Counselor Ben tells everyone at Camp Adventure a story about meeting someone different and new who has a cool hobby. Plus a sing-along, adventure building, poetry, and pottery!
Counselor Ben tells everyone at Camp Adventure a story about meeting someone different and new who has a cool hobby. Plus a sing-along, adventure building, poetry, and pottery!
We’d love to feature you and your fellow campers on our next episode. Share your camp space and your new camp flag for Camp Adventure on social media using #AKBAsummer or write to us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com.
Poem Eletelephony by Laura Elizabeth Richards.
Find @DougMcPherson’s post at https://twitter.com/dougmcpherson/status/142150987358656102
Find Ben’s pictures at https://www.instagram.com/p/CQl4JLuh6ge/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Camp Adventure: A Kids Summer Camp Podcast
S1 E10 “The Raku Vase”
[INTRODUCTION]
[bugle plays a welcome]
Ari: Welcome to Camp Adventure! Camp is in your living room. Camp is in your car on the way to the store. Camp is under your blanket fort. Camp is everywhere. And Camp Adventure is for everyone, no matter where in the world you are. And camp counselors Ben and Hannah are ready to welcome you.
It’s week number 10 at camp, and this week we’re going to hear a story about the creativity and beauty that can come from new experiences.
I’m camp counselor Ari, and I’m so glad to be here at camp with you every week. It’s a beautiful day at Camp Adventure. So, let’s say hello to our kind and creative friend, Counselor Ben to kick things off.
Ben: Ari, thank you! And thank YOU, my camper friends, for being exactly who you are, just as you are—AND—for doing this Camp Adventure with me. Some of you have been sending letters and pictures, and I’m getting to see your pictures from the Weekly Challenges—I am so impressed! And so proud of you. You kids are pretty cool.
And this week’s story is pretty cool, too, and it includes garbage cans filled with leaves that BURST into flame, and it includes clay and pottery—and—a mysterious substitute teacher from my school. Have you ever known someone who is kind of shy, and therefore kind of mysterious? I’m going to tell a story about a very mysterious neighbor of mine who, once I got to know him, taught me how to make bowls and pots and even beautiful vases with clay and FIRE. OK… one last question… please raise your hands up if you have ever heard of RAKU pottery..? OK!! Just as I thought… this is going to be a great storytime.
HOWEVER, we have to check out the mail bag before we do storytime.
I saw pictures of you campers climbing in trees last week, and I’ve seen pictures of flags and forts and rafts on the water!! So we absolutely HAVE TO check out the mail bag…
HOWEVER, before that, we have to—YOU KNOW what we have to do—we have to invite up a very special person.
The one who leads our entire Camp Adventure in amazing songs—she is wonderful, isn’t she?! You know who I’m talking about, don’t you
She’s a mysterious woman from the Pacific Northwest who can swim over a RIVER with a guitar in each hand! A true adventurer who cooks her meals over a open fire whenever she can—the great and knowledgeable, the one, the only, my good friend—Hannah Glavor!!
[CAMP SONG]
Hannah: Thanks counselor Ben—I don’t know about swimming with MY guitars, but I do have a friend who has a waterproof ukulele that she took on a rafting trip with me once. It was super cool, it was see through and made of plastic! Just imagine, we went down rapids with LIVE music! It was really special, she and another good friend at camp would sing songs together all the time!
You know, when they first met, they didn’t know anything about each other, they lived in different states, had different friends—and they met at summer camp, just like us. And they ended up getting along so well, they learned songs together. Just like us!
[Sings]
Have you ever met a someone—who was different than you
Maybe they didn’t eat spaghetti or had a really tall hairdo
Our differences are real exciting and can make the dull seem new
When we are good and kind to new friends, we change normal as we do.
Hannah: You know, even though my friends were different, they discovered that there were things they liked to do together—They even taught each other things. Like how to paint—or sometimes do makeup— and eventually they learned songs that they got to share with all their friends!
