Balancing a story – story structure and more with St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Bath Spa

It was a fabulous sight. Practically every person, including all of the staff and the headteacher, were dressed up as characters out of a book. We had Puss-in-Boots, several Wallys, form Where’s Wally, a harry Potter and a Hermione or two, several Alices and many, many more. It was clear that everyone had gone to great deal of effort. The costumes were convincing. It was also good to see so many books lying on tables.

Magic and Mystery again

I used the Magic and Mystery story-telling kit again with years 5 and 6. We worked on that all important “What if…?” question. This time we put the emphasis on structure. We very carefully went through the stages of:     

•      What happens first?  When?

•      What happens next? When?

•      What happens then? When?

•      What happens that can’t be undone? 

•      How do they get out of that?

•      How does it all end? 

I had two sessions with this year group. In the first one, they outlined their story and told it to others. They also started to design a book cover. 

In the second session we started writing out the story in a fuller a form.

So often, opening paragraphs are really good but too long. We talked here about getting some balance. Each section of the story must be about the same length and is equally important.

We looked at starting the story  “in media res”. I read some examples form my books The Lombardy Grotto and Kiters. I also picked out some examples from the Hippo-Dee-Doo-Dah Collection.

Years 3 and 4

We worked collectively on Haiku based on colours. There was a lot of counting on fingers as we tried to make sense of something to do with a chosen colour, and also make the content fit the pattern of five sounds, then seven sounds, then five sounds again.

Here are a few we came up with:

Blue ocean, waves, whale,

The waves waving you goodbye,

Under the blue sea

Yellow banana

Gets peeled by chimpanzees

And eaten at last.

Purple palaver

Painting everyone purple

Lava lamp is lit

Year 1 and 3 Acrostic and Hello Goodbye poems

Again we worked collectively.

For Hello Goodbye we thought of a theme and then opposites within it.   

This is what we created:

HELLO                                   GOODBYE

Sun                                          Rain

Butttercup                               Snowdrop

Nature                                     Screens

We took the word “plant” and though of words to do with plants.

                                    Pink

                                    Lavender

                                    Apple

                                    Nutritious

                                    Tree

                                    Sun

A good day

It was all good fun. The children participated well. The staff were friendly and helpful. Thank you having me, St Mary’s.