poetry – Page 2

Monday

This week we tackled creative non-fiction. This is partly because I am specifically looking for creative non-fiction pieces for the anthology we are putting together.

Monday Zoom Club – They tackled several creative non-fiction writing prompts including, write a letter to someone in power about something that you want to change / Write about an unusual and/or memorable event in your community /Share a memory of a perfect day/ reflect on a time you surprised yourself / Write about an unusual hobby or interest and why it fascinates you/Reflect on an instance where you found beauty in an unexpected place / Share your thoughts on tech advances and their impact on society.

This was a little bit tricky and I think it’s because as writers, we are often so used to making things up that it’s a little harder when we are asked to write about things that are true. We had some wonderful responses though, including a very powerful poem, a very angry letter about traffic, and some lovely family stories and memories which had been perfectly fictionalised and presented as engaging little stories! Well done everyone!

Monday CJS Club – I offered three creative non-fiction prompts and they were: write a letter to someone in power about something you want to change/ write a story about a memory or experience you have had / describe a perfect day

Again, this was a bit tricky when they are so used to story writing but I encouraged them to view it as writing a fictionalised version of something that is true. We had a few letters and some lovely memories too! There are some examples below.

Tuesday

Tuesday Zoom Club : The Tuesday group also had the same creative non-fiction prompts as the other Zooms this week. They did really well, approaching it with curiosity and enthusiasm. We had some wonderful happy memories described from one writer,

Bransgore C of E Primary School: These guys showed a lot of enthusiasm for the creative non-fiction prompts which was very much appreciated! Everyone had a go and we had some very angry letters aimed at powerful people and expressing genuine concerns, we had non-fiction poems, true stories and a lot more. Well done to you all because you all listened and responded beautifully! Here are some of the things they produced:

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 plus group: Another wonderful response to the creative non-fiction prompts1 A very well argued response to the benefits and drawbacks of AI in the creative environment, plus another very passionate essay on the effect of technology on people, particularly children. Amazing!

Wednesday 8-11 group: This group tackled the same creative non-fiction prompts and were more than willing to give it a go. We had a poem, a letter, a memory of a beautiful day, and a piece about what things inspire them to write.

Wednesday CJS group: Well done everyone for having a go at creative non-fiction this week! Again, we had some wonderful letters addressed to people in power, we had some non-fiction and very educational poems, we had a list of things someone is looking forward to (and not) about being a teenager one day, a few fun true stories and some letters to Taylor Swift! Fantastic. Here are a few examples.

What did we get up to this week? Found poetry and found song-writing!

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 Group: This week our Monday Zoom group were the first to kick off the found poetry/song-writing topic. Most of the children are familiar with found poetry and the many different ways you can do it, but we started with a brief explanation and reminder. Today they had a few options available.

I copy and pasted random cut-up lyrics from real songs and put them in the chat. They could then use it to create either a poem, a song or a piece of flash fiction if they preferred. They could take whole sentences from the chat and rearrange them to create something new, or they could take single words, or just ideas.
They could go around their house and look for words and phrases to construct a piece of writing from. Examples could be book titles, newspaper headlines, snippets of news and radio conversations, posters and signs etc.

I rather threw them in at the deep end with slightly too many lyrics in the chat, which I ended up reducing for the rest of the Zoom clubs! But we had some fantastic results, including a number of inventive limericks, and some wonderful poems/songs using lyrics from the chat to inspire .

Monday Christchurch Junior School: A slightly different approach for the school clubs. I took in a box of cut up words and phrases from magazines which they could use for found poetry or song-writing. Most of them are also familiar with this technique. But to inspire song-writing I wrote out random lyrics from a few songs about music (I Still Believe by Frank Turner, She Bangs The Drums by The Stone Roses and American Pie by Don McClean) These were written on larger strips of coloured paper they could then move around to suit themselves. Several children armed themselves with piles of strips and found a quiet corner or floor space to construct a song or poem with. We also had some lovely found poetry and it was notable how much better they were having done it before. For example, many were not just choosing random words now, they were choosing words that went together or created a theme. Check out some fantastic examples below!

Tuesday

Tuesday Zoom Group: The 11 plus Zoom group also responded to the lyric challenge and all of them chose to use the random lyrics in the chat to create something new. We had a wonderful poem, a very atmospheric song, and an eerie piece of flash fiction that cleverly connected to previous ones by the same author. Well done everyone!

Tuesday Bransgore C of E Primary School: Bransgore also had a play with strips of lyrics spread out on tables and the floor plus the usual found poetry snippets of words and phrases they are used to. We also had a lovely combination of songs, poems and small pieces of fiction. Here are a few examples.

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 plus Zoom group: A huge well done to this group, who all tackled the lyric found poetry/song-writing challenge with great curiosity and enthusiasm. We had a wonderful mixture of songs, poems and pieces of flash fiction from taking random lyrics and using them to spark off ideas! Well done everyone.

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom group: Some of this group are new to found poetry but took to it with an open mind and gave it a go! Fantastic attitude. They had the same lyrics as the older and mixed age groups and did a truly spectacular job. We had several small and very thought-provoking poems, a song that the author hopes to write piano music to go with, a piece of flash fiction that showed true mastery of language, pacing and atmosphere and a really fun little poem created from the objects and words around them. Everyone did so well!

Wednesday Christchurch Junior School: These guys had the same strips of lyrics and random words from magazines and the option of writing songs, poems of pieces of flash fiction. We had a lovely selection of all and I was very impressed by everyone! Here are a few examples.