I think they learned from each other and discovered something new! That’s what I like to call…
[Sings]
Adventure (adventure)
We venture (we venture)
Together with courage
We learn and grow STRONG
We learn from (we learn from)
Each other (each other)
So let's discover and uncover
Great adventures bright and new
Hannah: My friends, you sounded fantastic. And you know what? There is actually a ukulele in the song we just sang… not a waterproof one—but that’s still pretty fun. Maybe if you’re ever at a river, or by a pool, or in the bath you can sing the camp adventure song and pretend YOU are the waterproof ukulele Rockstar singing with me!
Alright, it's about that time my friends—the time where we get to hear from YOU the campers and it has been so good to hear from you with your letters and emails! So without further ado, its time for (drumroll please) MAILBAG!
[MAIL BAG]
AKBA Counselor: Hello everyone! I’m Camp Counselor Matthew and I’m here with the Mail Bag. It’s where we keep all the mail we receive for our campers.
Today’s mail comes from two far off locations: the Twitterverse and the Gram!
Just kidding. We’ve got mail from Twitter and Instagram shared via #AKBAsummer.
Let’s check out Twitter first where user @DougMcPherson shared “My boys and I just listened to the most recent episode of Camp Adventure from @akidspodabout and heard an adventure story about cicadas. Last week we took this pic of a cicada molting. #akbasummer” (source: https://twitter.com/dougmcpherson/status/1421509873586561024)
And, campers, it is a nighttime pic. And it is a porch pic. And it is an other-worldly pick! I love that bugs can look SO unlike anything you’ve ever seen before!
Now over to Instagram! A couple weeks ago Camp Counselor Ben told us a story about his daughter Annabelle creating a nature journal. As promised, Ben shared a couple of pages from the journal including the most amazing drawings of a katydid and a mountain jay. Very, VERY wow! (source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQl4JLuh6ge/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)
We’d love to know about your camp experiences and so, to ALLLLLL of our Camp Adventure campers and families and friends, send us photos and videos and mail to listen@akidspodcastabout.com or on social media using #AKBAsummer. We’ll share as many things as we can from our Mail Bag each week.
That’s listen@akidspodcastabout.com or on social media using #AKBAsummer.
And that’s it! Have a great day at camp!
[ACTIVITIES]
AKBA Counselor: Hello campers! It’s camp counselor Ari here, and I’m back with more adventure building for you.
If you’ve been listening for a while, you might remember talking about how our brains are SUPER adventure building, storytelling machines. I told you all about playing adventure games like dungeons and dragons with my fellow campers. And about my adventurer, Coral, a zoologist with blue hair and explorer boots who studies animals in their natural habitat. And we created creatures for Coral to find on their mission to study a new animal.
Which, you know what, now that I think about it, that sounds a lot like a quest to me. If you didn’t know, quests are one of the very most fun parts of adventuring. A quest is a special journey or mission to find something. Maybe that’s a strange new creature like Coral’s quest, or maybe it’s a quest to find a secret recipe to make your best friend a magical birthday cake! Quests can introduce you to new people and friends and bring you to new places.
Where will your quest bring you?
Quests can take place in spooky forests, on candy beaches, in maze-like libraries. ANYWHERE! Try thinking about a place you really really want to visit someday. What makes it special? Think about a place you’ve been before that was unlike anywhere else you’ve ever been. Think of a place, AND THEN sprinkle a little magic on it with your adventure building, storytelling machine.
There’s a beautiful garden in my city I went to once with thousands of roses. I was SO beautiful! But what happens when I add some adventure magic? Suddenly I have a dreamy garden, floating in the clouds, where all of the flowers smell like your favorite thing, and in the center of the garden, Coral can find a jeweled beetle that tells silly riddles.
What places did you think of? What adventure locations did you dream up with your adventure building storytelling machines? Write me, and let me know! Or better yet, draw a picture and send that.
I love adventure building with all of you!
Emma: Hi campers, it’s camp counselor Emma here. I hope you’re having a great time at camp today.
