Yesterday, July 13th I embarked on a new venture, in my capacity as The WRITE STUFF. I opened my first Creative Writing Week for Children at Warrenview Manor in Muff. 11 Children signed up for the week and only two days into it, I am feeling very priviliged with what these kids are achieving.
Yesterday we began creating and developing characters. We read some poetry and I introduced the children to the work of Shakespeare (in junior form). Each child embarked on every given task with enthusiasm and passion.
This morning I introduced the children to the concept of ‘Six word stories’. Initially they looked at me strangely but within minutes each child was writing their own stories in just six words. We took a walk around the community garden and ate raspberries from my husbands plant. Delicious I’m told them were. On returning to our writing room, the children again embarked upon writing some stories in relation to the garden. Inspiring is the one word that comes to mind on the work these kids produced. Some of their work is the following:
Cara Fisher (aged 7) ‘I like swimming, running and sharing’, ‘I saw rasberries, I ate four.’
Fionn Og Bradley (aged 7) ‘My hair is long and straight’.
Anna O’Donnell (aged 8) ‘My best friends name is Aoibhinn’, ‘We saw green and red tomatoes’.
Evie Hilton (aged 9) ‘There were several people at gaelic’, ‘I saw some strawberries; not ripe’.
Aoife Bradley (aged 10) Trampolining is fun: so is cycling’, ‘There are raspberries in the garden’.
Declan Roe (aged 10) ‘I am writing six word stories’, ‘I ate four raspberries: they’re delicious’.
Colm Millar (aged 10) ‘Large quantity of books: really cheap’, ‘We went to the community garden’.
Fionnuala DeBrúin (aged 11) ‘The woman played the harp slowly’, ‘We walked through the community garden’.
Kayleigh Sweeny (aged 11) ‘He dived at the summer olympics’, ‘Little white flowers topped the potatoes’.
Each child clearly enjoyed the planning and preparation that went into making these stories.
And following that the characters from yesterday were developed further, settings were created and a short story from each child is currently underway.
I’m learning from these kids and I hope they’re learning a little from me. What better way to spend a week than in the company of amazing young folk and watching them express their creativity and their appreciation of the written word.
Huge thanks to Gill &Macmillan and Little Acorns Bookstore, Derry for their contribution of books for the week.
North West Culture Gal 