We welcomed Kathy to school this morning and she was very impressed with our beautiful library where we will be working, and our awesome mountain, Mount Hikurangi which towers over our lovely school.
The students had previously decided that they would like to write adventure stories with Kathy.
Kathy began by gettting the students to tell her about their favourite books, if they had one, or the types of books they liked, and why they liked them. Roald Dahl featured a few times.
Then the brainstorming session began, which the students enjoyed and which produced some amazing ideas and conversations.
The students went off in pairs or by themselves to brainstorm more ideas about what their story might be about- carnivorous grandmother, alien baby, even kissing bomb!!
The group then came back together after about 30 minutes to share their ideas. Kathy was able to make suggestions about their ideas and guide them so that they would think of a problem or conflict to base their ideas around. She also pointed out that because they were only writing a short story, they may need to narrow their ideas down, as the story would not be long enough to include them all.
After the morning break Kathy read some of one of her books, "A Hairy Tale" which is a type of twisted fairy tale. She discussed the story as she read it and shared with the students the reasons why she wrote the book and what had inspired her. This helped them understand where the story had come from.
Another brainstorming session followed, this time using a box of fairly ordinary objects. They had to choose 1 object and brainstorm around it. Or they could choose 1 of the NZ Post story starter cards as inspiration.
Some students managed to include this brainstorm with what they had started earlier in the day. Others started on a totally new idea.
Once again they came back together as a group to share their ideas with Kathy and get her input. They were very enthusiastic and came up with more wonderful ideas. How their minds work is amazing!
Kathy made suggestions as they shared and reminded them about the need to have a problem or conflict to base their story on.
Most of the students have decided on their theme/idea for their adventure story and are looking forward to Kathy's visit tomorrow, when they will begin writing their actual story. The focus will be on writing a great beginning for their story.
The students have responded well to Kathy and she seems to have motivated them really well and they are keen to write. One boy even asked if he could write some more ideas and do more planning after school. The answer was a definite yes.
Looking forward to the next session.
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