Tag: writing tips

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 29th September

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This week we celebrated National Poetry Day!

Monday

Monday Zoom Group: We had a selection of poetry challenges today all from resources sent from National Poetry Day! The theme for National Poetry Day is ‘play’ and one of the things we started with was trying to make a group poem about play. Everyone added their thoughts on play to the chat, such as what they liked to play, used to play, favourite toys and games and so on. We then put this together into a poem and here it is:

Play is…

Cat and mouse,
playground,
the outdoors, a wild amusement park.
getting really competitive
with your sister while playing board games
films, friends,
parties,
books, board games
old toys, new toys
imaginary games
hide and seek,
Tall trees, grass stains
playing is
like being in another world
being on an adventure
like living in another world
until you have to go
swinging higher and higher
playing with your dog
and it getting a bit too boisterous
hiding behind a bush
knowing it’s just a game but it’s still terrifying!

Christchurch Junior School: We worked with two types of poetry today – one was the group poem, with children adding words and phrases about play to a large sheet of paper, and then we worked through the template poem ‘I Am..’ We had some great results from this and a mix of personal poems and poems from the POV of characters or creatures. Here is their group poem:

Play is Fun

Play is fun
monopoly and wordsearch
tag with friends
games with family
play is exciting
Roblox and video games
running in the playground
and hide and seek
play is sharing
games with pets
football and skipping
play is happiness

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom group: This group had a go at the group poem based on play and also worked their way through the National Poetry Day resources and challenges. Here is their group poem:

Playing Is…

Playing is like being disconnected from the real world
Play is a way of telling a story
Playing outside near the road
playing family,
making adverts for random objects,
manhunt, and running,
hiding and making dens
climbing trees in the forest
playing pirates, making stuff,
painting or moulding something utterly indescribable
with clay or mud
pretending a stick is a sword

Bransgore c of E Primary School: Bransgore did their template I Am poem last week so this week they tried two forms of found poetry AND helped to write a group poem about play. For found poetry we had cut up words and phrases to move around and create a poem from, and also a book title challenge. With this, you simply write down as many book titles as you can find around you then start circling any that have similar themes. Finally, construct a poem from the book titles and add more words if you need to. Here is their group poem about play:

I Play…

I play all day
rock, paper, scissors
tag, no returns
ball games – what goes up must come down
Lego – build it up and knock it down
with Duplo, and Frozen
and a solar-powered robot
I play Mums and Dads
and Teachers and Schools
and musical instruments to make a noise
video games make me feel it’s my happy time
and I feel relaxed, I feel fine
I feel free
this is my time

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: More National Poetry Day resources for this group today and also another group poem based on the play theme!

Life’s A Game To Me

Life’s a game to me
the swings on the playpark
down the street, climbing trees
sprinting and being stuck in the mud
shut in cupboards for hide and seek
playing in my daydreams.

Life’s a game to me
You’re chasing me
Now I am the chaser
I cannot catch you
Yet you keep running
Everything is different now

Life’s a game to me
I am your child
You are my mother
And we live in a tree
Sandboxes and mud pits
You’re bored now so we change once more

Life’s a game to me
Dolls and toys
Robots and dinosaurs
Lend me your ear
We’ll have a blast
Trust me here, lets make it last

Life’s a game to me
And when all’s said and done
I’ll write it down when I’m older
Engines powering huge machines
Generate your own world
Let your imagination make your story

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: This group also did a fab job with all the National Poetry Day challenges and here is their group poem!

Playing is fun

Acting, dancing, singing and laughing
I’ve got squishmallows to squish
I sleep with about 1000 cuddly toys
play schools with them
happy memories attached to them
got one at a fair
traded with friends
grandad helped me buy one from a gift shop
Playing with friends, playing with toy horses
LOL dolls and barbies
Football and sports
Sailing and bike riding
Whittling is fun
And mud kitchen and potions
Tent building
Gaming
Toys that have another use
Lego building
Dressing up and drawing
Playing is fun

Christchurch Junior School Wednesday Club: These guys did the template I Am poem today and lots chose to do it from the POV of a creature, which made for some deliciously dark poems! Here is their group poem:

Happiness is
Happiness is
running, jumping
outside games
tag and netball
sports like football
Happiness is
Roblox and 99 Nights
skipping and tennis
drawing and creating things
drama and theatre
happiness is
designing and drawing
board games and toys
card games indoors
fun times with friends

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 22nd September

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Finished articles and an ‘I Am’ Poem!

Monday

Monday Zoom group: Article writing and template ‘I Am’ poems on the go today with this group! We also had a fun book recommendation discussion!

Monday CJS: Finished articles today for this club. Here are the results of their hard work!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 plus Zoom group: This group finished their articles last week so were concentrating on poetry today – a mix of the ‘I Am…’ poetry template we’ve been working with and also narrative poetry. For the narrative or ‘storytelling’ poetry we had some prompts to choose from in order to form mini story/poems. Excellent work from all!

