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Minibeast bakes

Overview In this session children can choose from a selection of ideas for baking. Focusing on a hands-on fun activity makes the writing part easier to engage in and less threatening. Children can feel successful in their literacy session and every child can achieve...

Plotline Planning with Maps

Overview Writing and planning a story can be daunting and some plot planning outlines can be restrictive or boring. This session involves making a map and then using it as an outline for a story. The map provides settings, a way to plot the story and prompts for key...

Firework story starter images

  Use these images alongside the prompt questions in the Bonfire story starter activity to inspire a bonfire night/firework story.           

Parrot gallery

  Scroll through these photographs and artwork of parrots to give you some ideas and inspiration.                                   

Collection of limericks

Limericks by Spike Milligan from A Children’s Treasury of Milligan   Bump Things that go ‘bump!’ in the night, Should not really give one a fright. It’s the hole in each ear That lets in the fear, That, and the absence of light.     Nelly Ninnis There...

Christmas story quiz

Overview Quizzes that decide things like your DJ name based on personal information are very popular with children and something they are familiar with from magazines and websites. This activity uses that idea to generate the basic ingredients for a festive story. The...

Saturnalia equality & free speech

Overview Saturnalia offers a chance for critical thinking around who has power in society and whose voice gets heard. Literacy education is important part of children finding and using their voice to communicate the things that matter to them. This session helps...

Lord of Misrule

Overview This session takes inspiration from the Saturnalia tradition of the Lord of Misrule. Children will have lots of fun playing the game and through that develop literacy skills in writing instructions as well as the option for creating similes and further...

Saturnalia poetry

Overview Taking inspiration from the Saturnalia tradition of gifting short poems, this session helps gives children a meaningful context in which to create some poetry. These poems are a manageable length and there are lots of options making them more achievable for...

Intro to Saturnalia

Saturnalia was an Ancient Roman midwinter festival held in honour of the god Saturn. It was celebrated on 17th December and over time was extended to last until the 23rd, making it a week-long festival. Saturnalia was a raucous affair involving a lot of partying,...

Intro to minibeasts

Minibeasts are such a fascinating topic and these little creatures provide huge amounts of inspiration for creative writing. In this topic pack there are a wide variety of activities to help develop literacy skills, discover more about minibeasts and most importantly...

Helpful minibeast links

Helpful links for your minibeast research BBC Bitesize (this is a good introductory video to minibeasts) https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z6882hv/articles/z9fkwmn The Woodland Trust blog intro article https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/05/minibeast-facts/...

The Centipede’s song

Intro   In this fun activity you can write your own story that brings in characters and plot lines from fairy tales. There’s lots of fun and creativity to be had by letting some fairy tale characters invade your story!   How it works   Read through the different...

Minibeast patterns and colours

Overview This session has a wide variety of ideas to develop literacy skills by exploring and being inspired by some of the amazing colours and patterns of minibeasts. With activities based on art and design, critical thinking, and creative writing, there’s a way for...

Minibeast poem

Overview By closely following the pattern and style of a funny poem by Dahl, children have a framework to use and make their own. It also engages children in the activity. They can use their research of a minibeast to create the content of the poem and use it as an...

Minibeast calligrams

Overview Calligrams are a fun and simple way to engage with words. They make a good add on activity or springboard to more creative writing. In this session you will find ideas of how to help children write a descriptive sentence based on their calligram(s)....

Minibeast superhero

Overview Superheroes are a familiar and fun subject for children. Many minibeasts have superhero powers and skills. Making a minibeast superhero engages children in the creative writing process, helping them imagine and describe ideas.   Intro This session...

Minibeast onomatopoeia

Overview This session helps children understand and use onomatopoeia. These types of words are a great poetic device and will create the basis for a poem children can write about minibeasts.   Intro Minibeasts are a great subject for onomatopoeic words. This...

Minibeast party

Overview By framing the session as preparing a big party, the activities have a fun purpose to them. Children are more motivated to learn and create pieces of writing when there is a purpose and context for it. It also helps engage better and retain knowledge.  ...

Bug hotel

Overview This session involves a hands-on activity to inspire a choice of writing activities. Having the focus on making a bug hotel rather than just writing helps children engage and feel more confident about the literacy session as a whole.   Intro In this...

Silly similes

Overview This session involves playing a simple and funny dice-rolling game to make similes. It is designed to be straightforward and accessible for all learners, building their confidence to use similes in their writing. You can use it as a standalone session or as...

Throw and catch characters

Overview This session is a simple throw and catch game that helps create a quirky character. Getting active during literacy can help create energy to write, avoids sitting at a desk for too long, and creates an opportunity to successfully engage in literacy lesson for...

Three word scenes

Overview This activity involves playing a game of paper tennis as a fun and interactive way to choose three words with which to make a scene or mini story. The game leads to multiple options for writing challenges including a short one-line scene description, a mini...

Christmas Advert

Overview This session is more a mini project. There is quite a lot to it so you may wish to split it over a few different sessions. Children will write their own Christmas advert which tells a mini story based on a Christmassy value. Children will likely be familiar...

