How Many Stories in a Cupcake?
Donation protected
An interactive app to teach children the foolproof recipe for how to write a creative story
Whenever I hit a creative roadblock, I head to the kitchen to bake something wonderful. One day as I was stirring up a batch of cupcakes, I was pondering how to teach kids how to write. As I focused on the ingredients swirling around in my bowl, blending together to create a cupcake batter, I hit upon an inspiring thought. This thought was as deliciously simple as the cupcakes I was creating.
Stories and cupcakes are alike in two ways. First, both are made from ingredients that are created or grown by people/characters. Second, stories and cupcakes follow a recipe.
This aha moment inspired me to create a simple way—a recipe—to teach children how to write stories.
A little about me
I’m Joel Jenkins and I created a classroom program that I have run successfully in elementary schools through the Kansas City Young Audiences program for 10 years. It’s a recipe for surefire writing success for children and I call it How Many Stories in a Cupcake? Who doesn’t love cupcakes, right?
Now, after hundreds of children have successfully followed my recipe for creating a book, I plan to share my recipe with children, teachers, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, babysitters, churches, clubs, libraries and anyone who wants to help guide children who want to write their own books.
Story has always fascinated me and for 20 years I worked in the film and video industry on numerous commercial projects. My professional clients include NBC News, ABC Entertainment and Turner Broadcasting and I engineered digital production facilities and directed videos for the Sprint electronic learning group and for retail stores.
The kid in me
I was born when John Glenn was in orbit. My start in the world, coinciding with the start of the U.S. space exploration program, led me to do some space exploration of my own, dragging home large cardboard boxes to build spaceships and robots. Eventually I turned my creative exploration to film, making small-budget movies when I was in high school.
Following college, I was a producer and director for The Electric Picture shop, winning numerous awards for video projects that supported charitable and philanthropic missions, including many projects for children’s charities. I’m certified by the Maine Photographic Workshops in producing children’s television. Exploring my interest in children’s education, I developed a yearlong residency program called What’s Your Story, Kids? to teach children to write, illustrate and produce a story for video.
And that’s what brings me to …
How Many Stories in a Cupcake? It’s an interactive app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch that I will create and offer for sale in the iTunes store. The app will offer:
· Simple steps for how to create characters, conflict and resolution—the essential ingredients of a story.
· Engaging, original full-color illustrations and words that capture and hold kids’ attention.
· Pop-up interactions that kids can use to learn the recipe, explore the process and express their own creative ideas.
· Charming voice narration and intriguing sound effects.
· Recipe cards that show kids, step-by-step, how to transform their ideas for characters and plot into words that tell a story, start to finish. The end result is their very own book that they can illustrate and share with friends, parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers, neighbors and others.
Children are naturally creative, right?
Yes, they are. They have lots of ideas. In fact, children may have so many ideas that they all get jumbled up in their thoughts and they don’t know how to express them, so often they give up, thinking that writing is just too hard.
When children learn the simple steps of how to transform their ideas into characters, conflict and resolution — the three essential ingredients of a story — their creativity soars. How Many Stories in a Cupcake? shows them how. Just like carefully following a recipe for cupcakes results in a delicious treat, when they follow the How Many Stories in a Cupcake? recipe, they learn and practice the creative process. The end result is a coherent story with characters, conflict and resolution!
When creative kids follow the simple recipe in How Many Stories in a Cupcake? they can produce amazing results. Attack of the Hamburgers was written and performed by Molly McNamara’s third grade class.
Why teach children how to write stories?
Writing stories helps develop smart and healthy kids in many ways. In its simplest form, story is a connection of cause and effect. By practicing how to make those connections, children develop critical thinking skills, says educator and literacy expert Pam Allyn. Not surprising, creative writing improves kids’ academic performance and their self-confidence. Confident kids succeed in school and grow into productive adults.
Writing need not be a separate subject area or confined to a particular subject, like English class. In fact, it’s best to integrate creative writing into all curricula. Schools that do this report that arts integration boosts learning/achievement scores in math, reading, science, social studies and other areas, by as much as 30 percent.
As a bonus, arts integration is fun! Imagine the possibilities when a class is challenged to use creative writing as part of a social studies, math, science or foreign language curriculum. Kids can work on their individual projects, or collaborate on a story as a class and inspire each other. Exploring problem solving through creative writing in any subject area leads to energized classrooms—environments where learning soars.
The How Many Stories in a Cupcake? book app will help children:
· Explore
· Take ownership of their ideas
· Develop communication skills
· Conquer their fears
· Gain recognition and praise
· Succeed
Pledge levels
Any amount you donate is greatly appreciated. As my way of saying thank you for your contribution, I'd like to offer the following:
$5 — Sincere appreciation and a thank-you note
$10 — Sincere appreciation, thank-you note and free download of the app
$20 — All of the above and story recipe cards
$50 — All of the above and a listing on the in-app thank-you page
$100 — All of the above and a caricature of someone of your choice placed on the in-app thank-you page
Risks and challenges
Barring an unexpected encounter with a runaway bus or alien abduction, threats to the successful completion of the project are minimal. The material and methodology is developed and classroom-tested. It works! The text for the book is written and concept art is in development. I’m ready to start putting it all together in Demibooks.
