Author: ChanAtkins

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 2nd June

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What have we been up to this week?

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: It was a warm welcome back after the half-term break and straight back into our collaborative writing project! We started with a writing prompt that they could use to write a scene for their town story or just respond to with an unconnected piece. The prompt for this week for all the clubs was:

“I don’t know what is worse… The sound, the smell, or what I have imagined in my head.”

We had some wonderful responses, some connected to town stories and some not. Well done everyone!

(Note: There was no CJS Monday club this week due to a staff day.)

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Club: This group also responded wonderfully to the prompt and we had a mix of pieces unrelated to their project stories and some that were connected. We also had a wonderful poem!

Tuesday Bransgore Primary School Club: These guys started with ten minutes of silent writing to respond to the prompt and then got on with their project stories. It was lovely to see lots of progress on some of these stories too!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Club: Wonderful work as always from this group who got stuck straight into the prompt and produced some incredibly tense pieces! Some were connected to their projects stories and some not.

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Club: Despite being the youngest group, these guys also tackled the same writing prompt with amazing results and made progress on their project stories!

Wednesday CJS Club: Ten minutes of silent writing time responding to the prompt went down very well with this committed group of young writers! Major progress made on project stories!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 19th May

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Progress on our next big writing project!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: We started with a writing prompt: “The view from here is…” They could go any way with this, responding with non-fiction, or using it to get into the POV of their character for the town project. We had a great mix of responses as well as more progress on the plots for the town stories!

Monday CJS Club: We also made progress on stories, with everyone either working on plots or actually starting their stories. We discussed different ways to plot a story too.

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 plus Zoom club: Responses to the prompt, “The view from here is…” which went very well with this group. Each member used the prompt to get under the skin of their town project character and some stories have now been started too! Excellent!

Bransgore School club: We looked at different ways to plot a story and worked on plots for most of the session, though some people have started writing their stories too!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom club: Writing prompt responses, plus plotting for our stories and using the prompt to get into our character’s and explore their viewpoint, whether physical or otherwise! Great work!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom club: Another mix of fabulous responses to the prompt, plus plots advancing for town stories!

Wednesday CJS Club:

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 12th May

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What did we do this week? Creating characters for our next big writing project!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: This group voted on the event they think our town should experience and worked on their character bios for the short stories we will soon be writing. They also made progress on their own individual writing projects!

Monday CJS club: The last club to vote on the event the town experiences, plus adding their character’s homes to the project book and any suggestions for town names. Some stories have even been started in this group! Here are a few examples of their characters and stories…

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom group: With voting for the town event now over and counted, I was able to reveal to this group that the ‘strange creatures spotted’ option won! This option had the most votes by far so I hope everyone is going to be excited about writing stories for it. All they have to do is ensure their story mentions the town and the event! They can have any other plot they like, or they can make their story about the town and the creatures spotted there.

Tuesday Bransgore Primary School: The children voted for their favourite town name and continued to work on their characters. Some created more bios for their story, some worked on homes for their character and some started planning their stories! Fantastic work! Here are a few examples:

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: We discussed the result of the vote on the event that happens in our town and we voted on a name for the town. They then had options which including adding to their character bios, creating a home for their characters, drawing maps of their part of town or starting to plot their story. Great work everyone!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: This group also voted on the name for our town, and we had a mix of some children working on character bios, some creating homes for their characters, and some starting to plot their stories… Fab!

Wednesday CJS Club: This group also voted on our town name and I can now exclusively reveal that Lakeside View won the vote! Thank you to everyone for making such great suggestions. We had more character work from some and plotting and even starting stories from others! Here are a few examples:

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 5th May

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What have we been up to this week? Building characters and voting on aspects of our next big writing project!

Please note, there were no Monday clubs this week due to the Bank Holiday.

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: We were able to reveal the vote for our next big writing project. We are aiming to write a short story collection where all the stories are linked in some way. The strategy with the most votes was creating a town and everyone writing a short story set in the town. We have now started voting on a big event or incident that will happen to the town! With this in mind, we continued to work on our characters today, fleshing out those bios and adding extra details such as back story, character arcs and practicing dialogue. Well done to everyone in the group today! The characters they’ve created are all very unique!

Bransgore C of E Primary School: As above, we started voting on the incident to happen in the town and added more detail to our character bios.

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Group: More voting on what incident we want to happen to the town we are creating for the big group project – plus character creation continued by adding to our bios, thinking about back story and character motivation, character arcs and dialogue practice. We also had activities for characters such as ‘pack a bag for your character’ and ‘plan your character’s perfect day. Great work from all!

Wednesday 8-11 Group: Fantastic work from this group today, voting on the event to hit our fictional town, and working on their characters for the book. Some of them created more characters, some answered questions about their character’s perfect day and some packed a bag for their character. Lovely work from all!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 28th May

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What have we been up to this week? Launching a collaborative writing project and starting by creating characters!