Christmas tree biscuits

Overview This session is lots of hands-on fun that leads to developing a choice of different literacy skills such as descriptive writing, instructional writing, speaking about the experience, and writing in either a formal or informal tone. There is also scope for...

Symbolic evergreen decoration

Overview This session explores the traditions and meanings of various evergreens to help children understand how religious and cultural stories and beliefs can be represented and celebrated through evergreens and how this forms important traditions. They can then...

Make your own Atlantis

Overview This is a hands-on, fun session to help children use descriptions to make a setting - and the option to then use their model settings to write their own descriptions. By having a practical way to interact with descriptive writing breaks down barriers for...

The lost city of Atlantis

Overview This session is an introduction to Atlantis. There’s so much to find out about it if children are interested in learning more, both through the activities in this pack and online or in books. There are different activities in this pack based on Atlantis. Have...

Destruction of Atlantis

Overview This session looks at the dramatic destruction of Atlantis. It will give children the opportunity to find out about writing in the first or third person as well as writing in the past or present tense (and what these are). It is also a good chance for...

Water cities

Overview In this session children can explore Atlantis as an island city from the past, other types of cities/villages on water from the present and imagined water cities of the future. They will have opportunity to do further research, reflect and discuss their...

Atlantis superhero

Overview This session explores the character and story of Aquaman and how they have been inspired by the mythology of Atlantis. Children can then use this to help them create their own Atlantis-inspired superhero. Included is a guide to help them think through...

Atlantis explorers

Overview This session is about explorations in search of the lost city of Atlantis. You’ll find lots of guidance and ideas here to help children write their own Atlantis explorer adventure story. The topic of Atlantis offers so many great ideas for explorer adventures...

Atlantis art

Overview This session encourages children to think in a slightly different way about language by using art to explore emotion, experience and colour to create a reaction to Atlantis through a piece of art. The art can be very simple to help it be accessible for all...

Write a modern fairy tale

Overview Fairytales are something most children are very familiar with. This session takes children through ideas for rewriting a fairytale they know to make it have a modern message. Writing about something that is important to them gives children motivation and...

Fairy tale invaders

Overview In this fun session children can write their own story that brings in ideas from fairy tales. Fairy tales offer a huge bank of characters, settings and plot lines children will be familiar with meaning they won’t be short of ideas. Using various ideas from...

Fairy story for younger children

Overview Writing a story for younger children is a good way for children with all levels of confidence and ability to write a simple story that includes basic descriptions. Children will likely be familiar with at least one of the example stories, which will aid their...

Fairy outfit

Overview In this session children design and make a fairy headdress or wand. They could also make a full fairy outfit. This then leads on to developing a fairy character. Combining a practical activity with creative writing aids engagement, makes the task more...

Create your fairy character

Overview This activity uses the popular Rainbow Magic book series by Daisy Meadows to inspire children to create their own fairy character creation and story. The idea of this session is for children to create a character based on themselves. It is a very active...

Make a fairy world

Overview This session involves designing and making a miniature garden. This is a fun, hands-on activity that also helps to inspire description and story writing. There is a variety of ideas and activities to suit a range of confidence and abilities. Having a...

Fairy poetry

Overview In this session there are two poetry activities children can try. There is a detailed step-by-step guide to writing a fairy limerick and guidance for writing a fairy kennings poem. These guides support children in creating their own limerick and/or kennings...

Express yourself

Overview This session uses an adaptation of charades to help children show how a character is feeling through their writing rather than just stating it. By watching someone (or themselves in a mirror) perform emotions children can more easily describe how someone...

Tension building game

Overview   This session uses the experience of playing a fun game of stealth to help develop language and ideas for writing with tension. Actively playing out what they want to describe, makes the descriptive writing task engaging and accessible for children. The...

Costume characters

Overview   This session uses a dressing up game to develop skills in creating characters and writing a basic character description. There are ideas to extend the session further and do more creative writing based on the activity. The active and fun nature of this...

Space holiday advert

Overview   This activity looks at space tourism and advertising. It will help children think critically about the subject as well as help them develop their persuasive writing skills. There are options for how much reading and how in-depth to go as well as whether...

Ideas for aliens album

  Scroll through these images of aliens to give you some ideas for your own.                              

Invent an alien

Overview This session helps children create the basics of an alien character. The follow on activities give options for expressing or developing their ideas further. They can choose to do one or all of the activities. Use as a standalone activity or as part of writing...

Space story prompts

Overview Space provides lots of exciting settings, characters and plot ideas. Children can use the prompts and images in this activity to write their own space story. There are three different activities that use different types of story prompts to spark ideas.  ...

Solar system poem

Overview This session makes putting together a simple poem really straightforward. Children can put in as much time/effort as they choose or are able to make the poem better, to rhyme, or to consider things such as rhythm and other techniques such as repetition,...

Space inventions

Overview Space technology shapes everyday life. Linking the topic to children’s own lives makes it relevant and engaging. This session is about finding out information and different ways to present it. The links provided will take you to great websites with...

