What began as a classroom obsession with llamas—their wild hair, their goofy teeth—soon grew into a full-blown production. Students built popsicle-stick puppets, brainstormed plots, and before long we had The Llama Show, an epic tale in which villainous llamas attempt to steal President O’Llama’s magical hair. Beneath the silliness, kids learned the basics of storytelling, collaboration, and performance, proving that laughter can carry a lesson.

Inspired by their love of Pokémon, students researched historical figures and created their own “Changemaker Trading Cards.” They read biographies, distilled key information, and even managed production, marketing, and sales. Our classroom transformed into a messy assembly line of cutting, gluing, and orchestrated chaos. Proceeds went to the Green Belt Movement, allowing kids to see that their creativity could ripple outward into real-world impact.

In our musical adaptation of Peter Sís’s The Starry Messenger, Galileo’s story was retold through the music of Queen. Students wrote scripts, rehearsed songs, and designed costumes for the production—transforming science into spectacle. Reshoots became lessons in resilience, as kids learned to laugh off mistakes, reset, and keep performing together. Along the way, they explored the solar system, Galileo’s courage, and the joy of blending scholarship with showmanship.

Illustrious Illustrators was an after-school workshop for kids to learn the art of collaborative picture books. Over eight weeks, club members examined mentor texts and artist portfolios to find inspiration before creating their own characters and settings. Our debut project was entitled Og, a decodable reader starring a green ogre, his floofy dog, and their happy-go-lucky frog. Our picture book project doubled as a service-learning initiative in which students sold copies to raise money for a local wetlands sanctuary.