Tag: writing groups

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 5th January

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Welcome back and happy new year!

Not all of out writing clubs were back yet this week but here’s what we kicked off with the ones who were…

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: We kicked off our new topic this week which is ‘everyday quick writing’. What is it, what does it involve and why is it important? After discussing what quick everyday writing is (essentially small bursts of routine writing in any style or format) we had four writing prompts to choose from. The prompts were creative non-fiction but they could choose to respond with fiction if they wanted and we had a lovely mix of both!

Wednesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: This group also started the everyday quick writing topic and again, we had a wonderful mix of responses to prompts which were creative non-fiction, or fiction. A wonderful start to a new term!

8-11 Zoom Group: really lovely work from the younger group today. They seemed really pleased with the topic and again, a lovely mix of creative non-fiction and fiction responses were written! fantastic!

CJS Wednesday club: Wonderful to be back with this group today and they are also doing the quick everyday writing topic. The only difference was they had to make their writing books first! They could choose their covers and there were pages of paper on offer including, lined, plain, coloured and squared. They had treasury tags to hold all the pages together and used cut up words and phrases to decorate their covers. They then started allocating pages for different things such as ideas, doodles, or characters… here are a few examples of their books so far!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: Finished the week off with these guys and they were all very keen to make their new writing books. We will start writing in them next week! Here are a few of their books so far…

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 24th November

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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 17th November

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Poetry and a brand new school club starts!

Monday

Monday Zoom Group: Today we had three poetry prompts to choose from:

Poetry activity 1:

Personification poetry:

Write a poem of any style, rhyming or non-rhyming from the POV of an object, any object!

Poetry activity 2:

Would you rather poem:

I’d rather… (be writing)

I’d rather not… (tell you what I’m thinking)

I’d rather be happy

I’d rather not be stuck in traffic

Poetry activity 3:

Line 1: Name an item with a describing word (eg old red scooter)

Line 2: tell us something it did or does (whizzed down the hill, got me to school

etc

Line 3: add a sensory detail (eg, creaky wheels, shiny paint, flaking paint, wind in your hair etc)

Line 4: add a thought, a wish or a memory (I remember crashing it into a wall, I wish I still had it ect)

Line 5: end with a feeling or a surprise twist (it wasn’t my scooter, I feel stranded without it etc)

For this group, all decided to write a personification poem which beautifully summed up everything we have been exploring for the last few sessions. They then returned to their Lakeside View stories!

Monday CJS Club: This group had a go at either a personification poem or a I would rather/rather not poem, with most of them opting for the personification and very much enjoying the rest of the group trying to guess what they were!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: The three poetry activity prompts on offer for this group too and some went for the I’d Rather, I’d Rather Not poem, while others tackled personification. Great work!

Bransgore C of E Primary School: These guys had a go at the I’d Rather, I’d Rather Not poem and they all did so well. We had lots of food based poems, lots of personal ones, silly made up ones and some fantastic rhyming ones! Well done everyone!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: Wonderful results from this group with the poetry choices this week. All went for the personification poem, with some choosing objects used by characters in their on-going stories!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: We had a nice mix in this group and for the first time two of the group had a go at the template poem activity choosing. These were really good with parts based on truth and parts on fiction!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: I was very excited to start a new after school club today at Burton Primary! We are nearly full already which is fantastic! We only have four sessions for Christmas and for three of those we are making mini newspapers! The group got stuck in today, with some doing comic books, while others were writing mini articles, creating adverts and writing stories! A great start!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 10th Nov

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Personification continued with added POV!

Monday

Monday Zoom Group: We continued exploring the personification of landscape this week in the writing clubs, in particular with the following prompt: Landscape as character continued:

This time get into the POV of the landscape. You can use the same landscape from last session or choose a new one. This time you ARE the landscape, you can do this in 1st POV or 3rd, but try to show what the landscape sees, hears, feels and wants…

The Monday group responded very well to this with detailed and complex pieces that really brought landscapes to life with personification and POV!

Monday CJS Club: Playing a bit of catch up this week as they didn’t have a session last week due to a staff day. They also explored personification, which was new to some of the younger ones! They did really well!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: Today we were playing around with both personification and POV within landscapes and had some great examples, including some using 3rd POV which is a bit harder to do! Well done everyone!

Bransgore C of E Primary School Club: These guys have been really rising to the challenges lately which was been amazing to see! Today they extended their knowledge of personification and applied it to landscapes with either 1st or 3rd person POV. Again, for some of the younger ones this is very new stuff, but they did so well!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: Great results from this bunch with the personification and POV within landscape prompts, As always such a pleasure to hear these guys read their work out loud with such pride!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: The younger group also had a go at the same prompt and did so well! Pretending to be an object is an easy way into exploring POV so we started with that for some of them. The results were amazing!

Wednesday CJS Club: More playing around with personification and POV in landscape, but also finding an easier way in with becoming an object or an animal instead. The group enjoyed trying to make the rest of the class guess what landscape or object they were!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C Nov 3rd

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This week we’ve looked at personification, specifically when describing landscapes!

Monday

Monday Zoom Group: We started with reminding ourselves what personification is and had some examples of it being used specifically when describing landscapes. The children then had a go at writing their own descriptive landscape piece using personification techniques to really bring it alive! The results were amazing and they then got back to their ongoing stories for the Lakeside View project!

There was no CJS Monday club this week due to a staff day.

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: We also discussed personification and used the examples and prompts to practice our skills. Amazing responses from everyone, well done!

Bransgore C of E School: Personification was a new concept for the youngest children in this group but they rose to the challenge beautifully and wrote some fantastic sentences! The results from everyone were of a very high standard and again we had lots of children lining up wanting to share their descriptive pieces!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Group: Amazing results in this group from the personification prompt and discussion. Again, everyone was super proud of their efforts and really noticed the difference it made to their writing! More progress on Lakeside View stories too!

Wednesday 8-11 Group: Personification was a new concept for some of the younger group and again they really rose to the challenge! I was very impressed with the personification sentences, descriptions and poems they all came up with!

Wednesday CJS Club: more fun with personification in landscapes with these guys and some stunning examples were written too! Some of the younger ones learnt about the technique for the first time and were really proud when they mastered it!