Tag: poetry

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/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!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 13th January

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Making weekly writing books and responding to prompts!

Monday

Monday CJS Club: Great to be back with the CJS Monday club after the Christmas break. We kicked off by making our new weekly writing books. I was really impressed with this group as they did not have a session last week which meant making the books AND responding to our first prompt, what would you do, where would you go if you were invisible? These guys did so well and we had a wonderful response to the prompt with a mixture of stories, creative non-fiction and even poetry! Here are some pictures of the books they’ve made to write in this term.

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: Today we discussed the benefits of using writing tools such as pen and paper over screens, and then responded to another choice of writing prompts. These prompts can be responded to any way they like whether it’s non-fiction or fiction, poetry or short story. The prompts for Zoom groups this week were:

If today was a colour what colour would it be and why?

What would you do if you knew there would be no consequence?

What is something that you will never understand?

Write about a song that is linked to a special memory

Bransgore C of E Primary: Lovely to be back with these guys today! They also enjoyed making their new writing books and responding to the invisibility prompt! Here are some pictures of their books.

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: We also had a discussion about writing tools and the benefits of handwriting, then responded to our next set of prompts! Great work from all!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: Another discussion about writing tools and the cognitive benefits of using pen and paper, followed by more wonderful responses to the prompts.

CJS Wednesday Club: These guys made their writing books last week so today we could get stuck into our first writing prompt! What would you do, and where would you go if you were invisible? What an impressive response from everyone! Mostly poems, which was lovely, but also some stories on the go. Fantastic!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary: This group also made their writing books last week so today we could fully focus on our first prompt about the power of invisibility. We had a lovely mix of poems about invisibility, stories, non-fiction and comic strips! Lovely work from everyone, well done!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 15th December

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Wintry and Christmas themed prompts on Zoom and making poetic bookmarks in school!

It’s been a shorter and quieter week for me without Burton or Bransgore school clubs running, but this is what we got up to on Zoom and at CJS!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: A host of Christmas and wintry themed prompts for all the Zoom kids to choose from this week and the ‘write a Christmas horror story’ was by far the most popular prompt! Lovely work from this group as always and more progress on their long on-going stories.

CJS Monday Club: A small group as lots were busy carol singing, but the rest of us got busy making Christmas gifts in the form of bookmarks with poems written on! Haiku was the suggested poem due to its small size but they could do anything they liked and we had some wonderful creations!

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: The horror prompt was again very popular in this group although we did have one member choose the winter solstice themed prompt. They were all lovely pieces!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: A lovely selection of prompts chosen to respond to today and again, the horror themed option was popular!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: More responding to Christmas themed prompts and again, more progress on on-going projects!

Wednesday CJS Club: This group got to make their poetic bookmarks today and what a beautiful selection of poems were created! Absolutely lovely!

Have a lovely Christmas break everyone and see you on 2026!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 1st December

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Poetry in schools and responding to wintry images on Zoom!

Monday

Monday Zoom Group: Today we had a selection of wintry themed landscape images to respond to in the chat. They could respond in any way they liked, with poetry, flash fiction, a non-fiction descriptive piece or a story! The images went down quiet well with some wonderful story ideas forming!

Monday CJS Club: This group had a poetry prompt today, which involved writing a 5 line poem about memories of a favourite toy. They could have a Christmas vibe if they liked! They also got on with more work in their newspapers!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: This group had the same wintry landscape images to respond to

Bransgore C of E Primary: As we are in the library for this club we had a slightly different poetry prompt. They had to use the last line of any book and use it to write a poem!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: Fantastic responses to the wintry landscape prompts this week, with some new pieces written as well as some using the images to tie in with their on-going projects!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: this group also gave a fantastic response to the images. Everyone wrote a brand new piece and many of them decided these could grow into bigger stories they want to continue with next week!

Wednesday CJS Club: We did some poetry on this club today, using the same 5 line poetry prompt about a favourite toy or memory of a toy. This went really well and lots of them lined up at the end to share their poems!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: This week we had a small break from the on-going mini newspapers and wandered into the school library. Everyone had to find a last line from any book and then use that to write a poem, story or comic strip from! This went really well. Here are some pictures from last week of their newspapers so far!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 20th October

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Creepy writing prompts and word-throwing!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: Lots of spooky writing prompts on offer today including ‘word-throwing’ from a story starter and lots of’ What If…’ scenarios. They also made progress with their Lakeside View stories!

Monday CJS Club: We did an activity as a group, ‘word-throwing’ with a story starter. The story starter was ‘I stepped into the darkness and…’ which was then followed by me calling out a random word every minute. The children can use the word, change the word slightly or ignore the word. We had such fantastic results from this session and every singe piece written fits perfectly into the Lakeside View project!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom group: This group mostly went for the ‘What If…’ scenarios which included ‘What if the darkness came and never left?’ and ‘What if you put on a mask for halloween and it would not come off?’ The results were suitably creepy from all!

Bransgore C of E Primary School Club: This group had the story starter and word-throwing activity and it went so well! Every single child wrote something suitable for the Lakeside View project and every single child was so proud of their work they wanted to stand and read it out! I was amazed by the amount written too!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: A perfectly creepy mix of responses to the Halloween themed prompts from these guys plus one Lakeside View story finished and another one very close to the end!

Wednesday 8-11 Group Zoom Group: These guys responded to the prompts beautifully and some also helped each other construct spooky spells and potions with some lively suggestions in the chat!

Wednesday CJS Club: Another wonderful word-throwing session! This group were also incredibly proud of their spooky writing and all of them are going in the Lakeside View book1

Have a great half-term everyone!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 6th October

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Newspaper covers for school clubs, creating eerie and unsettling scenes for Zoom!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: Today we were looking at how you can create horror and tension by turning everyday and ordinarily pleasant scenes into something more unsettling and uneasy… We went through some tips such as using objects, using characters, using dialogue and using the senses to make a pleasant scene feel creepy. We had some prompts to get us started and the results were amazing! Well done all!

Monday CJS Club: Last week they worked so hard on their template poems that today they deserved a more relaxed and creative session. They were all given their newspaper covers and could decorate and design them any way they liked. I brought in pictures and cut out words and phrases to help inspire front covers in a magazine or newspaper style. We also used teabags to make the newspapers look old! These were amazing and it was a really fun session with all the children fully engaged and excited about putting their newspapers together.

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom group: This group also had the tips on changing an ordinary scene into one that scares us and chose from the prompts, coming up with some seriously unsettling pieces! Well done everyone!

Bransgore C of E Primary School Club: This group got to design and decorate their newspaper/magazine covers today and had great fun in doing so. Here are some examples of their work so far.

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom group: This group had great fun with the making a normal scene creepy task and prompts! The idea is to create a very ordinary scene such as a birthday party, or watching Tv, or walking the dog, and then use either objects, characters, dialogue or the senses to create an uneasy and unsettling atmosphere. These guys were fantastic at doing just that!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: The younger group never shy away from a challenge and they also had the same tips and prompts and could choose whether to create a funny or scary scene using the very everyday setting/scenario. Their responses were also wonderful!

Wednesday CJS Club: These guys were excited to get stuck into decorating and designing their ongoing newspapers today and as you can see, the results are amazing!!