Space explorers

Overview Using the exciting idea of travelling in space, this session will help children create a piece of descriptive writing or poem. It offers ideas and opportunities for children to experiment with language and write poetically. As a non-writing alternative,...

Solar system mnemonic

Overview This is a straightforward, fun activity to create a mnemonic about the solar system. It develops children’s sentence building skills and word knowledge. Incorporate using a dictionary to help them find different word options. You could also use the activity...

Postcard from another planet

Overview Postcards are an accessible way to produce some descriptive writing without being overwhelming. The fact they use both an image and text makes the activity less dependent on writing ability to succeed. Because postcards are written in familiar and informal...

Crop circles

Overview In this session children will make a piece of art based on a crop circle design. They will build on this activity by imagining their crop circle has been discovered and write (or present) a news report, enthusiast’s blog, or YouTube post about it. Creating a...

X-files report

Overview   This session takes a reasonable amount of preparation, but creates an immersive, engaging, and memorable experience for children. Creating a real life situation in which they are working aids motivation for writing. You can adjust the amount of writing...

Space story game

Overview This session makes writing a short simple story very accessible and fun. There are plenty of options for extending the activity further. Children can use the dice rolls as the basic outline for a longer story, adding more details to make it flow well and have...

Night sky poetry

Overview   This session is all about observation and for children to describe things how they view and experience them. There is guidance and examples to help them use figurative language which gives children more tools to express themselves. To make it work well,...

Perspectives

Intro Space is a great opportunity to think about viewing things from a different perspective. Both in terms of how going into space allows for a different perspective on our planet, and in terms of how things on earth might be viewed from the perspective of an...

Intro to China

China has a long and fascinating history. We can only brush the surface in this pack, but if you want to find out more there is a wealth of information from thousands of years about emperors, dynasties, the forbidden city, the great wall, art, religion, poetry and...

Nian activities

Overview This session has a number of different options for activities based on the story of Nian. These are practical activities that help create some descriptive writing and to explore and retell the story.   Intro Read the story of Nian together, or children...

Booklist: quest for eternal life

Here is a list of stories that explore the theme of the quest for eternal/long life.   I have included suggested age for ability and content, but it is a guide and depends on the individual child. Links to the common sense media website reviews are also included for...

Panda story

Overview Children already have some great information to inform aspects of a panda story having researched panda’s habitats, features, behaviour, and situation. In this session we look at how they can use this to plan the main aspects of a story: setting, characters,...

Panda fact-finding

Overview Researching and recording findings are an important literacy skill for children to develop. This session helps children research pandas and supports them to record their findings. What they discover here will form the basis for the creative activities in this...

Panda art

Overview This session will support children to take what they have read and learnt through their research and think about how to communicate it through a piece of art. This will build foundations for skills in description, communication and comprehension.   Intro...

Panda poems

Overview This session is a follow-up to the fact-finding activity where children can use their knowledge of pandas to write a poem. Poetry is a fantastic tool to express emotions and put a point across powerfully. There are some ideas and examples included but...

Fountain of youth

Overview The legendary fountain of youth is a subject that lends itself to fun and interesting conversations and creative writing. In this session children can imagine the fountain of youth and discuss and write about it in different ways. For children who struggle to...

Elixir of life intro

An elixir is a magic or medicinal potion. The elixir of life is a potion that will give the drinker eternal or abnormally long life. The first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang, ordered searches all over his empire to find substances that would help give him eternal...

Elixir quest story

Overview This session gives children a chance to use what they have found out about the elixir of life and the fountain of youth to write an interesting adventure story. Taking inspiration from legends is a great way to get children interested in creating a story and...

Story of Nian

There are a few different versions of the story of Nian, but they all contain the same basic elements. Below you can read one version of this important story.   Nian was a terrible monster. He had a horn on his head and was very dangerous. He lived under the...

Chinese meal

Overview This session combines research into the meanings behind food traditionally eaten in China at Lunar New Year with cooking and ideas for writing tasks to go alongside it. Do this this activity with Nian decorations and writing invitations to have a Lunar New...

New Year invitations

Overview In this activity you can learn about the differences between writing formal letter and an informal letter. By having a reason and context to write it (inviting to a New Year meal) held with motivation and engagement. The guide is short and straightforward to...

Lucky numbers and colours

Overview This session looks at examples and the ideas behind lucky and unlucky numbers and colours in Chinese culture. These are then used to explore homonyms, ideas for their own associations, and the opportunity to use what they have thought about to write (or draw)...

Beliefs about luck

Overview In this session children will research and discuss different beliefs around luck. Some they may have come across before, others may be new to them. They will also have a chance to write some poetry through a simple luck beliefs rhyme. For the rhyme, you can...

Potion story

Overview This is a follow-up activity from the make your own potion activity. If you haven’t looked at it yet, follow the link here first before you try this one. The fascinating history of Emperor Qin’s search for an elixir, along with their experience of making a...

Potion-making scene

Overview This is a follow-up activity from the make your own potion activity. If you haven’t looked at it yet, follow the link here first before you try this one. Children use the recipe and instructions for the potion they created and the experience of making it to...

