Last year I stumbled across this collection of belongings at a car boot sale. As soon as I saw the black cardboard box, my mind was racing with questions and my heart was thumping at the thought of somebody's precious belongings ending up under a pile of junk on a 50p stall. Of course, I … Continue reading This is your life
Today we are going to think about the sounds of a story. We are going to make a story using sounds. that we make from things around the house. These could be sounds of things that are happening: - wind blowing, footsteps running, a giant swallowing a large pudding or a spider tiptoeing across a table. … Continue reading Sounds like a story
Today I'm working from Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones (1986) and thinking about the power of individual words. There's a lot of chatter in primary education about 'wow words' and 'powerful words', but what on earth does that actually mean? It's easy to make your writing sound like it's swallowed a thesaurus; what's more … Continue reading The power of words
I stumbled across this delicious book whilst tidying my bookshelves and it reminded me of two projects my school worked on last year - an exhibition of portraits with artist Katy Bentall in February and a summer exhibition about plastic in the sea in conjunction with artist Alice Finbow. It seems that last year was … Continue reading Faces
Today is earth day. This year, the day marks fifty years since the founding of the environmental movement in 1970. So we thought you might like to write for the earth. Write what you love about the earth and its creatures. Write a praise song. Give thanks. It’s a list! You could begin each line … Continue reading Earth day
Inspired by yesterday’s elastic bound books, I decided to create an alphabet book. You could use the book for any kind of alphabet. I chose to make an alphabet about being in isolation and so it turned into a much slower project. This is something I want to take my time over. Quite often we … Continue reading Alphabet memory book
Today you can make the easiest book in the world! These lovely little notebooks are perfect for stashing favourite words or sketching the first signs of spring. All you need is an elastic band (mine are fancy colours, any will do, but preferably a good chunky one), a piece of cardboard - any size but … Continue reading Paper and elastic bands
I love the alphabet, for all its interesting shapes and for the way it gives me a frame for a list. And I don’t love it, because sometimes it is hard to find words for one letter, and then there are too many words for another letter. Today, begin by writing out the alphabet. You … Continue reading Alphabet
To accompany this morning's cornflakes, I thought I would finally begin reading this beautiful book which was given to me by dear friend and colleague, Zoe. Now with modern illustrations and introduction by Jackie Morris, the story itself was written more than a hundred years ago by Barbara Newhall Follett between the ages of 9 … Continue reading Memories of writing
This is another game. You may have played it before. You can play alone or with others. You can just say it aloud and you could write down your ideas if you wish. The Teacher’s cat is another alphabet game. This time we are thinking about adjectives –we are thinking about words to describe the … Continue reading The Teacher’s Cat
Writing Box 