Tag: Children’s Writing Clubs

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 11th May

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More rhyming poetry including monorhymes and couplets, plus pick your own activities!

Monday

Monday CJS Club: Having looked at the rhyming schemes of limericks and ballads in the last few sessions, we looked at other rhyming schemes today such as the couplet, and I encouraged everyone to come up with their own scheme and write a rhyming poem. We also had the poetry ‘soup’ made last week at Burton on offer, as well as other poetry prompts! Lovely results!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 plus zoom group: We looked at some more rhyming schemes and then the group had to choose one or make their own one to write a poem too. Lots of interesting discussion about rhyming schemes too!

Bransgore C of E Primary School Club: Poetry soup and other prompts on offer, as well as a discussion about various rhyming schemes. Some lovely poems were written, well done everyone!

Wednesday

Older Zoom group: We ran through the various rhyming schemes and then everyone picked one to work with. We also looked at chain rhymes and a few really challenged themselves to try this one!

Younger Zoom Group: This group have really enjoyed the rhyming poetry so it was no surprise that they really got stuck into this session and wrote some lovely rhyming poems!

CJS Wednesday Club: We discussed alternate rhymes, couplets and monorhymes and everyone picked one to try. Wonderful poems from a wonderful group! Lots of proud writers sharing theirs at the end too.

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School club: We looked at monorhymes, couplets and alternate rhymes and everyone had written a poem by the end, which was superb!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 4th May

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Rhyming poetry!

Monday

No Monday club this week due to it being a bank holiday

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: This week we looked at ballads and rhyming poetry in general. We looked at some traditional ballads, poems which were often sung and tend to include characters and plots. We then had a go writing one of our own after looking at some examples of various rhyming scheme. Fantastic work from all!

Bransgore C of E Primary School: We looked at ballads and discussed the rhyming schemes of some traditional ones then had a go at writing our own. Brilliant effort from everyone!

Wednesday

Older Zoom Group: We looked at some ballads and also discussed perfect and imperfect rhymes. Everyone had a go at writing their own ballad with their own rhyming schemes. Wonderful, well done everyone!

Younger Zoom Group: This group have been very enthusiastic about poetry which is lovely to see. We had some great responses to ballad poetry!

CJS Wednesday Club: This group did really well with ballads today as well – discussing rhyming schemes, as well as perfect and imperfect rhymes, we had

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: I tried something new with this group, something I’ve not tried before! Poetry Soup – which for us involved filling various envelopes with rhyming words as well as creepy words, nature words and so on. The idea is then you mix them up in a bowl like soup, pluck some out and attempt to write a poem. We will try making poems next week but it was good fun filling the envelopes!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 27th April

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Our poetry topic continues with limericks!

This week all our groups have been having fun with limericks – funny 5 line poems with a particular rhyming scheme of AABBA. They often introduce a character and/or a place and then something funny happens. As you can imagine, limericks were very popular this week and we had many fantastic responses!

Monday

CJS Monday Club: As this group enjoyed found poetry so much last week, I brought that in again for them to explore a bit more. But we also looked at limericks and wrote one together. Then everyone had a go at writing their own. Many limericks then morphed into four, five and even six stanza poems as the stories grew longer! Absolutely brilliant!

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: This group also had an excellent response to limerick writing. We had some funny ones, and also an eerie, dark limerick that then grew into a three stanza poem! Again, it was lovely to see poems growing and evolving into longer pieces!

Bransgore C of E Primary School: This group also fully embraced the limericks and had a lot of fun writing a group one together! Well done everyone.

Wednesday

Older Zoom Group: More fun with limericks, some funny, some scary! It was lovely to see how many grew into longer poems or sparked off story ideas!

Younger Zoom Group: A fantastic and enthusiastic response from this group too, with plenty of lovely and silly limericks being written in the session!

CJS Wednesday Club: We learnt how to write a limerick and wrote one together as a class. Everyone then had a go at writing their own and many children were very happy to share their proudly at the end! Fantastic!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: We all wrote a funny limerick together and then everyone had a go at writing their own. We also had a fun vote on which one was the funniest at the end! Well done all!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 20th April

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Fun with Found Poetry!

Monday

CJS Monday Club: This week is all about found poetry! There are many ways to enjoy found poetry and this week at writing clubs we will be playing with Haikubes, magnetic poetry and found poetry from cut up words and phrases. Found poetry is always really popular and I think it’s a fantastic way to increase confidence with poetry! Here are a ew examples from the Monday club who really embraced the challenge!

