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Physical Descriptions

If I've learnt anything through writing with children, it's to keep the premise of the sessions simple and then watch as the magic unfolds under its own steam. I'm currently rediscovering the wonder of The Hobbit with my eldest daughter and…
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An anthem to childhood

This year marks the centenary of the birth of wonderful poet and playwright, Dylan Thomas. Several months ago, I discovered a new poem by him called Being But Men. Astonishingly, Thomas never rated this poem highly himself and declined to have…
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Wilde Words

Illustrated by Lisa Congdon
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Taking on a character

                                When working with characterisation, drama provides the perfect medium to bring into workshops. Today, after a…
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The Magic Box

There is one workshop that I have used again and again with all kinds of different children and it honestly never fails to amaze me what they produce by the end of it. This is largely thanks to the richness of Kit Wright's wonderful poem 'The…
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Story Maps

Having three children means I get to test lots of my workshop ideas out on them which can be really helpful. This week, I worked with the top class of a kindergarten (equivalent to Year 1), "making a story" and trying this out with my kids first…
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I wonder

I am three quarters of the way through my Coursera online course, Teaching character and creating positive classrooms, and at the moment we're focussing on building the teaching of character strengths into lesson plans. With this in mind,…
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The Magic Bed

Prolific children's book writer and illustrator John Burningham's book 'The Magic Bed' remains a firm favourite in our family. I used the story with my after-school writing club as a starting point for the children to think about what their…
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A Piece of Pie

I think I might just be Pie Corbett's latest, greatest fan. And not just his name. Until recently, I hadn't even heard of him, but now I can't get enough of him and am confident that he is going to help me a great deal in the coming months to…
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How to get children to be 'Sound Detectives' before producing great writing

Of course there will be examples to counter this but the Kenyan education system, on the whole, is not known for getting children to think for themselves, ask questions or be creative. So it's a challenge to take creative writing and poetry…