You and I have been hanging out all summer to talk about poetry, and I hope you’ve been enjoying it as much as I have. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the power of words, and how listening to or reading different words can make us feel big things or help us to create big pictures and worlds in our heads. Pretty cool huh?
Today I want you to think about all the things we’ve talked about with poetry, and then I have a fun challenge for you. Today’s poem is silly, full of made up words, and has one of my favorite animals—the elephant!
Silly poems are great because they make us laugh, and they remind us that writing can be fun and anything we want it to be. I’m wondering if any of our campers here love to write their own poems or stories. Or I wonder if any of you started camp not totally loving writing and after listening to some of these poems or the lyrics to Hannnah’s amazing songs or the fun and adventurous stories Ben shares if you might be changing your mind about writing.
Okay, before I mentioned a fun challenge I had in mind. I want to hear some of your writing, whether you’ve been creating original poetry for years or this will be the first time you ever try to write a poem of your own. I want to hear what you’ve got to say. Camp Adventure is all about being brave, trying new things, and taking risk.
So I encourage you to find the courage to get those creative juices flowing and just start writing. It can rhyme or it can have no rhythm at all. It can be 3 pages long or 3 lines long. Maybe even 3 words long. It can be in English, Spanish, French, Russian, or a completely made up language. And it can be about anything. Just start writing and see where it takes you. And if you have something you’d like to share please send your poetry to listen@akidspodcastabout.com. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Okay, are we ready for the super silly, super fun poem of the day? As always, go ahead and get comfy and close your eyes. Deep breath in, and deep breath out. This poem is called Eletelephony by Laura Elizabeth Richards.
Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant—
No! No! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone—
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right.)
Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee—
(I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!)
Okay, how fun was that? That poem sure makes me laugh. Well that’s all I have for today campers, but please please please send me your super super awesome, super fun, super great Camp Adventure summer poetry. I can’t wait to hear from you. And I’ll see you all next time.
Ari: All right campers, after this break we’re going to hear a story from Camp Counselor Ben, and I promise, you won’t wanna miss it!
[BREAK]
Ari: Okay, we’re back, and it’s storytime! Are you excited? Me too!
So, let’s get ready for this week’s story! Before we get cozy, let’s make a little noise! Listen to the sounds you can make as you jump or clap or pat your knee. Can you make a pattern? I like to make a pattern like this.
Now, in just a sec let’s hit pause to get in this week’s perfect listening spot. 3, 2, 1 GO! Where’d you pick? This week I’m listening in my favorite spot at the library—wherever you go, get comfy!
Are you ready, Counselor Ben?
[STORYTIME]
Ben: OK, Ari, my friend. Thank you. Storytime has come, and that makes me happy. Stories are pretty magical, aren’t they? They take you to different places, and help you think about new things. Did you ever think that your own life is a story? It is! With our lives, we are each telling a story. What kind of story are you telling? I hope it includes some good adventure.
Today’s story takes place near that little gray house on W. Chestnut St. across from the Fox River, and I say “near” my little gray house because this story happens down the street a little from where I lived. If you walked from my little gray house to the left, you would find a deep woods and a HUGE hill. This was where my sister, Christy, and I would go to pick wild black raspberries. If we picked enough, my mom would bake us a black raspberry pie!
Have you ever had black raspberry pie?! Oh my goodness… and with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream… OH MY GOODNEss… but this is not a story about pie… I have to continue.
If you kept walking down the sidewalk, past the deep woods and huge hill, you came to another house; it was much LARGER, and this house was painted yellow and orange.
And my sister and I rode our bikes up and down W Chestnut St. pretty much everyday, for years, and we must have rode past that yellow and orange house a million times, but NEVER once did we see a person outside. We wondered who lived there. And why were they so secret? What were they hiding.? It was very mysterious.
Then, one day at school, my regular art-class teacher was gone, and we had a substitute teacher. His name was Wayne. And he was an artist who works with clay, or a “ceramics” artist… and his art was making pots and bowls and vases—Wayne was a real potter.