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: Lots of choices for found poetry today and wonderful responses too. Some chose to find a phrase or line from elsewhere then use that as the title of a poem, and some took words and phrases from around them to construct a poem from. Great stuff!

Bransgore C of E Primary School: Lots of found poetry options on offer today, including cut up words and phrases, haiukbes and magnetic poetry.

Wednesday

Older Zoom Group: Incredible responses to found poetry today from these days. Some poems were written from cut out words and magazines they had around them, some were constructed from random words I’d put into the chat and some used existing song lyrics or lines from poetry to get them going. The results were stunning! Well done everyone!

Younger Zoom Group: A lovely and enthusiastic response to this group too and again a mixture of responses and uses of found poetry. Some were made out of bits in the chat, things they had overheard and so on and some were song lyrics rearranged into something new. They were all super!

CJS Wednesday Club: Found poetry options on offer for this group too and we had some lovely results.

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: First time introducing found poetry to this newer group and it went really well, with everyone having a go and getting a poem done. Here are a few.

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 13th April

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Kicking off the theme of our next book and a half-term of poetry!

Monday

CJS Monday Club: Today we kicked off our new theme/topic for our next book. The theme is portals, other dimensions, worlds and realities and we are starting with poetry this half-term. For our first session we looked at list poems – what is a list poem, examples of list poems and how to write a list poem. We wrote a portal themed list poem together to start us off. We had lots of children wanting to write their list poems about portals and other worlds so we were able to add new content to the new book already! Fantastic!

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: We introduced the new topic for the book and kicked off with list poetry. Again, wonderful responses from the young writers and some portal themed poems added to the book! Well done all!

Bransgore C of E Primary School: Everyone was excited to kick off the new book topic and everyone helped write a wonderfully crazy list poem together. Again, we had plenty of wonderful portal themed poems to add to the new book after! A great start.

Wednesday

Older Zoom group: We looked at a few longer and more complex list poems with this group and then everyone got stuck into writing their own, and again, lots of these got added to the new book! Well done all.

Younger Zoom group: The younger group also embraced the new book topic and got busy writing list poems on various topics! Brilliant work from all.

Wednesday CJS Club: Another enthusiastic response to our new book topic. We started by writing a portal themed list poem ourselves and then everyone wrote their own.

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: We introduced the new topic and learnt what a list poem is. We then wrote a list poem together on the board about things we might find inside a magical portal. Everyone then had a go at writing their own list poem! Wonderful work, well done everyone!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 23rd March

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End of term Easter writing prompts for Zoom and writing prompt ‘hunt’ for school clubs!

Monday

CJS Monday Club: Today for our last session before the Easter break, we had various Easter writing prompts on offer but the twist was the kids had to find them first! Small egg-shaped prompts were hidden all over the room we use and once they had found a few they liked they could start writing. We also had egg-shaped poetry, or calligrams, as they are often known. The idea is to write a poem that fits into the shape of the egg!

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: More Easter and Spring themed writing prompts on offer for this group. These were the choices:

  1. Explore what happens when aliens invade and treat humans like we treat chickens
  2. Write a story about an easter egg hunt that goes terribly and horribly wrong…
  3. Spring returns after the floods, but what have the floods left behind?
  4. Spring cannot return and a forever winter begins…
  5. A character has the ability to resurrect themselves every day and be reborn as someone totally different
  6. Write about a society where people are encouraged to shed their old lives and personalities at the end of each winter in preparation for spring…
  7. Write a spring themed poem
  8. Write a scene describing a place slowly waking up to spring
  9. Consider the spring themes of rebirth and resurrection… perhaps something has been buried but refuses to stay dead? Perhaps something morphs into a new being at the start of spring, perhaps something is awakened by spring and is instantly hungry
  10. Introduce us to a quaint small town or village who take spring traditions very seriously…
  11. Write something using any or all of these words: forgotten, ditch, warped, postcard, daffodil, doorbell, pothole, sticker, broken vase, dirty window, cast away, bridge, egg cup, breathless, sanitised, collapsed, scissors, blossom, blood-stained, treasure hunt, vindicated, tea party, sunburn, monstrosity, canopy, surprise, trail,

Bransgore C of E Primary School: This school group really enjoyed hunting down the egg-shaped writing prompts and we had some wonderful responses to them, as well as some fantastic egg-shaped poems!