Terracotta warriors

Overview This session uses the fascinating find of terracotta warriors buried with an emperor as inspiration for a selection of activities. Through the activities will help develop skills in description, diary writing, using research to create historical fiction, and...

Make a potion

Overview This is a starter activity to use as a springboard for a potion-making scene or potion story. In this session children create their own potion. Having an experience of something aids writing about it - making a potion will help children write about an...

Silk smugglers

Overview This fun and active session involves finding out about silk smuggling in Ancient China and playing a game to experience tension in order to help children to write a piece of historical fiction about it. This can be a scene or a full story.   Intro...

Elixir quest reflective thinking

Overview This session involves discussing and reflecting on interesting and important questions related to people’s quest to stay young and to live forever. Critical and reflective thinking skills are essential for children to develop. They enable them to appreciate...

Chinese inventions

Overview In this session children will learn about things that were invented in Ancient China. They can use this information in a number of ways to develop different literacy skills. Choose one of the activities or several depending on children’s interest.  ...

Christmas Prank Sequence

Overview This session will use what children have watched and discussed in the Intro section to develop their own ideas and writing. They will be able to practice using time connectives as well as interesting verbs and descriptions. This is the 'naughty' alternative...

Santa’s Workshop Sequence

Overview This session will use what children have watched and discussed in the Intro section to develop their own ideas and writing. They will be able to practice using time connectives as well as interesting verbs and descriptions. It is the ‘nice’ alternative to the...

Christmas Sequence: Naughty or Nice

Overview These activities help develop skills in using different types of time connectives, great verbs and adverbs as well as description. Becoming familiar with a variety of time connectives and learning to use them gives children the ability to describe a series of...

Sentence Builder Bingo

Overview This session involves a bingo-style game as a fun way to help children build sentences, become familiar with different types of words (adjectives, nouns, verbs and adverbs), and write mini story.   Intro Sentence builder bingo is a fun and interactive...

The Man Engine

Overview There’s so much to explore in this session about the giant mechanical puppet that tells the story of Cornish mining. In this session children can think about how they could tell their own story through a puppet. This is an interesting and engaging way for...

Lifeguard fact-finding

Overview This session is all about finding out about lifeguards and what they do. Children can follow their own interests and research facts and figures, job descriptions, more personal stories, or a mix. These options make the session work well for a wide range of...

Sea pollution

Overview One of the most powerful skills literacy can give to children is the ability to communicate well about the things that are important to them. This session will help children develop skills and confidence in persuading people to care and take action on sea...

Animal sea rescue

Overview Animal rescue is a topic that captures a lot of children’s imaginations. It also provides plenty of drama to help with ideas for writing. This session gives you and your learners inspiration and tips to try out different writing styles including news articles...

Surfing extended metaphor poem

Overview Extended metaphors provide a great opportunity for children to get really creative and come up with some interesting and perhaps unusual descriptions. This session provides a few examples and ideas that children can use for their poem or they can think of...

Surfing shape poem

Overview This session uses surfing as a fun subject to create a shape poem (also called a concrete poem). Shape poems are a great way for children with a wide range of abilities to create a completed piece. There is no pressure to rhyme and the challenge of getting...

Surfing haiku

Overview This session takes the popular sport of surfing to create a haiku. A haiku in its basic form is a very manageable style of poetry. Surfing provides lots of opportunities for description. The sea, waves, the action of surfing and all the sensations of it mean...

Dice roll story

Overview This activity is a really fun and accessible way to put together a mini story. It can also be used as a basis for a more complete story or adapted by learners to make their own versions.    Intro Writing a story can be very daunting - especially for...

Intro to RNLI activities

The RNLI are a familiar and important feature of many Cornish beaches. This section of activities will give you a chance to find out more about what the RNLI is and what they do. The RNLI's website has a large education resources section. It includes interactive and...

Lifeboats

Overview This session offers plenty of choice for children to follow their interests in what they want to find out and write about as well as how they want to write it. This helps engagement and motivation with the tasks. There is a video to watch to also help engage...

Spiced apple punch

Overview The main focus of this session is making a fun drink. The writing comes as a way to record the recipe and through follow-on fun activities like writing a slogan to sell their punch. This is a literacy lesson that doesn’t feel like one! Children will develop...

Firework characters

Overview In this session, children will use the characters from The Remarkable Rocket to create their own firework characters. It will help them learn about making things that aren’t human act as though they are human (anthropomorphism) and to think about how...

Firework fable

Overview Fables have been written and read for centuries and are still told today. In this session children will use what they learn from reading The Remarkable Rocket to think of their own idea for a fable with a moral point that is important to them. Allowing...

The Remarkable Rocket summary

The Remarkable Rocket by Oscar Wilde is a story about some fireworks that are used in a firework display to celebrate a royal wedding. While waiting to be lit, the fireworks are talking to each other. The rocket is very arrogant – he thinks he is much better than the...

Invent a firework

Overview This session looks at the different inventions and names of fireworks Philip Pullman came up with in his story The Firework-Maker’s Daughter. Reading through these and inventing their own will help children develop skills in onomatopoeia, description, and...

