Tag: Stories

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 1st December

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

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 24th November

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

Unreliable narrators on Zoom and creating our own adverts in school clubs!

Monday

Monday 11 Plus Zoom Group: This week via Zoom we are looking at unreliable narrators. What is an unreliable narrator, what different types of unreliable narrator exist in fiction and why they are sometimes used. We then set some writing prompts to explore the mindset of unreliable narrators! A great response from the first club of the week with members choosing from the list of prompts and exploring their own unreliable narrator. We also discussed how they have used unreliable narrators before without perhaps realising it!

CJS Monday Club: In school clubs this week we are trying to finish off the newspapers they have been working on since September. This week we are creating and designing our own adverts. It could be for something that already exists or something completely made up! We had a lovely selection of ads from them. Have a look at a few examples below!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 plus Zoom Group: more work on unreliable narrators for this group. Some great pieces were written, including the POV of a cat who witnesses a murder, and the POV of a very young child in danger. Great work!

Bransgore C of E Primary School Club: this group also enjoyed creating their own adverts for their newspapers today as you can see from the selection below!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom group: More work on unreliable narrators. What is an unreliable narrator and how can we spot one? The group did a great job responding to the prompts and we also realised how many of them have ongoing stories with unreliable narrators at the helm! There was one particularly clever and chilling piece written from the POV of a young child who does not realise she has witnessed a crime. Truly chilling!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: We added a Christmassy vibe to the unreliable narrator topic and the younger group could choose between arguing elves, a pet who hears all the Christmas secrets and arguments among siblings among other things. They did a great job responding to the topic!

Wednesday CJS Club: Here is another fun selection of adverts created this week!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: Only the second session with these guys and they have been doing a fantastic job creating mini newspapers/magazine. We’ve got ongoing comic book strips, mini news articles, adverts, puzzle pages, stories, poems and even songs among their work so far! Absolutely brilliant! I’ll post some examples next week.

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 6th October

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

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!!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 19th May

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

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

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

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 31st March

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

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 17th March

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

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.