Wednesday

11 plus Zoom Group: In this group we had a mix of finishing fables, working on on-going stories and responding to writing prompts! Fantastic!

8-11 Zoom Group: This group all opted to respond to the spring themed writing prompts and were all happy to share their wonderful pieces so far!

CJS Wednesday Club: Another room, another writing prompt hunt! Some fabulous stories were started in response to the eggs they found, including one about an easter egg hunt that ends up with falling into a hole, a broken fairy ring, dragon eggs hatching instead of chickens, and much more!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: These guys also really enjoyed looking for the egg-shaped prompts. We had some wonderful responses to the prompts and some great shape poetry too!

Have a fantastic Easter break everyone!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 16th March

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‘Something Happened In Lakeside View’ is finally published!

Hi everyone, as usual simply scroll down to find the club your child attends in order to find out what we got up to this week, but the big news Something Happened In Lakeside View, the latest book the children have written together, is finally published!

https://books2read.com/u/mVEyw2

Something Happened In Lakeside View is the result of over 80 children working together collaboratively to vote on a project, create a town, vote on a common theme and then all write their own stories or poems set there… We started the project last summer term and all the pieces had been submitted by January. It is now available across multiple platforms in ebook and paperback!

Here is the blurb:

Welcome to Lakeside View, a pretty little town much like any other. Or is it?

Scratch under the surface and you will find a place full of secrets and shadows.

A place full of darkness, magic, ancient curses and hidden horrors. Who would live in a town like this? Many people have come and gone and some have left behind their testimonies.

What happened in Lakeside View? Read on to find out.

This is an anthology of stories and poems written by the young people who attend creative writing clubs with Chasing Driftwood Writing Group.

Don’t forget to leave a review on your platform of choice if you do read it. And please be aware this is a creepy horror-based book that might not be suitable for those under 10 or sensitive readers.

Many thanks!

Monday

CJS Monday Club: Just a few young writers had to finish off their fables today and options for the rest of the group were various writing prompts, plus mini books, zig-zag books and comic books made up into various sizes and formats. They had great fun with this and some amazing comic book creations were started!

Tuesday:

11 Plus Zoom Group: Fables have all been finished in this group too so we had lots of writing prompts on offer, most of which were linked to fables, or stories with warnings and consequences… Some fantastic responses, well done guys!

Bransgore C of E Primary School: Again, fables are done in this group so they had the comic books, zig-zag books, and mini books with various writing prompts. One of the prompts was to create your own Bunny Vs Monkey style and this went down a treat, with examples such as ‘Teachers Vs Kids’!

Wednesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: Fables completed and so various writing prompts on offer in this group today, including:

  • start and end a story with wet feet
  • start an end a story with a cry of rage
  • ‘PRIVATE – DO NOT ENTER’ – someone ignores this sign, what happens next? plus more!

8-11 Zoom Group: Fables all done, so writing prompts on offer for this group too! Great responses from all.

CJS Wednesday Club: This club really enjoyed the comic books, mini books and something vs something type prompts, and we also had some fables finished and shared with the group!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: Most opted for the comic books and the something vs something theme was also very popular with me vs my brother as an example!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 2nd March

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Progress on our fables topic!

Monday

Monday CJS Club: This club made excellent progress on their fables during this session. We reminded ourselves how to build and create a character bio and everyone made one for a character in their fable. This then led on to more ideas for the fables themselves and many of the children began penning their first drafts! We also discussed the different ways we could present our fables when they are finished, including traditional picture books, zig-zag books and scrolls tied with ribbons! Fantastic effort from everyone today!

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: We also moved onto creating characters for our fables and one fable was finished in the first draft!

Bransgore C of E Primary School: More progress on fables with character bios being created today.

Wednesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: Lovely progress with on-going stories plus character bios for our fables!

8-11 Zoom Group: Several mini fables coming out of this group each week, as well as working on character bios today!

CJS Wednesday Club: Progress for our fables in the form of character bios today!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: This week we created character bios for our fables which we will write next week!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 26th January

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Story planning with post-it notes in school and ‘quick everyday writes’ prompts for Zoom! Plus our first ‘Dark Club’ Zoom session!