Bransgrore C of E Primary School: This group also finished their articles last week so today we were filling in the ‘I Am…’ poetry template. They really got into this, often asking if they could change a line or two of the ‘instructions’ that start each line off. Many did beautiful personal poems about who they are while some chose to do theirs from the POV of a fictional character or creature! Images below!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom group: A mix of template ‘I Am…’ poetry and narrative poetry prompts for this group. Also some progress on amazing Lakeside View stories!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom group: These guys finished template ‘I Am…’ poems last week so moved onto narrative poems today with some brilliant results!

Wednesday CJS Club: Articles were finished and some of them moved onto found poetry! They’ll do the template poetry next week. Here are a few examples of some wonderful found poetry. There are many ways to do found poetry but today we used cut up words and phrases to create poems and/or inspire ideas!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 8th September

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Zoom clubs and Bransgore Primary School club were back this week!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: We launched our new topic which is creating ‘newspapers’ from now until Christmas. The idea is we will do a different activity each week and gradually create a body of work we will then organise into a newspaper or magazine. We started with articles today and will carry this on next week. We discussed what is needed in a newspaper story, such as the heading, by-line, introductory paragraph, the main story, conclusion, and extras such as reader’s comments and pictures/photos. We had some possible headlines as prompts and there was also an option to tie the newspaper stories in with our on-going Lakeside View project!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Club: This group were introduced to the new topic and made a great start on articles today. Some wrote random articles on topics of their choice and some are linking theirs to Lakeside View. We will carry on with these next week!

Bransgore C of E Primary School Club: It was lovely to be back at Bransgore today! We kicked off our newspaper topic and everyone chose a topic and a headline, as well as some wonderful pictures to inspire the news reports. We had a couple finished, which is amazing, but most will be finished next week. Here are a few of them in progress!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Club: Also starting with article writing and picking from headline prompts or making their own. Some of the group decided to link their articles in with our Lakeside View project, which is brilliant!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Club: Introducing article writing to the younger group and with great results! Headlines and bylines were used, as well as great stories, most of which linked in with Lakeside View!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 7th July

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Flash fiction prompts and progress on our ‘town stories’ project!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: We started today with a flash fiction challenge. They had three options: writing their current town story in as least words as possible, writing a future story idea in as least words as possible or rewriting a well known tale or story in as least words as possible! After we had progress on town stories!

Monday CJS Club: We had flash fiction prompts also but most made progress with their town stories. We had another story typed up and finished and another one in the process of being typed up. Brilliant!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 plus Zoom club: We started with flash fiction prompts and these were excellent and mostly shortened versions of the bigger stories they are working on! Then we made progress on the town stories themselves.

Bransgore Primary After School Club: More progress on town stories with another one finished and typed up! These guys have shown a real enthusiasm and commitment to getting their stories done!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom club: Flash fiction prompts and progress on town stories in this group today! These stories are shaping up to be very special and I can’t wait to share them with you when this next book project is done! Well done everyone!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom club: We started with the flash fiction challenge and then moved on to writing more of our town stories.

Wednesday CJS Club: Flash fiction options for these guys too and more town stories finished and typed up! Excellent!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 23rd June

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What have we been up to this week? Folklore prompts for Zooms, mystery envelopes for schools and more progress on town stories!

It’s been a week of excitement and accomplishments at Chasing Driftwood this week! The proof copy of our anthology, The World You Gave Us arrived and was able to show all the children on Zoom and in schools. They all enjoyed having a look through and finding their contributions! We had several more town stories finished and handed in for our next writing project. The school children are enjoying typing theirs up on my laptop which has encouraged discussions about editing.

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: We had some folklore prompts on Zoom this week. Six different prompts based around various folklore tales including The Green Man, fairies and fairy rings, selkies and The Wild Hunt! Some used the prompts to write more for their town story, while others wrote a separate piece. Great progress on town stories too and lots of excitement about the anthology!

Monday CJS Club: The kids were really excited to see the anthology, hold it in their hands and see their work and their names in print! The book is published on 30th June but they were all able to have an early look. We made more progress on our town stories and a few more have been finished and typed up! Amazing!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Club: More responses to the folklore prompts with this group and yet more progress on town stories. Some of them wove the prompt ideas into their stories!

Bransgore Primary School club: They were very excited to look at the anthology and find their work in it! This really spurred them on to work on their town stories and we had a few more finished and handed in. Fantastic! For anyone finished I took in mystery envelopes full of writing prompts. The idea is to write a story based on what you find in your envelope.