Firework scenes

Overview Using examples from The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, children will explore great descriptive writing and then have a go at creating their own descriptions of fireworks. There is an optional art response which will help children engage with the writing and to...

Firework adventure

Overview This session uses The Firework-Makers Daughter as inspiration for children to write their own firework-themed adventure. Going through the story will help children understand story structure, characters and events. By using Pullman’s excellent examples of how...

Intro to The Firework-Maker’s Daughter

The Firework Maker’s Daughter is a short adventure story by Philip Pullman. It has interesting and funny characters, great descriptions and a fast moving exciting plot. The book is widely available in libraries and you can watch TV presenter Saira Khan talking about...

Firework similes

Overview In this session children will create similes to describe fireworks and then have the opportunity to put a few similes together to make a poem. This activity makes understanding and writing similes simple and provides a very straightforward way to put together...

Onomatopoeia poetry

Overview This session helps children understand and use onomatopoeia. These types of words are a great poetic device and will create the basis for a poem children can write about fireworks.   Intro Fireworks are a great subject for onomatopoeic words. This...

Firework calligrams

Overview Calligrams are a fun and simple way to engage with words. They make a good add on activity or springboard to more creative writing. In this session you will find ideas of how to help children write a descriptive sentence based on their calligram(s)....

Intro to fireworks

Bonfire night and fireworks have a long and interesting history. To read about it, visit this BBC Newsround page all about the history of fireworks: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/34722156   Did you know that someone who makes fireworks is called a pyrotechnic?...

Fireworks to music

Overview This session involves listening to music composed for fireworks and exploring how it can inspire creative writing. We will look at how music can affect the experience and emotions of those watching the display and how words also create and reflect emotions...

Fireworks in a jar

Overview In this session children do a fun, practical activity which leads on to a variety of writing follow-up ideas. Keeping the focus on something fun and hands-on means this won’t feel like a literacy lesson and children will be engaged in the session when it...

Firework dragon

Overview This session has a good mix of interesting history, art and craft, and descriptive writing. By making an art/craft dragon, children have something concrete to describe that they have spent time thinking about and working with already. The writing is not the...

Bonfire night story starters

Overview This session provides a variety of different starters. In the first part there are opening paragraphs that set the story and characters up with optional questions to help develop ideas. In the second part there are a set of images with questions to develop...

The Minotaur’s maze

Overview This session is based on the story of Theseus and the Minotaur and uses the maze as a basis for writing activities. With ideas from this myth children can draw a maze and then use it to write a story of their own. Designing the maze first provides a basic...

Intro to Greek mythology

Greek mythology is a great topic. It is full of heroic deeds, adventures, magical creatures and unpredictable powerful gods and goddesses. There is a wide range of literacy activities to try in this section. In ancient Greece gods and goddesses were like super-humans...

Perseus and Medusa

Intro Here is the story of Perseus and Medusa. This story is used in a few of the activities in this section. You can refer back to it to remind yourself of the story and characters. Perseus and Medusa Perseus’s stepfather was the king and he didn’t like Perseus. The...

Medusa art

Overview This session uses art to help explore and write description. Medusa is a great subject both visually and conceptually, and provides lots of inspiration for further writing activities.   Intro Medusa is great inspiration for art, description, and exciting...

Your myth – the task

Overview This session is part of the Write Your Own Greek Myth pack and will help children to come up with and write about a task for a hero to complete in their Greek myth. It is preferable, but not essential, to have already done the monster and hero parts of this...

Your myth – the monster

Overview This session is part of the Write Your Own Greek Myth pack and will help children come up with ideas and write descriptions of their own mythical monster through a variety of activities and examples.   Intro A great myth needs a great monster. Through...

Your myth – the plot

Overview This session is part of the Write Your Own Greek Myth pack and will help children make a plot for their myth. They will need to have main characters (monster and hero) and a main event (task) in mind to work out a plot for their story.   Intro Children...

Your myth – the hero

Overview This session is part of the Write Your Own Greek Myth pack and will help children to create and write a description for a Greek myth hero that they can use for writing their own Greek myth.   Intro Every story needs a hero. Especially a Greek myth story....

Write your own myth intro

This section will help children write their own Greek myth. Children can do all the sessions to write a complete myth or just choose one or two of them. If they haven’t already, children should watch or read a Greek myth story or two. Look at the Greek Mythology Intro...

Theseus and the Minotaur

Intro Here is the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. This story is used in a few of the activities in this section. You can refer back to it to remind yourself of the story and characters.   Theseus and the Minotaur The Minotaur was a creature that had a human...

Greek puzzles

Overview In this session children design and make their own Greek-themed puzzles. Writing and making different puzzles are a great way to develop and practice a number of literacy skills such as spelling, definitions, following instructions, reflecting on their work,...

Greek architecture

Overview This session focuses on Ancient Greek buildings – mainly temples to their various gods and goddesses. Children can have a go at making some art and writing descriptions or a postcard based on what they find out. They can also try some critical thinking –...