Monday

CJS Monday Club: Today this group could either carry on any stories/poems started in the last few weeks from our ‘quick everyday writes’ prompts or they could make progress with their rescue dog stories for the Bournemouth Writing Festival competition. But we started with a quick story planning activity which really got them thinking about how to structure and plan a story. Everyone had six post-it notes but had to put three aside to start with. On three they had to write the beginning, middle and end of a story in quick note form. We talked about how helpful The Three Act Structure is in story planning. For example, Act 1 is the beginning of the story where you introduce a character and their world. Act 2 is the middle of the story where you make something happen and give the character a problem they cannot ignore. Act 3 is the end of the story where you resolve the problem. After everyone had written three notes, I then showed them how to interject three extra notes to provide more detail. We had some wonderful results from this. many of them said they now knew how to write their story better and many started stories because of the activity! Here are a few of their memo-note story plans:

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: These guys had the following prompts to discuss and respond to:

  • Write about the happiest sound in the world
  • Why do you write? How do you feel when you write?
  • What does it feel like to have a head full of ideas?
  • What is the one thing you always wish you were doing?

Some of them were also interested in the memo note planning technique I’m showing the school clubs this week so I talked them through that.

Bransgore C of E Primary School: These guys planned their stories today using the memo note technique, first coming up with three basic points of a story, start, middle and end, and then adding more detail. Fantastic! Here are a few of their plans:

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Group: This group had the writing prompt choices to go through and we also ran through the memo note planning technique. There was progress made on on-going projects too!

Wednesday 8-11 Group: The younger group seem to be really enjoying the quick writing prompts each week, with most of them doing more than one each time! We also had a look at the memo note planning technique and one member of the group decided to use this to plan her next story!

Wednesday CJS Group: With this group we discussed the memo note planning technique and everyone had a go at planning a story this way. Lots of them then went back to stories for the Bournemouth Writing Festival competition! Here are a few of their story plans:

Thursday

January ‘Dark’ club Session: This is a new monthly Zoom club for young writers interested in the darker genres such as horror, sci-fi, fantasy, crime, dystopia and post-apocalyptic. We will be meeting once a month at the end of the month to explore these genres and look at some famous authors who wrote in them. The aim is to learn more about the darker genres of writing and make progress with stories! Our first session went really well. We discussed various genres and what readers might expect from them, we looked at writing advice from Ray Bradbury of Fahrenheit 451 and tried his activity for writing a dark story which involves writing a list of ten things you love and ten things you hate then using some of that passion in a story. It was great fun and I am looking forward to the next one!

Burton C of E Primary School: Today at Burton I introduced the memo note story planning technique and as you can see from the photos below they enjoyed having a go at this! Some great story ideas evolved from the planning and some ongoing stories got a boost too. We also enjoyed using the feather and ink pen set, plus the fountain pen and my laptop to write with! Well done everyone, excellent work!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C19th January

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Super powers writing prompt plus planning for the Bournemouth Writing Festival children’s writing competition!

Monday

Monday CJS Club: Today this group had a choice of a superpowers writing prompt – they could respond with poetry, story or comic strip OR they could start making plans for a story or poem for Bournemouth Writing Festival’s children’s writing competition. The theme this year is ‘every dog deserves a home’ and the festival have teamed up with Waggy Tails dog rescue to launch the competition. A lot of the CJS children were excited to enter this and as well as some wonderful responses to the super power prompt, we had some rescue dog themed stories planned and even started! Here are a few pictures.

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: More ‘every day quick writes’ prompts for this group today. They could choose from the following:

  • What is one historical event you wish you could go back and witness?
  • What advice would you give to younger aspiring writers?
  • What’s one thing you are excited about today?
  • What would you say if you could ask your ancestors a question?
  • Write/draw about a character who discovers they have super-powers

Bransgore C of E Primary School: These guys also had a choice of the superpowers prompt OR planning/writing a story or poem for the Bournemouth Writing Festival children’s writing competition. We even had some wonderful poems finished and handed in within the session!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: The same array of prompts for these guys today plus lots of progress on some of their longer, on-going stories. Wonderful work from this talented bunch!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: This group seem to be really embracing the weekly prompts and we’ve had a lovely mix of creative non-fiction answers and poetry and stories! We also had another assignment handed in on our optional theme ‘broken’. Great work from all!

Wednesday CJS Club: The kids enjoyed experimenting with the feather pen and pot of ink I took in. The school clubs have all been very intrigued with this old-fashioned method of penmanship this week! They also got stuck into the prompts and/or decided to write stories/poems for the Bournemouth Writing Festival competition!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: A choice between writing prompts about super-powers or entering the Bournemouth Writing Festival dog-themed competition! We also enjoyed experimenting with the ink and feather pen!