Monday

Monday Zoom group: The new collaborative book idea was explained to this group today and voting commenced on four options we have in creating a short story collection together. The idea is everyone will write their own story and will come up with their own character but the stories all have to be connected some way. We did some character work today to get started! The options are:

  1. An OBJECT is passed through the stories and every story must include this object somehow
  2. A SHARED EXPERIENCE on a train – everyone creates a character who then responds to something that happens on a train
  3. A SHARED EXPERIENCE in a town – we collectively create a town and everyone creates their own character, we agree on an event and each character responds to the event
  4. A SHARED LOCATION – everyone creates a character and writes their own story but all the stories must connect with a shared location

Monday CJS club: Voting for the collaborative short story collection idea and character creation! We also had character interviews where the group get to ask the ‘character’s questions in order to get to know them better. As you can see, the bios are wonderful!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom group: After working on character ideas last week, this group got to vote on the collaborative project idea today. They also carried on creating characters, adding back stories and motivation and more. Fantastic. I’m very excited about the characters being created in this group!

Tuesday Bransgore School: This group also voted on the collaborative idea, and started character bios. We had a few ready for interview and will do the rest next week! Here are a few examples:

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom group: Voting for the group project idea and progress on their previous group story, plus creating characters from scratch OR adding more detail via back story, motivation and more…

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom group: This group also got to to vote on the collaborative book idea and then returned to creating characters for it!

Wednesday CJS club: We voted on the collaborative idea, and finished the interviews we started last week! More work on character bios. Here are a few examples:

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 21st May

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What did we get up to this week?

There was no Monday clubs this week due to it being a bank holiday. There was also no club at Bransgore school due to an inset day there. Here is what the rest of us got up to!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 plus Zoom group: For this session, we discussed our group story which is now finished and has has been edited a few times. We discussed changing a bit towards the end that didn’t quite work and once that is done, the story can be added to the anthology all the groups have been working on. Today we also had a writing prompt: From a window. For this, they could write a fictional or non-fiction story, or a poem, describing a view from a window. We also discussed my new idea for another collaborative writing project all the groups will get involved in and this group were really enthusiastic about it!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 plus Zoom group: Similar to the above, we had some discussion over their group story which is drawing to an end but will need editing when finished. I set them the From a Window prompt and also explained my new idea for a short story collection.

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom group: This group had the same prompt and most of them decided to respond to that. They could also carry on with ongoing stories or poems too, and a few of them went with that option. They also seemed keen on my new idea for a big writing project!

Wednesday CJS Club: Today I told the group about my new idea and they had plenty of questions about how it will work. We set the goal for this term of each creating a character and working towards a short story for that character. We talked about simple and complex character bios and everyone started creating one. Towards the end some of them pretended to be their characters and were interviewed by the rest of us!

See you next week where we will have more news on the anthology AND the new book idea!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 31st March

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What have we been up to this week? Editing tips and on-going stories for Zoom, Easter/Spring poems and cards for school clubs!

Monday

Monday CJS Club: Our final session for this term and we were writing Easter or Spring themed poems and sticking them into Easter cards for our loved ones! The children also had the choice to just carry on with a story they are working on, so we had a mix of responses. Great work, have a lovely Easter break everyone!

Monday Zoom Club: This group had a choice between making progress on stories, responding to prompts, or joining in a discussion on editing. The editing topic discussed different types of editing and editors, plus offered tips for self-editing. Well done everyone and see you after Easter!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: This group also covered the editing topic and also made great progress with their on-going stories and projects!

Bransgore C of E Primary School: Lots of Easter and Spring themed poems today at Bransgore! Well done everyone! Enjoy the break!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: These guys went for a mix today. Some continued to make progress on on-going stories, some added writing to our group story, and some responded to the offered prompts! Fantastic attitude and effort from this group as always! Have a lovely Easter break!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: Most of this group carried on their Minecraft stories today, but some responded to the prompts on offer and one started writing a play! Brilliant work from everyone!

Wednesday CJS Club: More Easter/Spring themed poems stories and cards today!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 24th March

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What have we been up to this week? News reports for school clubs and tackling writers block OR Minecraft stories for Zooms!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: This week we tackled writers block and writers struggles by talking about specific problems such as over-writing, under-writing, not planning enough, planning too much, lack of confidence, perfectionism and more. We all shared our struggles and discussed strategies for overcoming them! We also had some writing activities to try in order to help us, such as starting an ‘everyday quick writing’ notebook, and we had some general writing prompts on the theme of ‘memory’ to choose from. Well done everyone!

Monday CJS Club: This week we were writing news reports! The children could either choose a picture and then write the news report to go with it, OR they could play around with the headline word choices in order to construct their own wacky newspaper headline. Here are a few examples from the session:

Tuesday Zoom Club: More discussion, tips and plans to tackle writers struggles! In particular we were looking at over-writing and over-editing and not finishing stories. We made great progress in this group today with some new stories pushing forward and some old stories being recharged to try again! Fab work!

Tuesday Bransgore CofE Primary: More news reports using either picture prompts OR crazy headlines! Here are a few examples!