Greek food

Overview Cooking is a great way to get children engaged in various literacy skills at different levels. The practical and fun nature of the activity means children will be engaged in the session as well as feeling under less pressure to read and write. Having a...

Greek god top trumps

Overview This session take a the well-known and popular game of Top Trumps and helps children make their own Greek gods version of it. Using a familiar format and writing for a clear (and fun) purpose will help the children engage in the activity. They will use and...

Eureka science

Overview In this session we look at famous Greek inventor and scientist Archimedes and try out one of his experiments followed by a writing activity. Using an activity children feel interested and confident in doing alongside writing helps them feel more confident and...

Catapult

Overview The practical activity of building a catapult makes this session fun and engaging for children. Through the activity, children can gain skills in following and/or writing instructions as well as creative, descriptive, speech and diary writing. Having a...

Mount Olympus

Overview This session involves finding out about Greek gods and goddesses and using the information to make a Mount Olympus. It’s a nice mix of art and literacy so there isn’t too much focus on the writing. Intro Read through the different activity options in the...

Intro to Greece

Overview Use this session as an introduction to the topic of Greece. Use the questions and links to help them begin to explore the topic. There are a few different ideas given below for things children can find out about. Use these - or any other area they are...

Clues

Overview Writing clues for a treasure hunt is a fun way to use poetry. You could link this with the Riddles activity to make the clues more complex. This session involves writing for a purpose, which will motivate children and make the activity fun and meaningful. You...

Stories as Songs

Overview Lots of songs from different genres tell stories. There is likely a style of song to engage all children by using something they are familiar with and enjoy. This helps increase their confidence and motivation when approaching the story writing task. It is a...

Pirate Quiz

Overview This session is focused on creating a quiz. Having this clear reason for writing helps motivation and engages reluctant writers. Producing the quiz incorporates fact-finding, recording evidence and making the information into questions. You can make writing...

Traditional Caribbean Tales

Overview Learning about and retelling folklore, myths and legends is an important part of literacy and a great way to learn more about different countries and cultures. This session is all about traditional tales from the Caribbean and different ways to explore them....

Caribbean Music

Overview Music is a great partner for creative writing. It expresses feelings, tells stories, often has poetic lyrics and inspires interesting description. This session uses music from the Caribbean to help children discover more about the place and its people,...

Caribbean Food and Drink

Overview By focusing on food and drink and having fun making something delicious rather than writing, this is a really accessible activity for reluctant writers. It also provides opportunity to write without it feeling like a writing task, which can help those who are...

Caribbean Festivals

Overview For this session Caribbean festivals provide inspiration for costume and character description. It can be linked up with the Caribbean food and Caribbean music activities to create a piece of writing about the different sights, sounds, and experiences of a...

Caribbean Fact Finding

Overview This session is very flexible and can be driven by children’s interests. It works well as an initial activity for the topic as what children find out about can be used in other activities. It is mostly about finding out and recording information, but there...

Cornish Food and Drink

Overview This session is a hands-on activity where children can have fun baking (and eating) something. The literacy learning is incorporated into the activity making it more engaging for all children and less daunting for those who have less confidence in writing....

Cornish Landscape

Overview In this session children will have the opportunity to develop their description and creative writing skills using images of the many inspiring landscapes in Cornwall. The optional art work activity will help children with the process of thinking of words and...

Pirate Songs and Shanties

Overview This session looks mostly at sea shanties. These fun and catchy tunes are very popular and will help children engage in poetry. There is a very clear guide children can follow to create their own sea shanty, as well as other options to choose from. Completing...

Pirate Sonnets

Overview   It’s really useful for children to understand sonnets if they are going on to study English Literature at GCSE level. It’s also a quite straightforward structure that they can get the hang of and write their own sonnets. They provide a good challenge...

Pirate Shape Poems

Overview Shape poems are a great way for children with a wide range of abilities to create a completed piece. There is no pressure to rhyme and the challenge of getting the words to fit the shape can help take some of the focus off writing. The poems can be short and...

Nonsense Pirate Poems

Overview The wonderful thing about nonsense poems is they are great fun and use lots of imagination. They usually contain made up words which helps with the challenge of getting the rhythm and rhyme. This type of poem offers a lot of fun and freedom, which helps even...

Pirate Kennings Poems

Overview Kennings poems are really flexible for use with a wide-range of confidence and abilities. They are a great choice for children who aren’t confident at writing poems as they can be straightforward to understand and put together. The simple structure of...

Pirate Acrostic Poems

Overview Acrostic poems are a really accessible style of poem that all children can find a way to succeed in. They can be kept very simple with just one word for each line, or made longer and more challenging with bringing in rhyming, rhythm and more meaning.  ...

Pirate Free Verse

Overview Most modern poetry is free verse so it’s a great style of poetry for children to learn about and engage with. Free verse - as the name suggests - isn’t constrained by any rules of rhyme or metre. This allows for great freedom of artistic expression. With such...

Treasure Map Story

Overview Writing and planning a story can be daunting. This session involves making a treasure map and then using it as an outline for a story. The map provides settings, a way to plot the story and prompts for key events. There is flexibility to vary the amount of...

