On Monday I did something I have never done before… let 25 balloons loose for a Year 4 writing workshop! It could have gone in either one of two ways, but thankfully the balloons were the perfect prop for character development. Honestly, you need to try it!

The children were set to work straight away, solving Case 3471: The MISSING BISCUITS. Here they are piecing together the clues left at the crime scene.

    

Immediately the children were full of ideas; biscuit burgling daddies, mini men, leprechauns, a Rat King…. and one even suspected their teacher! The room was full of adjectives describing these weird and wonderful biscuit-thieving criminals and so came the balloons!

When a mystery envelope and case file arrived from Crime Watch Headquarters the children were required to delve a little deeper into their characters’ personalities and motives and when fully satisfied that they knew their character inside and out, they were interviewed on TV!

And as it turns out… the children weren’t the only ones making funny faces!

Thank you to Rachel and the staff at Dunstone for welcoming me to your school and of course, to the children for your ideas and enthusiasm. I am so pleased you enjoyed the visit and am really looking forward to reading your completed stories! Thank you for being the first class to read  ‘Aerodynamics of Biscuits.’

Also a special thank you to PJ Norman, Justin Somper, Jim Sells and the staff at The National Literacy Trust and Author Profile for the author training that equipped me with every thing I needed to know!

This is what the children had to say about the visit:

It was fun seeing my friends dressed up – Sacha

Making the balloon characters was awesome – Thomas

I liked listening to the story because it was really exciting – Keiron

The letter from crime watch was funny – Eva

I liked being interviewed because I got to say funny things about my character – Helena

I liked solving the mystery – Lexi

I liked being the interviewer – Hannah

It was great fun being the pirate mouse – Jessica

It was fun when my friends were in the TV – Callum