Being an avid list maker, I had pretty much everything covered for my first author event. All I needed was some excited, creative, story-loving children… and I wasn’t disappointed.
The staff and children at Marldon Primary School met me with big smiles and made me feel very welcome. We got to work straight away, writing alliterative name tags for ourselves (including ‘Tip top Tilly’ and ‘Leaping Lianda!’) and described an object or two that represented us. It was lovely to hear that lots of children were big readers.
But naturally, it wasn’t long before the talk turned to biscuits …or lack of them!
That’s right, the biscuits were missing!
Stolen perhaps?
But by who?
Cue the crime scene!
I would definitely recommend setting up a crime scene as a WOW starter to a literacy or topic lesson (and why not maths too??) The children showed creativity, imagination and analytical thinking as they reasoned what kind of character would steal the biscuits.
It also lead nicely into the next part of the visit: Suspect Profiling!
…And soon the stories were in full swing! The children plotted, using a story mountain they were familiar with, to create stories about elves and mice and biscuit stealing ‘things’ that had never before been seen by human eyes!
Of course, we couldn’t end the session without hunting down the missing biscuits in the school’s nature garden …and who better to help than a crew of sneaky pirate mice?!
Children of Neptune and Jupiter Class, you are a credit to your families and school. What a lot of fantastic ideas and writing talent you have, too! Good luck with your writing and don’t forget to send me your stories… I genuinely cant wait to read them!
If you want to see what the staff and children thought of the workshop, check out my Puff Page!
If you are a teacher and are interested in booking a writing workshop for your school, please get in contact.
If you’re an author with an up and coming event, I thoroughly recommend seeking advice and support from SCBWI…and for hosts?
…Sarah’s McIntyre’s blog is a must see!
