27 April 2024
Posted by Sukie & Claire
Junior & Young Writers – Week 2 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Dreams
Hi Writers!
This week to continue our ‘Writers’ Inspiration’ theme, we discussed Dreams.
As usual, we started out with our check-ins and shared our weeks as dinosaurs! We had a huge range of dinosaurs across both the Junior and Young Writers groups, including a stegosaurus, a T-Rex, a megalodon and a kaprosuchus. Berry even had a T-Rex that had been squashed by a Diplodocus after a week of SATs practice, and Poppy’s week had been a dinosaur extinction event while her friend was away.
In our reading check-ins we had a lot of Roald Dahl, from ‘Mathilda’ to ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’, some poetry and a continuation of ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’.
We talked again about our collaborative agreement for the workshops and agreed on the three rules:
1. Share respect – both for ourselves and each other. This looks like: no self diss; no dissing others’ work; listening when others are sharing their work
2. These workshops are not school and there are no teachers or tests – we’re all here to learn!
3. Have fun and have a go!
In each session we played a game of Buzzy Bees before getting into our first exercise: writing about a dream we’d had recently. We each took some time to write a list of recent dreams and nightmares and to have a go at writing about one or two of them, because… there is a new competition open!
Once Upon A Dream is now open, seeking submissions from anyone around the ages of 7-12 (older or younger welcome too) on the subject of dreams. The closing date is 24th May.
[Once Upon A Dream 2024 | Poetry Competition. Ideal for 7-12. check out the website for details and to enter: www.youngwriters.co.uk]
We read some examples from previous winners, including ‘My Washing Came Alive’ and ‘My Magnificent Dragon and I’, and got stuck into our next exercise: making Dream Jars. We each drew a jar in which to keep our dreams, and wrote poems into them.
Evelyn’s had a great opening: ‘I might be an explorer…’ while Evan’s dark take on nightmares was powerfully started off with ‘Nightmares take over your dreams’ and Hamish’s contained the fantastically chilling line ‘Holiday for a nightmare, on a cruise through your little bloodstream’. Berry wrote a spooky acrostic, ‘My Worst Dream’, including the line ‘haunting the dead’, while Poppy wrote a complex and surprisingly heartwarming poem about a frenemy.
We closed out our sessions with another round of Buzzy Bees and some one-word stories.
Don’t forget: The Winchester Poetry Festival’s Young Poets Competition has opened! The
theme is ‘Our World, Our Planet’, and the task is to write a short poem (no more than 14
lines). This is being organised by Hampshire Cultural Trust, so it is open to anyone living or
studying in Hampshire (that means if your school is in Hampshire you can apply, even if you
live across the border). There are three age categories: 4-7, 8-11 and 11-16, and the
winners will receive a National Book Token as the prize. The closing date is Wednesday 31 st
July at midnight so we will definitely be setting some time aside during the summer term’s
Junior and Young Writers workshops to develop pieces for this competition.
Our Junior and Young Writers groups run every Saturday during termtime at the Forest
Arts Centre in New Milton. To sign up, just head to the Forest Arts website (it’s free!). Junior
Writers is for ages 7-10 and runs from 09:30-11:00, and Young Writers is for ages 11-14 and
runs from 11:30-13:00.
Archive
Junior & Young Writers Week 3: Return From The Magical World
Junior & Young Writers Week 2: African Mythology
Problems, Problems, Problems...
Cautionary Tales & Christmassy Opening Lines
You've Gotta Have Pace, Pace, Pace
Junior & Young Writers Week 1: Alien Encounters
Junior & Young Writers: Week 5 - Play on Words Pt. 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 - end of term showcase [build a bard workshop]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 - Greek Theatre - chorus stories
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 - Greek Origin Stories - Spring
Rubber Ducks & Writing Festivals
Junior & Young Writers: Week 7 - Greek Hero Stories [the 12 labours of Hercules]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 12 [Wild Words] - Stuff & Things
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 [Wild Words] - World Building 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 [Wild Words] - World Building
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 [Wild Words] - Mystery & Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior & Young Writers: Week 8 [Wild Words] - Spooky Sequels & Potion Poems
Junior & Young Writers – Week 10 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Final Showcase
Junior & Young Writers – Week 9 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Editing & Performance Tips
Junior & Young Writers – Week 8 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Cuteness
Time goes on by Tavinder Kaur New
Junior & Young Writers – Week 7 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Natural Solutions
Junior & Young Writers – Week 6 (Writers’ Inspiration) – The Language of Fruit and Veg
Junior & Young Writers – Week 5 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Adventures In Space
Tinklebobs and Bedraggled Angles
Junior & Young Writers – Week 4 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Our Environment
Fortune Tellers & Future Letters
Junior & Young Writers – Week 3 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Home
Young Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Junior Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Young Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Young Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Junior Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Young Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Junior Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Young Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers – Week 5 (The Art of Writing) – Poetry
Young Writers - Week 5 (The Art of Writing) - Poetry Potions
Edward The Martyr - A Competition!
Mood Boards and Postcards from Space
Young Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Junior Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Moomin Stories and Hollywood Pitches
Young Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Junior Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Prompts, Dialogues, and Cliché
Story Structure Part One: Exposition and Beyond...
Young Writers - Week 1 (The Art of Writing) - Character
Young Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Junior Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Young Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Junior Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Young Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
Junior Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