Campers—have any of you ever made pottery out of clay? Where you make a bowl or a plate or sometimes other things out of clay, and then put them in tall, round shiny oven that gets super hot—it’s called a “kiln”—and then you cook the clay pot until it gets red hot—this is called “firing” the clay—and then once it cools you can put glaze on it and fire it again to make beautiful, bright, shiny glassy colors on the outside?! Amazing.
I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE making pottery—and this substitute teacher was an expert. He was a big, quiet, teddy bear kind of a man. His voice was gentle, and he seemed shy to all of us kids. Some of the kids started to whisper jokes about how big he was, and others started to make fun of him because he was different and shy.
He did not talk much, that is true—but—when Mr. Wayne showed us how to put clay on the spinning pottery wheel, we all stared in amazement. He was so skilled! His hands were like magic as he turned a little round lump of wet, gray clay into a tall, beautifully shaped vase.
“I’m not going to make fun of him,” I thought. “This Wayne guy is one of the coolest substitute teachers I’ve ever had!” The day he came to be our substitute teacher was one of the best art classes of my life!
And guess what happened about two months later… Which is a long time, I know, but it still happened. Any guesses?
I was riding my bike down West Chestnut St. one day… past the deep raspberry woods … and OH MY GOODNESS!!—when I came to that big yellow and orange house, I saw a person out in the driveway! It was big grownup, wearing large black goggles and a black rubber apron, and thick leather gloves that looked burnt and dirty. He looked kind of crazy, actually.
I couldn’t help but to stop my bike, right there on the sidewalk in front of his house. I was staring at him. His garage door was open, and I saw three tall, shiny silver ovens—KILNS—just like the pottery kiln at school!
And the man grabbed a long metal hook with his dirty gloves, and he lifted open the lid of a hot kiln, and he carefully picked out a vase—it was glowing red HOT—and then he carried the red-hot pot over to a metal garbage can.
“What in the world?!” I thought. “He just made that vase. Why throw it away?”
He dropped the red-hot bowl INTO the steel garbage can and IMMEDIATELY SLAMMED the lid down over it. You won’t believe what happened next!
CKaRrrunnnckchh!!! The can imploded! Rather than exploding, which means blowing up and out, instead it instantly caved in and collapsed… looking smaller and all crunched up.
Then he pried the garbage can lid off and pulled the ceramic vase back out with the metal hook—I was just standing on the sidewalk watching in AWE. He pulled the red-hot vase back out, but it was not red-hot anymore—now it was blackish brown and ugly looking.. and the garbage can was smoking and burning!! What was I watching, here? What was all of this fire and clay and imploding can stuff about??
And then … when I least expected it … the man took his goggles off and looked RIGHT at me!!
“Oh no!” I was scared and so I took off on my bike… riding away as fast as I could. But I heard a voice.
“It’s OK, Ben!” the man said.
“BEN?!?!?” How did this guy know my name? And his voice… it sounded familiar? Did I know him?
I turned around and realized that it was Wayne, thy mysterious substitute teacher who was also a pottery guy—AMAZING. He kindly invited me up to his workshop to see what he was doing.
“I make RAKU pottery,” he said. And then he showed me how he does it. First, he makes the bowl or plate or vase, or whatever he wants to create. Then it has to dry in the air. Once it’s dry, he cooks it in the super-hot kiln and then lets it cool. And then he paints it with a special glaze and cooks it again, until the vase is red hot!!!
And this is the exciting part—Once he has the red-hot vase in his metal tongs, he drops it gently into a can filled with dry leaves, or dry sawdust, or other dry things that can catch on fire easily. Why? You might ask. Because raku pottery is beautifully colored with the flames of real fire. So when he drops the red-hot vase into a can of dry leaves—the leaves EXPLODE into fire!!! And that special milky glaze he painted on the pots—it somehow captures all of the colors of the fiery flames in an instant!!
“Would you like to make one?” he asked me.
“Oh yes!” I said. “I would love to.” And he helped me through the different steps… and I got to drop a red-hot vase into a pile of leaves, and WOOSH!!! It burst into flame. And then when we pulled it out of the fire and smoke, it was all black and dirty looking. But Wayne cleaned it up, and OH MY GOODNESS.
