Cereal Pool Adventures

Airiel Hayter

Age 10

Cereal Pool Adventures

Hello, I’m a Cinnamon Toast Crunch guy named Jake. I stand up and have a smile on my face and I’m happy. I have tiny green legs and tiny green hair on my head. I look like a cinnamon toast out of the box. I’m always smiling because I’m not cramped up in the box or because I’m not going to get eaten because I’m plastic and special. My dream vacation is to go jump in a big puddle of milk and go play with my friends and not get eaten!

I was sleeping and I woke up in a really good mood the next day. So I called my friends and asked them if they all wanted to hang out at the super milk pool. The super milk pool at a hotel is where there’s lots and lots of pools filled with milk. It smells like fresh milk and they change their milk every day. There’s a kiddie pool and a slide that goes into a really big pool. There’s also an adult pool and it’s really large. There’s an older people pool that’s 5ft. Then there’s a hot tub full of milk! There’s two parts to the hotel–one where you can sleep and one that’s full of all the different kinds of milk on each floor.

My friend said “yeah.” His name is Jake too. My other friends are Annie and Annabelle (they’re siblings) and Jackson. They are cinnamon toast crunch too. They met in the box and their parents didn’t want them to get eaten so they found a way to get out. They ran away to Cinnamon Land, which is also made out of different kinds of cereals.

We’re all going to go to the super milk pool together at 3:40pm and we’re going to be there until 11 o’clock at night and there’s going to be free food. We eat anything humans can eat. We’re all going to have a sleepover at Annie and Annabelle’s house.

At the pool there are big slides and buckets that dump milk on you. I ran around with my friends looking at things to do. There was a huge slide–ginormous, seven feet tall! Jackson and I wanted to go to the pool slide, and Annie and Annabelle wanted to go to the milk hot tub.

“Well, how about you guys go on the big slide, and we’ll go in the hot tub,” said Annie.

At the sleepover we watched a scary movie with popcorn. The movie is called Terrorizer. Annabelle and Jackson like scary movies, but Annie and I don’t. We watched a funny movie before bed that’s called Laugh Out Loud. Everybody had a good time.

The End

About 826michigan

826michigan inspires school-aged students to write with skill and confidence in collaboration with adult volunteers in their communities.

Our writing and tutoring programs uphold a culture of creativity and imagination and support students in establishing strong habits of mind. Through publication and community engagement, we provide students with an authentic and enthusiastic audience for their writing.

Our programs provide an energizing creative outlet for students and meaningful volunteer opportunities for community members. We believe that with one-on-one attention from caring adults, students improve their academic performance, develop a sense of belonging, and discover the unique value of their voices.

We also believe that the more fun a student has, and the more directly we speak to a student’s interests, the more we can help students find the fun in learning. That’s why our programs are more than just extra homework. All of our programs are challenging and enjoyable, and ultimately strengthen each student’s power to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently, and in their individual voice.

ONLINELEARNINGLAB In the spring of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we quickly transitioned all of our programs online. Our priority is to ensure the safety of our community, while continuing to offer engaging, high-quality opportunities to students. Each of our main programs—Schoolwork Support, Workshops, Field Trips, and In-school Projects—has been reimagined for the virtual space as part of our new Online Learning Lab. For the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, 826michigan programs remained online. Beginning in Spring 2022, we started moving slowly into engaging with in-person programming, and continue to offer all of our core programming virtually.

SCHOOLWORK SUPPORT

The program formerly-known as tutoring has been given an updated name, but the same great foundations remain. We organize trained volunteer tutors to work with students one-on-one with their homework after school. Schoolwork Support is available for all subjects, for students ages 8-18. Students are paired with two tutors to work on assignments for school and writing projects of their choosing.

AFTER-SCHOOL WRITING LAB

In 2021, we added this program to meet the interest of our many after-school students who wanted to go deeper into the writing process. Through breakout rooms, students are supported by volunteers as they brainstorm, write, revise, share, and publish their writing. Each week we focus on a different habit of writers (such as writers make plans . . . and change them).

WORKSHOPS

We offer a number of free workshops taught by professional artists, writers, and our talented volunteers. From comic books to screenplays, bookmaking to radio, our wide variety of workshops are perfect for writers of all ages and interests. One of the most popular workshops we offer is our weekly Wee-bots program for elementary-aged writers.

IN-SCHOOL PROJECTS

Our trained volunteers go into local public schools every day to support teachers with their classroom writing assignments. Based on the teacher’s curriculum, assignments range from writing tales to crafting college essays to exploring poetry. In addition, we hold regular Writers Clubs, in which small groups of students are able to work on a writing project over the course of a semester, culminating in a publication. We also partner with schools to hold Family Writing Labs: laughter-filled events in which families come together and participate in an evening of engaging writing activities and community connection.

FIELD TRIPS

Always full of surprises and theatrics (and usually a visit from our crotchety editor, Dr. Blotch), our Field Trip program is an experiential writing extravaganza. We welcome teachers to bring their classes in for field trips during the school day. Students join a group of volunteers, interns, and

staff to help solve a problem through writing—whether that is Dr. Blotch’s insomnia, our looming story deadline, a mystery in need of solving, or one of the many others we encounter. Our field trips always end in a finished publication of original writing that students take home. Often the field trip writing is connected to a second leg of the students’ journey, whether a trip to a museum, library, or local record label, thanks to our many incredible community partners.