Pirate Ship

Overview This session involves a practical art and design activity to build or draw a pirate ship. Children use research skills to plan their ship and choose from the writing options to use their ship for an advert or descriptive writing. They could also write a story...

Pirate Parrots

Overview This session has an initial focus on an art project which is then used to help create a description and/or parrot character. If children would rather not do the art, there is a gallery of parrot photos and artwork to look at and describe. There are a variety...

Pirate Flags

Overview This session will help children think about character traits, telling a story and creating an effect. Making pirate flags as visual representations of these things is a fun and creative way to develop these important creative writing tools. The activities...

Real Pirates and Smugglers

Overview Stories and legends of real life pirates and smugglers abound and have long captured people’s imaginations. In this session children will find out about real people and events in order to inspire creative writing. Children can go with their interests which...

Pirate Food and Drink

Overview The main focus of this session is making a fun drink. The writing comes as a way to record the recipe and through follow-on fun activities like writing an advert to sell their invention. This is a literacy lesson that doesn’t feel like one! Children will...

Desert Islands

Overview Desert islands have long been a source of fascination and have provided great inspiration for stories and characters. Children can engage in the session through various activities including research, art, and survival skills, leading on to a choice of...

Traditional Russian Tales

Overview This session looks at how children can explore traditional tales from Russia to inspire their own writing. All authors take inspiration from those who have gone before and traditional tales have provided writers with ideas for characters, settings and plots...

Russian History

Overview This session helps children explore Russia’s past and use that information to create a fact sheet, news report (written or spoken), or a short piece of historical fiction. They will develop their skills in finding and recording information from non-fiction...

Children’s Games in Russia

Overview This is a session that can involve lots of physical activity and fun to help children engage with and enjoy their learning time. This works particularly well for children who find literacy daunting. The focus is not all on reading and writing and the...

Russian Food and Drink

Overview This session involves the chance to find out about and make some traditional Russian dishes. Follow on activities will help children develop literacy skills based on their experience involving different amounts of writing to suit a range of confidence, needs,...

Russian Fashion

Overview Fashion is a great subject to engage children in a variety of literacy skills. There are lots of ideas in this session for using the information children find out which will help develop skills in areas such as character development and description as well as...

Russian Buildings and Architecture

Overview Through exploring some of Russia’s fascinating buildings, children can develop various literacy skills through art, fact-finding, description and story writing. There is a wide selection of ideas allowing all children to engage in the activity using...

Russian Ballet

Overview This session uses the rich and fascinating history of ballet in Russia as a way to develop skills in research and various forms of non-fiction, fiction, and descriptive writing. There are lots of options to enable children to go with their interests and...

The Cat Theatre

Overview This session looks at the interesting topic of the cat theatre. There are two activities based on this: critical thinking and creative writing. The critical thinking activity will help children develop skills in discussing and writing balanced and considered...

Introducing Russia

Intro This topic pack provides lots of activities to help children develop their literacy skills by exploring Russia and its history and culture. Below are some useful links as well as introductory activities to get you started. Oddizzi:...

World Cup Nation Facts

Overview In this session children can choose a country participating in the World Cup and find out about it. They then use this information to complete a follow-on activity. These are designed to be flexible and allow children to succeed in a task that is manageable...

National Team Fact-File

Overview This session is about the teams in the World Cup and lends itself to children taking their learning in various directions depending on what interests them and what they find out. There are suggestions of how to use what they research, but these are flexible...

Player / Manager Biography

Overview This session is about focusing on an individual player and find out about their life. It helps children to research different aspects of a player/manager’s life and then choose a follow-on activity to present or re-tell their information.   Intro With so...

World Cup Flags

Overview This session helps children research a nation’s flag of their choice and find out stories behind it. There are a variety of activity ideas based on flags children can choose from such as making a game and re-telling the story of their flag. These cover a...

World Cup Memorabilia

Overview This session looks at memorabilia that is produced and sold for World Cup events. Through researching then designing and thinking about how to sell their own memorabilia, children willdevelop writing skills such as hyperbole and description as well as other...

World Cup Story Writing

Overview Using football as a basis for story writing helps motivate children and provides plenty of ideas based on their own experiences and particular interests. There are lots of ways to write a story about football and World Cup competitions. Below you will find a...

World Cup Critical Thinking

Overview This session looks at the wider issues surrounding the World Cup and the host nations. Questions help guide children through researching and reflecting on some of these issues and there are ideas and tips to help them build the skills they need to write...

Football Poetry

Overview This session has lots of opportunity for active learning. Doing the actions the children will write about will not only be fun and engaging but will also give them concrete ideas for what to write.This works particularly well for children who are not as...

Football Newspaper Report

Overview Writing news articles are an important skill for children to develop. Linking it to an interest and an experience makes it more manageable and engaging. In this session children will watch a football match and write a report on it.   Intro Pick a World...

Matchday Programme

Overview In this session children can put together different types of information about two teams and a stadium location in a match day programme. They can follow their interests for features in the programme which helps motivate and engage them. Programmes can be...