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Club: Fantastic prompt responses, again, some using the folklore ideas to further their town stories and others writing a separate piece. Their town stories are all way past the half way mark now which is very exciting!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Club: More folklore prompts and a mixture of separate pieces and pieces that are woven into their existing town stories. Progress on everyone’s stories! Fantastic!

Wednesday CJS Club: These guys were very excited to see their work in the anthology and also made progress on their town stories, with a few more being finished and typed up! A few who had finished their stories had a go with the mystery envelopes.

See you next week!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 16th June

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What did we get up to this week?? More work on our collaborative project and out anthology is ready to preorder!!

Exciting times at Chasing Driftwood Writing Group, as an anthology over a year in the making is finally available to preorder! The World You Gave Us is an anthology of poetry, flash fiction, short stories and creative non-fiction written entirely by young people who attend our clubs. On the 30th June it will be published in both ebook and paperback by our own imprint Chasing Driftwood Books and will be available across multiple platforms. I’ll share the relevant links next week when the Amazon paperback version has been approved.

our anthology!

A huge congratulation to all the young people who took part!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: This week we looked at tension; what it is, why its important and how to build it into our stories, We discussed various tips on creating tension, such as using short, sharp sentences, paying attention to sensory information and using the character’s body language, and we had tension themed prompts to respond to. Great work from all and further progress on all the town stories!

Monday CJS Club: Mostly progress on town stories today with a few actually finished! Amazing! Well done everyone. We also had a chat about tension and discussed the techniques we can use to add tension to our stories.

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom club: This group also had the tension tips followed by the tension prompts and we also had great progress on all the town stories. Well done to all!

Bransgore Primary School: Today we discussed how to add tension to stories and made more progress with our town stories with a few finished! Great work!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: The same discussion on adding tension to scenes, tension themed prompts to choose from, followed by progress on our town stories. Great work from all. Their on-going collaborative story is also nearly finished!!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: These guys did really well responding to the tension techniques and the prompts combined! Lots of progress!

Wednesday CJS Club: This group also discussed how to add tension to stories and continued to make progress with their town project. We also have a few finished stories in this group now!!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 2nd June

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What have we been up to this week?

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: It was a warm welcome back after the half-term break and straight back into our collaborative writing project! We started with a writing prompt that they could use to write a scene for their town story or just respond to with an unconnected piece. The prompt for this week for all the clubs was:

“I don’t know what is worse… The sound, the smell, or what I have imagined in my head.”

We had some wonderful responses, some connected to town stories and some not. Well done everyone!

(Note: There was no CJS Monday club this week due to a staff day.)

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Club: This group also responded wonderfully to the prompt and we had a mix of pieces unrelated to their project stories and some that were connected. We also had a wonderful poem!

Tuesday Bransgore Primary School Club: These guys started with ten minutes of silent writing to respond to the prompt and then got on with their project stories. It was lovely to see lots of progress on some of these stories too!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Club: Wonderful work as always from this group who got stuck straight into the prompt and produced some incredibly tense pieces! Some were connected to their projects stories and some not.

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Club: Despite being the youngest group, these guys also tackled the same writing prompt with amazing results and made progress on their project stories!

Wednesday CJS Club: Ten minutes of silent writing time responding to the prompt went down very well with this committed group of young writers! Major progress made on project stories!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 19th May

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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

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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 28th May

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What have we been up to this week? Launching a collaborative writing project and starting by creating characters!

Monday

Monday Zoom group: The new collaborative book idea was explained to this group today and voting commenced on four options we have in creating a short story collection together. The idea is everyone will write their own story and will come up with their own character but the stories all have to be connected some way. We did some character work today to get started! The options are:

  1. An OBJECT is passed through the stories and every story must include this object somehow
  2. A SHARED EXPERIENCE on a train – everyone creates a character who then responds to something that happens on a train
  3. A SHARED EXPERIENCE in a town – we collectively create a town and everyone creates their own character, we agree on an event and each character responds to the event
  4. A SHARED LOCATION – everyone creates a character and writes their own story but all the stories must connect with a shared location

Monday CJS club: Voting for the collaborative short story collection idea and character creation! We also had character interviews where the group get to ask the ‘character’s questions in order to get to know them better. As you can see, the bios are wonderful!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom group: After working on character ideas last week, this group got to vote on the collaborative project idea today. They also carried on creating characters, adding back stories and motivation and more. Fantastic. I’m very excited about the characters being created in this group!

Tuesday Bransgore School: This group also voted on the collaborative idea, and started character bios. We had a few ready for interview and will do the rest next week! Here are a few examples:

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom group: Voting for the group project idea and progress on their previous group story, plus creating characters from scratch OR adding more detail via back story, motivation and more…

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom group: This group also got to to vote on the collaborative book idea and then returned to creating characters for it!

Wednesday CJS club: We voted on the collaborative idea, and finished the interviews we started last week! More work on character bios. Here are a few examples: