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
It is another day for playing with words, for making them up, for creating new sounds. Here’s a link to a poem by Edwin Morgan called ‘The Loch Ness Monster’s Song’. You can find it at the Scottish Poetry Library website. https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/loch-ness-monsters-song/ Edwin Morgan imagined the song of the Loch Ness monster. He made up … Continue reading If we could hear things sing.
Take Away the A is an alphabet book with a difference. It really is a game to play with words. How does a word change if you take away one letter? “Without the A the beast is best.” Michael Escoffier and the illustrator Kris Di Giacomo have had fun changing words and drawing a picture of … Continue reading Take Away the A
Last summer, at our book festival, our writing club had fun with this rhyme. Each line in the traditional rhyme begins with a number, from one to twelve, and all the words in that line begin with the starting letter of that number. One old Oxford ox opening oysters.Two toads totally tired of trying to … Continue reading One Old Oxford Ox
Today’s post hides a special treat for people who love making things from paper – and a new fold up pocket book which could also hide some special memories, even some secrets. The fold up pocket book is a slightly more sophisticated form of the zigzag pocket book which you used to collect characters for your … Continue reading Fold Up Pocket Book
Today I’m feeling lazy and just can’t seem to conjure up any words to write. There’s only one solution on days like this – become a word thief. This is a brilliant way to really look at individual words and the different meanings they can carry. And don’t worry, it may be stealing but I’m … Continue reading Word thief
I am excited to introduce to you, Colin the Courageous Carrot. This brave carrot was invented, designed and made by Harriet who is a friend of a friend of mine. When I first saw Colin, I couldn’t wait to introduce you to this new and thoroughly amazing superhero. Look closely to see how Harriet has … Continue reading Colin the Courageous Carrot
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
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
Writing Box 