OUR STORES

Our Robot Supply Co. stores are one-stop shops for robots, robot owners, and enthusiasts alike. They are designed to inspire creativity and bring awareness of our programs to the community. Come visit the Ann Arbor Robot Supply Co. at 115 East Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor and, hopefully again soon at the Detroit Robot Supply Co. at 1351 Winder Street in Eastern Market in Detroit. In addition, our online store is always open; visit the Robot Supply Co. at onwardrobots.com. All proceeds from our stores directly fund our free student programming. Onward robots!

the stand

826 National was inspired to take a stand on issues of inclusion and diversity in light of the many events that spotlighted social and racial injustices throughout the country. We as educators, volunteers, and caring adults need to be aware of the wide range of issues our students face on a day-to-day basis. We need to support these young people as they navigate through and try to make sense of the world and their own identities.

We need the support and the feedback from our community to ensure 826 is living up to these standards. Through our inclusion statement, our internal diversity and inclusion group, cultural competency resources provided to staff and volunteers, and partnerships with other organizations, we are always working towards being a more inclusive and supportive organization.

We at 826 have the privilege of working with the next generation of scholars, teachers, doctors, artists, lawyers, and writers. It's our job to make sure they are able to take their own stands.

As an organization committed to encouraging youth in their creative expression, personal growth, and academic success, 826 National and its chapters recognize the importance of diversity at all levels and in all aspects of our work. In order to build and maintain the safe, supportive 826 environment in which great leaps in learning happen, we commit ourselves to inclusion: we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, nationality, marital status, English fluency, parental status, military service, or disability.

The 826 National network is committed to encouraging youth to express themselves and to use the written word to effectively do so. We encourage our students to write, take chances, make decisions, and finish what they start. And 826 strives to do this in an environment free from discrimination and exclusion.

by Gerald Richards, CEO

Acknowledgments

We are so proud of the publication that you are holding in your hands (or scrolling through on your screen!), and we couldn’t have done it without the efforts of so many amazing educators, community partners, families and guardians, volunteers, and interns. Thanks to your support, we have dreamed up interesting hybrid animal characters and living objects that the world has never before seen; created hilarious, suspenseful, surprising, and wondrous plotlines; and expressed ourselves while learning about how to bring our ideas to life through the writing process. You make our lives more magical each and every day, and we hope that that is reflected in the pages to follow.

2021-22 After-school Program Interns:

Jan Macasa Cayla Bryon Michelle Ascrizzi Shelby Sieler

After-school Volunteers:

Abby Liang Abby McAleer Abby Widlak Abigail Johnson Aiyana Vancena Alec Smith Alejandra Gallegos-Ordaz Aleksei Alward Alexandra Poissant Alexis Kirkland Allison Wei Alyssa Lauer Alyssa Thomas Amogh Angadi Anastasiya Ilkiv Andrew vanBaal Anna DiMelis Antonio Byrd Anya Tarasovets Arianna Afonso Ashley Holcomb Baylee Heidrich Becky Hall Ben Lee Benjamin Zilka Billie Ochberg Brendan Willis Brenna Williams Callie Cleveland Candice Pillow Catherine (CJ) Young Christin Conley Daberechi Onyemaizu Danielle Cubitt Danny Creech Dayna Lim

Drew Ruchim Elizabeth Bokser Elizabeth Casey Elizabeth Widlak Em Liker Emeleia Duvall Emily Nyquist Erin Page Ethan Keighley Gabriel Luo Geoffrey Sperl Glorianne Crosheck Grace Chamberlain Grace DeMartini Grant Molloy Grayson Murphy Hannah Brownstein Hannah Cooper Hannah Feng Hannah LaFleur Hannah Tomaskovic Hava Liebowitz Henry Dai Hunter Sharp Isaac Berman Isaac Mooney Jamaal Shaikh Janet Goldwasser Jeannie Szomstein Jenna Kobeissi Jenna Xenos Jenny Gurung Jonathan Steinke Jonathan Yap Jordan Chung Jordan Hackmann Jordan Katz Jordan Vinh Julia Haas Julia Kanter Julia Kofman Justine Cleveland Kate Vandebunt Lexie Meltzer Lindsay Berke Lisa Cunningham Maeli Rogers Mai Tran Makenna Washnock MaKenzee Van Buren Mary Hoskins Mazin Kanafani Meichen Zhu Mel McKeehan Melissa Wang Mia Lewis Micaiah Webb Michelle Ascrizzi Mickey Cervelli Miles Young Mythri Gandrothu Namrata Peri Nat Merriman Noah Fisher Pete Westhead Puncharat (Jaa) Chaichanawanich Rachel Anderson Rachel Kroll Rachel Persinger Rebekah Kindy Reed Stocki Reshma Desai Risha Olds Romir Patel Rui Wu Samantha Reiss Savannah Wan

Scout Weeks Shereen Shahid Shi Xin Ooi Sierra Coleman Siobhan Stemme Sneha Yedulla Sriya Neelam Surbhi Neole Sydney Sharp Sydney Wallace Taha Ileiwat Taylor Chapman Tia Brown Treye Meadows Tyler Pemberton Valia Jirjees Vanessa Soriano Vanessa Zorzan Victoria Rivers Victoria Seabaugh Victoria Szokolay Yehya Aldubaily Yuqi Li Zainab Mustafa Zara Chaudhry

Community and School Partners:

Ann Arbor Public Schools: Michael Johnson Robin Birdsong Nancy Shore Donna Hawthorne

Ypsilanti District Library:

Joy Cichewicz Mary Garboden Nicole Russell Jodi Krahnke

SEE YOU NEXT TIME!