19 October 2024

Posted by Frankie

Junior & Young Writers: Week 6 [Wild Words] - Awesome Autumn

Hi Writers,

In the Junior Writers group, Henry R came in singing Christmas songs, so Claire set the

check-in for this group as describing our week as a Christmas carol! We had a fast week

described as Run Run Rudolph and a crazy week as rocking around the Christmas tree.

We introduced a new member of the group to a classic game of Buzzy Bees, with a mopping

mummy, magic mouse and munching monster being made for the letter M.

We then made a machine where everyone lined up and took it in turns to become a part of a machine, acting

out the movements and sounds that machine would make. The professor, the last person in

the line, then chose what the machine did. Our machine was a killing machine called 'The

Cruncher' with a crushing part, a farting part and even lasers!

We then revisited the game 'Taxi'.

Our theme this week was Autumn in the Forest. To get into the creative mood, we did some

free writing with our senses before choosing to either create an acrostic using the word

AUTUMN create a concrete poem in the shape of something autumnal, or write an

autumnal-themed poem.

Sticking to the (far too early) Christmas spirit, we made our rendition of a Christmas carol, an

autumn anthem, recreating the 12 Days of Christmas as an autumn list. Using a mixture of

lines from the group, here is 'Days of Autumn'

On the first day of Autumn, nature gave to me

One pumpkin pie,

Two ferocious foxes,

Three crazy conquers,

Four bolts of lightning,

Five cobwebs with hats,

Six mouldy pumpkins

And red leaves in an oak tree.

We're still waiting for our record deal to be signed.

Hamish went above and beyond this week and created a choose-your-own-adventure story

for the group to participate in called 'Survive Death Autumn Forest'. Collectively, we chose to

check for items in bushes, where we found a trident; we then decided to run through the

forest, where we bumped into a crocodile viper hybrid; we decided it was best to run away

and ended up being swallowed whole and being sent back to the start. On our second run-

through, we attacked the pesky croc/viper, who dropped a key; we then chose to turn west,

where we found an exit that took us home to our bed and ate lunch!

For the young writer's group, we checked in our weeks as a shop. Sonny chose an antique

shop because his week was full of interesting things. Berry described her week as an

overwhelming perfume shop because she had a headache nearly all week. Daisy chose Ikea

because her week kept going on and on and on. Lastly, Poppy described her week as a

shop shutting down and having a clearance sale because her week was pretty empty.

Next, we played the counting game, which the group proved to be way too good at. We then

played a game in which you had to say your name and the school you attend in a way that

shows how you feel about yourself and your school.

Again, we got in the mood for writing by free writing with our senses before writing either an

acrostic, concrete, or free-form autumnal poem.

We then wrote stories from the point of view of an autumnal item. We had a chronically

depressed pumpkin who had finally been chosen only to have his face cut off and to be left

by a front door outside, ignored by everyone who saw him. We also had another sad

character, a worm tunnelling through the earth, who encountered a different problem with

every season. A more happy character was the pumpkin, who was impressively vain and

considered themselves an autumn celebrity.

To end this week's group, we played One-Word Story, which was as beautifully morbid as

always. A fat pig on a chair snuffling his feet hungrily loved his feet and was thinking about

food, so he ate them—his feet.

I can't wait to see what the groups come up with next time.

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Junior & Young Writers: Week 6 [Wild Words] - Awesome Autumn