25 November 2023

Posted by Claire Hillier & Harley Truslove

Junior Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]

This week the group had a special guest assistant, writer & performer, Harley Truslove.

We started with our group check-in, which was going to be animal based to keep with the theme of the week — but instead we decided to go with which Christmas food we are in order to get a festive feeling going!

Hamish - a roast chicken wrapped in bacon, wrapping up to get warm as the weather is getting colder
Lyla - pigs in blankets, as she wanted to get cosy
Elsie - Brussel Sprouts because she hasn’t had a very good week
Indy - a big puff pastry Christmas tree

We then had a check in about what we were reading.

Elsie started and finished “A Christmasaurus Carol”
Indi is also reading “A Christmasaurus Carol”, as well as “Stig of the Dump” at school
Hamish is reading “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”

Then, in order to warm up, we played a game of Zip, Zap, Boing!, where we passed a ball of energy around the group by ‘throwing’ it to each other. It got fast paced quickly, and we decided the ball of energy had to bounce off the windows of the room in order to make up for the fact we were sitting in a square, not a circle.

Last week we did nature writing, so today we are moving onto writing about animals and wildlife. A few members of the group discussed the animals they were going to see when they went on holiday in 2024, such as those in Ireland and Indonesia - everyone was encouraged to bring a journal along with them and keep note of what they had seen.

We discussed some anthropomorphism in books we’ve read, such as “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”, and then we read some animal poems. First the group voted to listen to one about a hedgehog:

Hedgehog

BY PAUL MULDOON

The snail moves like a

Hovercraft, held up by a

Rubber cushion of itself,

Sharing its secret

With the hedgehog. The hedgehog

Shares its secret with no one.

We say, Hedgehog, come out

Of yourself and we will love you.

We mean no harm. We want

Only to listen to what

You have to say. We want

Your answers to our questions.

The hedgehog gives nothing

Away, keeping itself to itself.

We wonder what a hedgehog

Has to hide, why it so distrusts.

We forget the god

Under this crown of thorns.

We forget that never again

Will a god trust in the world.

Marissa discussed how the poem makes a good use of silence and we talked about if it is a good poem everyone will want to listen. We talked about similes, personification, and metaphors - and how each of them can be used in a poem such as this when describing an animal.

Deer Descending

BY PHILIP TERMAN

Perhaps she came down for the apples,

or was flushed out by the saws powering

the far woods, or was simply lost,

or was crossing one open space for another.

She was a figure approaching, a presence

outside a kitchen window, framed

by the leafless apple trees, the stiff blueberry bushes,

the after-harvest corn, the just-before-rain sky,

a shape only narrow bones could hold,

turning its full face upward, head tilted to one side, as if to speak.

I want my life back.

Morning settles around her like a silver coat.

Rustling branches, hooves in flight.

Fox

BY ALICE OSWALD

I heard a cough

as if a thief was there

outside my sleep

a sharp intake of air

a fox in her fox-fur

stepping across

the grass in her black gloves

barked at my house

just so abrupt and odd

the way she went

hungrily asking

in the heart's thick accent

in such serious sleepless

trespass she came

a woman with a man's voice

but no name

as if to say: it's midnight

and my life

is laid beneath my children

like gold leaf

After listening to all the poems, the group was challenged to write their own animal poem, making use of the five senses in order to bring the piece to life. Claire suggested that they use an alliterative title to help them get started and everyone chose different forms to write in.

Elsie and Lyla wrote acrostic poems, Indi and Hamish illustrated some comics, and Marissa wrote the beginning of a story.

We finished with a one word story which descended quickly into chaos, but it was good fun.

Optional homework for the week was to continue working on what they had started in session, and also to pick their favourite writing piece and bring it to present for the end of term session on Saturday 9th December.

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Junior Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]