Teddy Bear's Picnic

Today I spent lunchtime at a Teddy Bear's Picnic, in a woodland near Castleford. The weather was (at times) pretty rubbish, and by 1110, ten minutes after the official start time, there were...wait for it...a grand total of TWO children. However, more and more came to investigate what was going on, and by the time storytime arrived, there were a good number of children of various ages. However, gathering them all together to stay still in one place looked as if it was going to be a challenge. Until nature intervened with a downpour. Everyone rushed to the gazebo, and with some quick thinking we managed to wrap a tarpaulin around the sides. The effect, therefore, was to get all the kids in one, small space, turn everyone's faces blue (the tarp was blue), and have a ready made story area.

And the kids really liked the stories. I was really chuffed with some of the older, 'I'm too cool for this' type kids, who in the end went away with their 'gift' of a teddy bear, proudly clutching it whilst also still trying to look cool. Their love of my stories felt great. One of the most 'cool' dudes piped up suddenly and said 'he' been to my school. He tells mint stories.' And that just made me want to tell him another 'mint' story. Which I did. Masha and the Bear, in fact. A brilliant, Russian based, teddy bear story, with a bear that isn't very teddy like. The children joined in with gusto and we had a brill time.

Once again, I realised how even older children still have a love and a longing inside for stories. Pure and simple, no props, no devices, just stories. And what a privilege to be the one who can give them to these kids. I am LOVING storytelling just now. LOVING it!

Boggarts in the Park; Skeleton ninjas in the cemetery

Day two of my three day visit to the Portecroft family of schools in Sheffield. This morning saw me and 30+ key stage 1 children writing a brand new Boggy Boggart the Bad story. Kids, you were GREAT! Some of the description of the despicable Boggart was fantastic. My particular favourite was Boggy's mouldy cheese bogey's that stuck to his nose. And I loved the idea of a river, leaf and starlight fairies, whose jobs it was to look after the river water, clean the trees' leaves, and make the stars twinkle. Good to see Boggy getting a taste of his own medicine too - he ended up in Fairy Jail in one story!

And this afternoon saw me taking my first trip to the cemetery on Stalker Lee Road (great name for a road bordering a cemetery). It was MASSIVE, as were the tombstones. Sergeant James Grim woul dhave had field day. Thanks to the Portercroft Year 5s who kept us oldies amused with tales of Ninja Skeletons (one with Iron bars in his bones - he was called Rod! and a chicken ninja Skeleton who clucked as he fought! - thanks Callum) until the other school arrived. The poems were superb. My favourite lines had to be...

It was so quiet in the cemetery I could hear...

The trees whispering the secrets of the deceased
Maggots munching the skin of the skeletons
Cells dividing
Shadows creeping behind you

I was so so impressed by everyone's effort and skill in writing these poems. And, as we got rained on from a dizzy height, it was good to head back to school to write up the finished articles. Although please don't show the young ones the final versions - some of the pictures that the kids found are more than a little scary!

Conrad's Magical, Literacy Whistle Stop tour

Yesterday, I saw...wait for it...1700 DIFFERENT pupils, in eight different assemblies, across 6 different sites, in ONE DAY! 1700! That's a ridiculously large number of pupils. And it was fun, exhausting, crazy, wonderful, exhilarating, 'getting there on time...mostly', brilliant and fantastic. It's all been part of the 'let's write together' project organised between Hunters Bar Junior and Infants, Ecclesall Infants and Juniors, Portecroft Primary and Greystones Primary. Thanks to all the children who made me feel so welcome, and thanks especially to Dylan and Maisy - Dylan for giving me the idea of giving Sergeant James Grim the key to the cemetery gates and Maisy for giving me the idea of writing a poem about making fake sick to get the day off school.

Gifted and Talented Youngsters

I've had such a brilliant time with the Gifted and Talented children from Martin Frobisher, Lee Brigg, Normanton Newlands and Normanton Common schools. In two sessions of two hours they have all produced an entire story each - beginning, middle and end with awesome description and plot. I've really been blown away by how well they worked and how much of the time they managed to spend physically writing. Marshall and Pippa, two of the Year 1 children, were brilliant. Lucy's writing was magnificent, but so too were all the others. And some of the other boys really got into it - Toby had some BRILLIANT ideas and read his story well. I'm looking forward to working with the Key Stage 2 children on Thursday, but they've got some work to do to live up to the standard set by the youngsters. Well done everyone!

New Poetry

I've been given a few poems over the last couple of weeks, so have decided to share them here. Well done to all you budding poets!

POETRY IS WOW!

Poetry is wow
Poetry is cool
Poetry is great
Poetry can be wrote at school.

Poetry is Amazing
Poetry is Ace
Poetry is the Best
Poetry can sometimes be a craze

I like poetry
So should you
Nobody hates poetry
Really who?

By Lauren at St Peter's

The Magic Pomegranate

First try of a new story today (apart from when I practised by telling it to my laptop's webcam, but that doesn't really count) and it went REALLY well. Especially with the Year 4s. It's great getting a new story in the bag - another one that I'll be able to draw on in the future. So thanks to everyone at St Peter's for giving me the opportunity to try that one out. Turns out it's a great one to link with Persuasive writing and Stories with Dilemmas.

Streethouse Primray and alternative uses for slides

This is one of my favourite, and most challenging schools. THe reception / nursery class that I worked with on Friday were extremely bubbly, and also really hard work. Liam adopted me after about two seconds, and I could hardly get out of his sights to make my way to the toilet throughout the whole day! Perhaps I should follow his lead in the future - in the afternoon he needed the toilet whilst standing at the top of the slide in the playground. In his mind he must have thought 'why bother going all the way inside?' So he didn't. And the slide got rather wet...