratio
  • **Grammar, Reading & Study Skills Boost workshop is a prerequisite for new 4th grade students and strongly recommended for new 5th grade students who wish to join our Writing Skills Intensive**

Enrollment in our acclaimed Writing Skills Intensive ensures that your student will hit the ground running in the new school year! The Writing Skills Intensive, designed and taught by professional educators, is a unique and exciting weeklong workshop specifically structured for the challenges that incoming 4th, 5th, and 6th graders face in the year ahead. With a mentor-to-student ratio of 4-to-1, all students are guaranteed to succeed. Together, we dive deep into each phase of the writing process and cover the 6 key Traits of Writing, first analyzing others’ work before developing our own nonfiction texts from three angles: informational, descriptive, and persuasive writing. Students utilize highly effective techniques to craft their own creative nonfiction while collaborating in mentor-led peer critique groups and strengthening their independent work habits. Get ready to see major progress over multiple paragraphs, starting at the line level with students’ newfound appreciation for the power of a single sentence! Participants present a sampling of their best work at our Publishing Party on the final day. Their Writing Toolkit will remain a valuable resource for years to come.

Contact us at fun@sakensportscamp.com or carlye@sakensportscamp.com for additional information!