If you’ve been following our blog for a while then you’ll know that there’s nothing we love more than making books. But why? Yes, we’re both partial to a bit of crafting but it’s more than that – there is pedagogical reasoning behind the making. Firstly, there is an obvious surface value to creating beautiful … Continue reading
Writing is a process of discovery. It is a meaning making activity. Language is dynamic, the means by which we make sense of the world. Through talk, inner speech and writing, language allows us each to construct our image of the world, our understanding of it. And it is an active and engaging activity. That … Continue reading
What’s all the fuss about freewriting? You may have noticed that many of our writing prompts include the use of freewriting. But what is it and why do we think it’s important? Imagine you want to run a marathon. You can’t just turn up on the day and hope for the best, you need to … Continue reading
We believe that the teaching of writing is significantly strengthened if teachers write for themselves and with others. In writing for ourselves we make discoveries about what we can and cannot do, how writing works for us, how we get ourselves out of scrapes and into things that matter to us. And we find ways … Continue reading
A pair of educators, passionate about writing and reading. We are forever plotting projects designed to celebrate English, the language and the literature. We want children and teachers to discover for themselves how reading and writing, talk and drama have an important place in their lives. We would like everyone to be able to take … Continue reading Who are we?
It won't surprise you to know that we both love to read as well as write. In fact, in each of our houses we are subject to the same problem - there are little (or sometimes very large) piles of books teetering on tables, lurking underneath things and balancing on armrests. One of the best … Continue reading Character theft
Things, everyday things, bring us into a place, a time, even a feeling. Ordinary everyday things can bring a piece of writing alive. That is one reason we often ask you to think of list of objects, names of people and places. What we’d like you to do today is to think of materials -things like … Continue reading Stuff
Where would we be without our hands? When I have lots of things to think about, I always find that I suddenly need to keep my hands busy to somehow help my mind work through all my thoughts. I often knit or crochet or just stroke my dog's fluffy tummy. Throughout the day, we turn … Continue reading These are my hands
Last week we heard the Loch Ness monster’s song. This week I thought we could try our hand at translation. I came across these lines in a book of poems by one of my favourite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye: ‘I used to translate what a hen said. Little kids believed me. I looked deep into … Continue reading Translations
Here is my knitted watering can, unsuccessfully watering the first geranium to flower in my garden. I love my knitted watering can because I love all things which are knitted and I have owned this watering can for a long time. But earlier I suddenly looked at it in a different way and realised how … Continue reading Peculiar inventions