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Wednesday

Wednesday 11 plus Zoom Group: Due to holidays/illnesses we only had one young writer in this club today! That was okay though because I got to hear the battle scene piece she wrote from last week’s prompt which was absolutely superb! Battle scenes are tricky to do! There is a lot to think about, a lot of action and danger and emotion, and this was all covered beautifully! She went on to finish the piece and I am hoping it’s one we can publish in our anthology

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: Today the younger group continued their Minecraft stories and made fantastic progress. One was even finished, so huge congrats to that young writer! Finishing a story is always a big achievement! Well done everyone!

Wednesday CJS Club: This group were working on news reports today and the responses were fantastic and incredibly imaginative. Here are some examples:

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 17th March

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What did we get up to this week? Battle scenes and Minecraft stories for Zoom clubs, recipes and spells for school clubs!

Here is where you will find a weekly summary of everything we have done in our creative writing clubs this week. Simply scroll down to the day your child attends a club to find out what they got up to!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: This week we are looking at battle scenes! We have already worked on pacing, as well as how to write an action scene, so this week we are tying all our knowledge up and writing battle scenes! These can involve small, one on one battles, or epic battles! We discussed several tips for writing battle scenes, such as making it clear when, where and why it is happening, ensuring we allow the battle to have high stakes, allowing the action to rise and fall, and making sure we consider the physical and emotional impact on the characters. There were some prompt choices to get them going and we had some amazing responses, as well as progress on on-going stories that needed a battle scene!

Monday CJS Club: Today we had a go at either writing silly/crazy recipes or magic spells! The idea was to create a list of both ingredients and the method. They could use pictures to help them come up with ideas. Here are a few examples of their work!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: Some great work tackling battle scenes today, well done everyone. We also discussed the progress of the now finished group story and the editing process that’s begun. More on that soon!

Bransgore C of E Primary: recipes and spells today at Bransgore! We had a lovely mix of real recipes (I love the idea of the mug cake!) crazy/silly recipes, and spells for conjuring up all sorts of magic, such as making dogs talk, creating frogs, making dragons and more! Well done everyone! Here are a few examples.

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Club: Incredibly work from this dedicated bunch today! All tackled the battle scene prompts after listening to the tips and advice on how to write such a scene. Some of the pieces of work were also able to progress on-going stories. I was extremely impressed with this group today!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Club: The younger group asked to do Minecraft stories a few weeks ago, and what a fab idea! We kicked this off today by reminding ourselves that planning will help keep us on track. We quickly ran through what a story needs, ie. characters, setting, plot and theme/genre and I encouraged them to do a bit of a plan before starting. Everyone seemed very excited to tackle their own Minecraft story and one member of the group proudly exclaimed that she’d never written so much before! Wonderful ideas and a great work ethic today!

Wednesday CJS Club: Back to recipes and spells for the school club today. They really got stuck into this and we had real recipes for chicken chow mien, plus silly/crazy ones for flower soup, spells for making a unicorn, spells for creating an amazing book and much more. Well done everyone, we had a lot of fun! Here are just a few examples.

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 10th March

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What have we been up to this week? Character dynamics, recipes and spells for Zoom clubs and finishing junk journals for the school clubs!

Welcome parents, carers and young writers. Every week I will post here what we have been up to in writing clubs. The clubs are categorised by day so if your child attends a Tuesday club, for example, simply scroll down to Tuesday to see what we covered this week!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: We looked at character dynamics this week – what are they, why are they important and tips for applying them to your story. Once we had discussed character dynamics and gone through the tips and advice, the group had several options for how to try them out. They could write a scene for their own on-going story which showed some character dynamics, or they could write a random scene to practice utilising them, or they could use one of the prompts offered to get going. We had some lovely examples from everyone and it was a great topic to explore!

Monday CJS Club: This week we finished off the wonderfully creative junk journals and the kids took them home. It was lovely to see some children already writing in theirs and I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing how vastly different they all are! A lot of fun was had making these and I hope the young writers make good use of them at home!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Club: Character dynamics for this group and it was their suggestion to look into the topic, so thank you for that! We had the same discussion and examples of what we mean by character dynamics and we also made progress on the first edit of our finished group story.

Tuesday Bransgore C of E Primary: More finishing and sending home of junk journals! Lots more pages added, using scrap and recycled paper, as well as envelopes, comic pages and so on. It’s been great seeing how inventive they’ve been with this!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: I gave this group a choice of looking at character dynamics or doing recipes/spells like the younger group are doing and they all chose to stick with character dynamics. There was a mixed response of new bits of writing and exploring character dynamics between the characters in their own stories. I’ve known this group since they were a younger group and it’s been amazing and exciting to see how much they have progressed and matured with their writing!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: The younger group have been fantastic, because most weeks they’ve been doing the same topics and work as the older groups and they’ve risen to the challenge every time! I asked them a few weeks ago for some ideas they would like to try and one was writing recipes to share. We decided to tackle this in a few ways. They could share real recipes, which meant including the ingredients and the method in the chat for everyone to see, and they could make up crazy, silly, disgusting recipes too! They obviously had a lot of fun with this! We then talked about how recipes are very similar to spells and potions and some of them moved on to that afterwards. A lot of fun!

Wednesday CJS Club: These guys also finished off their journals and took them home. An amazing variety of journals for all sorts of purposes, they should be very proud of the effort they have put in and the enthusiasm they have shown!