Kate Williams

Here’s me (that tiny patch of green blouse at back, half behind the board, where I’ve been blown by my class!) We’re BEING the wind – a key element of our writing warm-up.

We twisted ourselves in all directions that day, bent over and stretched up, leaned outwards this way and that, quivered, rushed, pushed and pulled. Oh, to get all that down on paper! The children couldn’t wait!


We’d already opened the window and listened, and imitated the humming, howling, singing, rattling sounds we heard. Words were buzzing too, and I jotted a few on the board as I nudged for more.

We had :

ACTION WORDS and PERSONIFICATION – mostly both together – I’ve already mentioned some!

Pulling, pushing, tugging, snatching, charging, barging, howling, roaring, bullying, whimpering, whining, racing, chasing, swirling, whirling (yes, some words rhymed!), and more.

We had:

DESCRIPTIVE WORDS – wild, crazy, ruthless, merciless, violent, rough, unpredictable, sudden, strong, powerful, but also cool, fluttery, refreshing, tuneful, breezy and excitable.

We thought of:

shaking TREES,
leaping WAVES,
flying PAPERS,
flapping COATS,
inside-out UMBRELLAS,
streaming HAIR,
soaring BALLOONS,
collapsing FENCES –

you name it – it was in our warm-up, and our poems!

As a starting point for their poems, I just suggested:

“The wind went – ”

Some children wrote out their verses on vertical wavy lines – such fun!

Enjoy your Windy Day writing session!

Kate

Oh, and talking of poems, my animal poetry book, Squeak! Squawk! Roar! comes out on 9th January!

Here’s a preview from the Independent Publishers Group says about the book:

“A tail, a beak? A roar? A squeak?” There’s so much to choose from in the animal world. Kate Williams’s collection is a zoological excursion populated by a colorful and characterful range of creatures. Some of the poems are lyrical, like the beautifully atmospheric red deer in A Vision on the Moor, or Fox Trot with its final lines: “Quick dash—red flash—vanish.” Many are comic, as with Rover, the globe-trotting sheep in Woolly But Cool, or the problematic dental patient in Can’t Snap Out of It who turns out to be a crocodile. Others acknowledge the fragility and vulnerability of some birds and animals like the thrush and the turtle. Stick insects, wombats, hippos, snakes, woodlice and many more find a place in this collection, as diverse in its moods and forms as the animal world it depicts.”