This Fall nearly 150 1st and 2nd grade Jr. SCORES participants discovered soccer and creative writing through an imaginary trip to play in the Space Soccer Jamboree. The Juniors were the main characters in a children’s story written and illustrated all about them and their SCORES season, but with an extraterrestrial twist.
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| Characters from the Jr. SCORES curriculum blast off on the cover of a new book produced by our SCORES staff. |
The story prompted students to work on a series of writing and drawing activities to complete their journey through space. Throughout their travels, students saved the Rhyme Rocket from running out of rhymes, created team flags, wrote letters home, and performed a poem to break a tie in the championship game.
After hearing the first story in the seven-week series, many Juniors believed they were really in for the trip of a lifetime. Others drew up elaborate theories proving the impossibility of an afterschool trip to the moon. Regardless, it didn’t take long for all the students to realize that their imagination would be their spaceship and a story can be their ticket to a faraway place. As Coach Dante from John Muir said, “The hard part wasn’t getting them to start writing, it was getting them to stop so we could get to soccer practice.”
At the end of the season students turned in books full of poems, writing and art. We didn’t plan on having a Jr. Poetry Slam, but many students have volunteered to share their work at the final Game Day. At an end of the season, a focus group of writing coaches agreed that this innovative curriculum engaged and challenged their students. It gave kids who may have had a rough day a chance to escape to another world during their afterschool time. The only question left now is, “Where are we off to next?”
- Marty Mannion
Jr. SCORES Program Manager
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