Follow us
You can follow the progress of How Many Stories in a Cupcake? on social media. Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Whenever I hit a creative roadblock, I head to the kitchen to bake something wonderful. One day as I was stirring up a batch of cupcakes, I was pondering how to teach kids how to write. As I focused on the ingredients swirling around in my bowl, blending together to create a cupcake batter, I hit upon an inspiring thought. This thought was as deliciously simple as the cupcakes I was creating.
Stories and cupcakes are alike in two ways. First, both are made from ingredients that are created or grown by people/characters. Second, stories and cupcakes follow a recipe.
This aha moment inspired me to create a simple way—a recipe—to teach children how to write stories.
A little about me
I’m Joel Jenkins and I created a classroom program that I have run successfully in elementary schools through the Kansas City Young Audiences program for 10 years. It’s a recipe for surefire writing success for children and I call it How Many Stories in a Cupcake? Who doesn’t love cupcakes, right?
Now, after hundreds of children have successfully followed my recipe for creating a book, I plan to share my recipe with children, teachers, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, babysitters, churches, clubs, libraries and anyone who wants to help guide children who want to write their own books.
Story has always fascinated me and for 20 years I worked in the film and video industry on numerous commercial projects. My professional clients include NBC News, ABC Entertainment and Turner Broadcasting and I engineered digital production facilities and directed videos for the Sprint electronic learning group and for retail stores.
The kid in me
I was born when John Glenn was in orbit. My start in the world, coinciding with the start of the U.S. space exploration program, led me to do some space exploration of my own, dragging home large cardboard boxes to build spaceships and robots. Eventually I turned my creative exploration to film, making small-budget movies when I was in high school.
Following college, I was a producer and director for The Electric Picture shop, winning numerous awards for video projects that supported charitable and philanthropic missions, including many projects for children’s charities. I’m certified by the Maine Photographic Workshops in producing children’s television. Exploring my interest in children’s education, I developed a yearlong residency program called What’s Your Story, Kids? to teach children to write, illustrate and produce a story for video.
And that’s what brings me to …
How Many Stories in a Cupcake? It’s an interactive app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch that I will create and offer for sale in the iTunes store. The app will offer:
· Simple steps for how to create characters, conflict and resolution—the essential ingredients of a story.
· Engaging, original full-color illustrations and words that capture and hold kids’ attention.
· Pop-up interactions that kids can use to learn the recipe, explore the process and express their own creative ideas.
· Charming voice narration and intriguing sound effects.
· Recipe cards that show kids, step-by-step, how to transform their ideas for characters and plot into words that tell a story, start to finish. The end result is their very own book that they can illustrate and share with friends, parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers, neighbors and others.
Children are naturally creative, right?
Yes, they are. They have lots of ideas. In fact, children may have so many ideas that they all get jumbled up in their thoughts and they don’t know how to express them, so often they give up, thinking that writing is just too hard.
When children learn the simple steps of how to transform their ideas into characters, conflict and resolution — the three essential ingredients of a story — their creativity soars. How Many Stories in a Cupcake? shows them how. Just like carefully following a recipe for cupcakes results in a delicious treat, when they follow the How Many Stories in a Cupcake? recipe, they learn and practice the creative process. The end result is a coherent story with characters, conflict and resolution!
When creative kids follow the simple recipe in How Many Stories in a Cupcake? they can produce amazing results. Attack of the Hamburgers was written and performed by Molly McNamara’s third grade class.
Why teach children how to write stories?
Writing stories helps develop smart and healthy kids in many ways. In its simplest form, story is a connection of cause and effect. By practicing how to make those connections, children develop critical thinking skills, says educator and literacy expert Pam Allyn. Not surprising, creative writing improves kids’ academic performance and their self-confidence. Confident kids succeed in school and grow into productive adults.
Writing need not be a separate subject area or confined to a particular subject, like English class. In fact, it’s best to integrate creative writing into all curricula. Schools that do this report that arts integration boosts learning/achievement scores in math, reading, science, social studies and other areas, by as much as 30 percent.
As a bonus, arts integration is fun! Imagine the possibilities when a class is challenged to use creative writing as part of a social studies, math, science or foreign language curriculum. Kids can work on their individual projects, or collaborate on a story as a class and inspire each other. Exploring problem solving through creative writing in any subject area leads to energized classrooms—environments where learning soars.
The How Many Stories in a Cupcake? book app will help children:
· Explore
· Take ownership of their ideas
· Develop communication skills
· Conquer their fears
· Gain recognition and praise
· Succeed
Pledge levels
Any amount you donate is greatly appreciated. As my way of saying thank you for your contribution, I'd like to offer the following:
$5 — Sincere appreciation and a thank-you note
$10 — Sincere appreciation, thank-you note and free download of the app
$20 — All of the above and story recipe cards
$50 — All of the above and a listing on the in-app thank-you page
$100 — All of the above and a caricature of someone of your choice placed on the in-app thank-you page
Risks and challenges
Barring an unexpected encounter with a runaway bus or alien abduction, threats to the successful completion of the project are minimal. The material and methodology is developed and classroom-tested. It works! The text for the book is written and concept art is in development. I’m ready to start putting it all together in Demibooks.
Follow us
You can follow the progress of How Many Stories in a Cupcake? on social media. Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Organizer
Joel Jenkins
Organizer
Kansas City, MO