It looked like my vase had an explosion of fireworks happening right on it., reds and yellows and greens and purples and oranges --- all the colors of the rainbow, all swirling in different patterns that look like fire!! (Maybe your grown up can help you google the word “raku pottery” to see what other raku fired vases look like.)
Wayne let me hang out for hours, and he invited me back on other days to help him, and he let me make bowls and a cool pot, and another vase. I felt really honored. He was still mysterious, and kind of shy, but I suppose that I am mysterious to other people and kind of shy sometimes, too. Maybe we all are at times? Wayne became my friend, in the end.
Later that year, during Christmas time, I gave that raku-fired vase to my Mom as a present, and she still has it sitting on her shelf somewhere. It’s beautiful—looks like a vase colored with an explosion of rainbow fire. So beautiful.
Wayne was not a loud man, and he did not spend much time outside—he mostly stayed in his artwork shop or in his big yellow and orange house. He was kind of mysterious, and lots of kids said that he was not “normal,” but you know something, my camper friends?
The more I adventure through life, the less I worry about being “normal.” Instead, I want to be good to people, and kind. And that’s how Wayne was—different than normal, but filled with love and kindness—creativity and beauty. Mr. Wayne spent most of his time making art in his garage, firing beautiful Raku pots, and being good toward his neighbors. I hope I can be like him when I grow up
And that reminds me about our Weekly Challenge this week. My neighbor Wayne gave me a good gift; so, like him, I think this week is going to be about giving a good gift to someone.
I know that we don’t probably have pottery kilns and raku-firing-imploding metal cans hanging around, but I bet we can still make something out of clay. Or play dough?
Hang on, I’ll be right back with our weekly challenge :)
[WEEKLY CAMP CHALLENGE]
Ben: OK, my camper friends—you heard my hints --- so you might have already guessed the challenge for this week. First, let me tell you what you need… Then, let me tell you what you’ll make. This week’s challenge is about making stuff. Yes!
First, find your favorite modeling clay—some of you use FIMO clay or SCULPEY or something like that—perfect—or maybe another kind of clay, and if you don’t have clay, no worries, just try to find some playdough or anything like that you can squish together and build stuff with.
Then, I want you to invent your own bowl, or dish, or vase, or some kind of pottery! You can make it round or square, and use lots of colors or maybe no colors at all.
If you use a kind of clay you can bake in the oven, DO IT! That’s super fun, and then your bowl or dish or whatever you make will stay strong forever!
And then there’s a bonus part of this challenge.
Once you have made your pottery, and if you can, once you have baked it—and maybe painted or decorated it however you want to—I want you to give it away for free to one of your friends, or neighbors, or maybe your grownups—anyone you want to.
My neighbor Wayne gave me a good gift, and it helped us to become friends. That happens all the time when we give good gifts. So if you want to give more than one gift, go for it! Make two or three pieces of pottery and spread the love!!
Most of all, please do not hurry or worry one bit. Just enjoy creating things and giving good gifts! OK? That’s your challenge this week, my friends.
And as always, don’t forget to send me pictures of the beautiful creations you’re making. I really love seeing what you’re up to. And counselor Ari is very good at helping us remember how to do that, so hang on for those instructions.
Can’t wait to see you next week!
[CLOSING CREDITS]
Ari: Thanks, Ben! And thank you, campers for joining us at Camp Adventure this week. We’d love to feature you and your fellow campers on our next episode. Share your camp space and all your weekly camp challenge creations on social media using #AKBAsummer or write to us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com.
Camp Adventure is written by Ben Tertin with help from the A Kids Podcast About team. Original music is by Hannah Glavor. Check out Hannah’s albums at https://hannahglavor.bandcamp.com.
The show is edited and produced by me, Ari Mathae, with help from Matthew Winner.
Audio production is by Chad Michael Snavely and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Listen to other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsbookabout.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out Ben’s book, A Kids Book About Adventure.
See you back at Camp Adventure next week.