Fishy

I teach a second group creative writing at a nearby school and don't have permission to share those children's work. However, I can tell you what we did today.

I took in a few lively stickleback from the pond and let the children examine them with magnifying glasses and chat about what they could see. As usual, they used this colour chart to note the exact shades on the fish's body. I read out the fish facts sheet and then asked them to write the numbers 1-10. Then we did a line-by line poem. My fish weren't quite in full breeding regalia because it's only March so I missed out number 5, but we covered everything else, and the pupils' ideas of what the fish might dream were especially good. A really nice session.

Snakes Alive!

I appreciate not everyone has a pet snake they can call on, but if you can get a friend to bring in an interesting animal, it doesn't half liven things up. Beforehand I printed off a colour wheel for each child (or one between two will do). The link is here: Martian Color Wheel. I'd already checked no children had phobias of snakes, and made sure I had an extra member of staff with me in case anyone got frightened and needed to go out of the room.

The lesson plan is detailed above, along with the framework of the poem. In retrospect I don't think I needed line 8 as line 7 is a good one to end on.

Off-shoots

Bad-Pet Diary

We began this week by talking about the pets the children owned (or would like to own). Those children who did have pets talked about how naughty they could be, and those who didn't have a pet chatted about animals they'd seen misbehaving on funny clip shows like You've Been Framed. Everyone really enjoyed sharing their anecdotes so I didn't rush this part of the session.

Then I read them the Diary of a Useless Hamster and gave out the diary templates. The children then had 15 minutes to try and fill in an entry for every day. To spice things up I ran the task as a competition, with the funniest story winning a small prize.

In my experience, students who find creative writing daunting are more comfortable when the task is very structured and broken up -- and I've never met a child yet who doesn't like animals -- so this exercise should suit pretty much everyone.

The Making of Concertina Books

 This student is completely lost in her writing.

 And this student is extremely pleased with the way her story turned out.

I've posted lots of images to show you the range of ideas and styles the students went for. I was also delighted this week to read this article on the ITV News page talking about how creative writing and reading helped with children's mental health. Writing Club certainly feels like a happy, nurturing space when the children are sharing their ideas and creating their stories.

Getting Ready to Make Concertina Books