Category: Uncategorized
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World-Wide-Web-Workshops! I’m excited to announce that I’m launching a major extension to my workshop services – via Skype! My online inputs, in association with agency Authors Abroad, will be available from the start of July. Cost-effective simplicity! A screen session offers a flexible, budget-friendly alternative to an author visit, enabling schools to slot in a creative…
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Every child, it seems to me, has least a wisp of poetry inside them – I would maintain far more. In fact, in some ways children can seem more poetic than adults, because they express themselves so naturally, vibrantly and musically. I suppose it comes of being fresh, clear-headed, fired-up about life, and free from…
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Hello schools! My summer term themes are seasonal, fun and, as ever, open-ended. I’m offering a choice of three topics, though they tend to overlap and stray off who knows where as ideas fly and imagery sets the room alight. My 3 loose themes are: Seaside Insect World Summer Woods and their Wildlife Seaside can…
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Some children gaze at the little pictures I put up at the start of a workshop. Others go more for the class chat and story-sharing. It might be the most restless child in the group who sits the stillest as I read out my poem. Often, it’s the quietest kid who gives the loudest roar,…
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Welcome to the summer term, teachers – a term to be governed by who knows which political party?! Let’s just hope, whichever party it be, they allow a little chink in the curriculum for creativity at last! Let’s hope they stop to see, as you teachers do, that there’s more to education than SATS results:…
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Open windows, blue sky and fresh, fragrant air! What could be more conducive to creative writing? I can’t wait for my summer term poetry workshops to begin, and the doors to open – in all ways! Whether we’re imagining ourselves at sparkly, splashy seasides, or up in the calm, clear sky with the butterflies and…
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Yes, it’s already time to be looking ahead to next term, and planning a poetry day, perhaps! True, the children all wrote poems for World Book Day, or perhaps for another recent event. But creative writing is a complex, multi-faceted skill that takes years of practice and experience to develop. Poetry alone offers limitless potential…
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My new poem ‘The Big Eco-Friendly Giant’ features in the latest issue of The Caterpillar, along with another, Zebra Crossing. You can read them here (or not). Two of my poems contribute to collections for 5-7 year-olds, to be published by Wayland this summer (anthologist Brian Moses), Summer and Seasons respectively. This pair of books will be complemented by…
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Hello schools! Let’s celebrate World Book Day (WBD) by inspiring our next generation of writers! No doubt you’re booked up for WBD (March 2nd) and I am too – all week in fact – but children need inspiring every day! So what better than a thrilling, hilarious, mysterious dazzle of dragon poetry to sweep away…
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Greetings, teachers and head teachers! Dragons, Castles, Weather (of all kinds) and School Sounds are my theme choices this term, together with Spring Woods after half term, with poetry workshops on offer for children aged 3 – 13. With the help of picture displays, hands-on artefacts, class discussion, word-building challenges, acting-out, and – for younger children…
Kate Williams 