Song Lyrics

Overview   This activity uses songs children enjoy to help motivate and inspire them to write their own poetry. If writing poetry isn’t something that interests your children, this is a good way in. They can write a rap, song, or even a football chant - whatever...

Shape Poems

Overview Shape poems are a great way for children with a wide range of abilities to create a completed piece. There is no pressure to rhyme and the challenge of getting the words to fit the shape can help take some of the focus off writing. The poems can be short and...

Riddles

Overview Riddles are a great way to play with language as well as develop skills and confidence in areas such as figurative language, synonyms, homonyms, and rhyming.   Intro In this session we look at a variety of riddles, how they work, options for children to...

Narrative Poems

Overview Narrative poetry allows quite a bit of freedom for writing. It takes some getting used to, but once you get in the groove it’s a lot easier. There are a number of very popular books for young children that are narrative poems, meaning children are usually...

Limericks

Overview Limericks offer a fun way to get children reading and writing poetry. They also have a clear pattern to follow which can make it easier to think of ideas. Limericks provide funny and interesting art opportunities which also helps engage and familiarise...

Free Verse

Overview Most modern poetry is free verse so it’s a great style of poetry for children to learn about and engage with. Free verse - as the name suggests - isn’t constrained by any rules of rhyme or metre. This allows for great freedom of artistic expression.  ...

Acrostic Poems

Overview   Acrostic poems are a good way in to writing poetry. They give you a clear structure and can be just a few words long. It's easy to understand how acrostic poems work and writing one is achievable for most learners. As well as this, they are easy to link...

Story Mountain

Overview   A story mountain is a commonly used template for planning stories. You’ll find lots of versions of this idea online with varying degrees of detail and complexity. It can be a useful tool to help children manage to plot a whole story and to make the writing...

Storyboard

Overview Storyboarding helps to visualise a story in its entirety and order events. This is a tool normally used after children have got some initial ideas about characters and plot. It only requires pieces of paper or post-it notes and a surface to put them on. As a...

Fan Fiction

Overview Fan fiction involves using a well-known story to write new fiction based on its characters, fictional world and/or plot-lines. Taking inspiration from stories children are familiar with and enjoy will help motivate them and give them plenty of ideas to do...

Comic Books

Overview Comic books are a great way for reluctant and unconfident writers to tell a story. It can simply be images, or can include very small amounts of writing. This session will explore a few very different ways to tell an image-based story. It is a great way to...

Guide to Metaphors, Similes and Personification

Overview Figurative language is a really important tool for creative writing. This activity gives an introduction and clear, easy to understand guidance to using similes, metaphors and personification. You can use it to introduce these techniques to children or...

Scene-Describing Game

Overview This session is about having lots of fun and laughs and in the process creating some scenes which can then be written as a description. The lighthearted nature of this activity takes the intimidation out of creative writing and makes it possible for all to...

Personification Plus

Overview Personification is a great tool to be able to use in creative writing. Famous authors such as Charles Dickens use it to make their descriptions interesting and powerful. This session includes an example from Shakespeare and Dickens, but there are lots more...

Build a Setting

Overview In this session you will read and discuss a setting from a familiar story. Children will make notes of describing words and phrases and then use these notes to recreate the setting as a picture or model.   Intro Describing the setting in a story is important...

Build a Character

Overview Building a character from a book is a great hands-on way to really pay attention to description. This activity is a fun way to show how description brings a character to life and to work with great material that inspires young writers in how they create and...

Story Mash-Up

Overview   In this session there are various activities based on the idea of bringing together a mix of characters, settings, and plot lines from familiar stories and mashing them all up to create something brand new. It takes something the children are already...

Re-write a Famous Story

Overview This session is about re-writing a famous story like a fairy tale, or traditional story or fable, to help and inspire children to create their own unique version of the story. Children use their chosen tale as their starting idea and have lots of fun...

Quick Quiz

Overview   Quizzes that decide things like your DJ name based on personal information are very popular with children and something they are familiar with from magazines and websites. This activity uses that idea to generate some story ideas. The fun and familiar...

Painting or Photo

Overview This session uses paintings and/or photographs to spark ideas for a story. Use the prompt questions to help think about characters, settings and plots. Having an interesting visual aid to look at, alongside thoughtful questions, encourages imagination and...

Make a Moodboard

Overview In this session, children will create a moodboard of different aspects that make a character. They can use this to write some interesting descriptions, including similes and metaphors. The hands-on, creative nature of this activity will help engage learners....

Baddies and Goodies

Overview   This fun game helps children think about different characteristics and create some interesting villains and heroes. You can use this as a stand alone activity, as a starter for writing more complete characters and descriptions, or as part of planning and...

Wacky Pictures

Overview Wacky pictures is a really fun activity to help children write descriptive words and phrases as they create some unusual looking characters. You can also use this activity as a starter for further literacy activities.   Intro You’ve probably played some...

Object Bag

Overview This activity involves using random objects picked from a bag as a springboard for creative writing. Having very visual, concrete prompts helps children more easily imagine different events, places, and people they can put into a story, as well as being...