Kate Williams

Why Dragons?

DRAGONS are my No. 1 most popular topic choice for poetry workshops, be they for Reception or Year 6! (Or even Years 7 and 8 though my focus is on primary.)

So, not to disappoint, they’re on offer again next term – i.e. from January ’25! And guess what – they’re my favourites too, alongside Animals with my upcoming collection, Squeak! Squawk! Roar! So take your pick! But here in this post, we’ll go with the dragons – gallop and leap and hide and creep and shoot round the stars while the world’s asleep. (No wonder they’re so popular!)

(These sketches of mine feature in my workshops, by the way, providing handy prompts for comments, ideas, language and drama, pre-writing-stage.)

Dragons offer wide open possibilities

Dragons can be fierce and dangerous, or daft and jolly as clowns, or even loyal, protective companions, depending what the child wants, or needs to express, perhaps. They can be bouncy and clumsy or graceful and serene, and any colour or nuanced mix that individual may choose, and not just red, green or gold, say, but perhaps red as a something, green like a something or something-gold. And we haven’t even started on the other sensory aspects of these mythical creatures, or the boundless ways of expressing them!

Dreaming!

In my dragon workshops, we laugh, cower, wonder, embrace, and dream, dream, dream!

As for the poetry children produce in these fun-packed, fast-paced sessions, you’d be amazed! I am, every time, and I have to say the teachers tend to be, too.

It was in one of my Dragon workshops that a mute child in one school suddenly spoke, I was told afterwards, carried away by the exuberance of the rest and the whirl of ideas in the air! The topic does wonders for hesitant writers, as I’ve also learnt from the whispered comments of teachers as their ‘poetry-haters’ dash down their ideas and beg to be allowed to read them out!

Interested?

If you’d like a Dragon Poetry Workshop Day or half day, or digital, next term, or some online sessions at times to suit, early booking is advisable for a date of your choice. Please email me at katewilliams.poetry@gmail.com in the first instance. (Fees competitive and negotiable. DBS updated online annually.) Various other topics also available.

Kate

By the way, my animal poetry book comes out on 9th January!
Look out for Squeak! Squawk! Roar! Amazing Animal Poems,
publisher: Otter-Barry Books, £8.99.

Here’s the cover, and a peep inside: