With it feeling like summer, the writing area has been well used over the past few days. It has been lovely to see so many of the younger children, especially Year R, in the area. Some children just seem to enjoy watching others write, where as others are very keen to have a go!
Although the postcards still seem to be the most popular, the blank till rolls are a close second. If you have any more ideas for writing materials to put in the area, let me know.
Miss Proctor
We all enjoyed 'doing something funny for the money' on Red Nose Day. There were some very inventive costumes and it was amazing to see nearly all the school dressing up. There seemed to be an abundance of stripey socks and lots of pants worn over clothes, and even on heads!
The everybody writes area has taken a bit of a battering over the winter, and because of all the wild weather, it hasn't been used much. But today, we were able to write jokes on red noses, and string them up for everyone to read.
We hope to get the area up and running for after Easter, in the hope that winter will be over. All classes will be contributing some new work to brighten up the area! If you have any ideas for writing or art work that would make the area special, please let me know.
Miss Proctor
Everybody enjoyed dressing up as book characters and authors on the final day of book week. There were some great costumes... caterpillars, the gruffalo, pirates, princesses, and even a library!
Of course, many of the adults seemed to enjoy it just as much as the children... perhaps even a little bit more!
In the classrooms, lots of finishing off was happening, and displays of work being created. Year 2 created their own Charlie and Lola pages, after thinking of a conversation between the characters.
They then assembled their 'collage', just like Lauren Child does. We were really pleased with the results.
Miss Proctor
Year 3 have really enjoyed reading stories by the author Jeremy Strong, and have been laughing all week.
Year 4 really enjoyed the challenge of writing their own 100-word stories yesterday, and then reading them to each other.
Year 5 enjoyed finding out about Roald Dahl, but then worked in small groups finding out about other popular authors, and then presenting their findings to the class.
Year 2 loved listening to Lauren Child stories, read by a very enthusiastic Year 6. I think quite a few of the older children were enjoying the stories as well!
Book week is a great way of bring all the different age groups together, and for everyone to show their love of reading. Seeing the 'cool' Year 6 boys reading so passionately only helps to encourage the younger readers.
Miss Proctor
All the children at Redbridge became authors today! In the assembly they were challenged to used their imaginations, and write a 100-word story, starting with the word 'curiously...' After hearing my short story, which was very kindly acted out by our caretaker, Della, they returned to their classes and listened to, and read, more 100-word stories written by children. The short film 'Dangle' (teachers TV) was also used to provide some inspiration.
The children then wrote their own stories, with the older children trying to include a twist at the end of it. They seemed to find writing a story that was exactly 100 words long, much easier than I did!
There was then lots of sharing of the stories, with some of Year 6 visiting Year 2 and reading their stories, and then listening to the younger children's stories in return.
The children in Year 5 spent time writing their stories out catrefully, just like the children who had written stories in the 'Curiously' book. We hope to make a book of some of the most interesting ones from every year group. We were surprised by the variety of ideas, and how enthusiastic the children were to participate in the activity.
The assembly at the end of the day was a chance to celebrate being authors. We hope to put a few of the short stories onto the blog for everyone to read.
Miss Proctor
Already two days into book week and lots has been happening. This years theme 'all about authors' has been proving very popular, and the children have reading lots of books and doing lots of research. The new books in the playtime book trolley have also caused a lot of excitement.
The older children have loved reading books by Roald Dahl and Paul Jennings. Year 4 have found the books by Mary Hoffman very interesting and also finding out about her. In Year 2 we have been really enjoying many of Lauren Child's books, especially the Charlie and Lola stories.
At the end of the afternoon today, many parents and grandparents, joined their children's class to share books with them and their friends. It was lovely to see how excited the children were to be able to read with their special adults.
We are all looking forward to being authors tomorrow, when we will be writing our short stories, starting with the word 'curiously...' I hope to be able to include a couple of them on the blog.
On Friday, two lucky children from Redbridge were invited to Oaklands for the day, to write poetry with Michael Rosen. We had a great day, and it was amazing watching Michael perform, and then to write our own poetry with him. The children were videoed performing their poetry and hopefully, this will be included on a new poetry website for schools, Perform-a poem.
After meeting such a brilliant author, we are now all looking forward to our Book week which is next week, and is 'All about authors!' On Wednesday, we are having a special 'Everybody writes' day, when we will become authors for the day. Later in the week, we will be dressing up as authors, or book characters.
On Blue Friday, at the end of our anti-bullying weeks, we decided to write messages to the bullies who had ruined our writing area. The children were very keen to express their anger, and children from all classes wrote messages to the bullies at playtime.
Some were short and to the point, 'keep out' and 'go away' and others were a bit more personal. One Year 6 child wrote 'I am really upset by what you did. I used to take my buddy into the area, and she is only little and doesn't understand why anyone would do this!'
We all hope that the people who did this don't come back, and it was really great to read some of the comments left under the Daily Echo article on their website. When the Year 6 children read them they wanted to write their own letters to the Echo. Here is an example of one of them...My heart feels like a black hole sucking in every piece of good in the world. Redbridge is a very good school, I don’t understand why anyone would be so cold and heartless. I’ve heard and seen a few sick things in the world but this is a job for a devil. Me and my friends at
They think there so hard picking on a school for kids but have we given up, no, and these people are going to get caught and locked up if I ever see these people again. They feel no guilt, the only achievement they’ve earned is getting themselves a ticket to jail. These people are nothing but weak, spineless fools. If they are so tough they wouldn’t come back at all, so all hope they will never they will not show they there faces here again.
Yours Sincerely
We have also had some very kind offers from parents to help mend the benches, and from a local company who read about what had happened and wanted to help. They have really helped to cheer us all up.
One boy just asked me, "Why?" and it was very hard to answer him. Here are just a few comments the children made...
We will, of course, do what we can to make the area special again, but it will take some time, and after seeing such willful destruction, it will never feel completely the same.
Following our 'magical' writing day, we have displayed a selection of work from Year R to Year 6 in our school hall. Everyone has had a chance to read some of the 'magical' writing the children, and adults, produced. We all agreed that it was an exciting day, where we all had fun with our writing.
We are all looking forward to our next 'special' writing day.... Any ideas?
Miss Proctor
We all had a very 'magical' writing day on Friday 24th October. We decided to link our everybody writes day with something that all of the children enjoy... magic! To make it that extra bit special the children were asked to wear a 'magical' costume to school.
The day started with a special assembly, with some'real' magic, and then lots of different writing activities took place in all the classrooms from Year R to Year 6. In Year 2 the children were very keen to write their own magic spells!
Strange spells were written in some classrooms, monsters created in others, and everything from poetry, wands with magical powers and magic fingers, took place around the school.
At lunchtime, the children found some 'magical' resources in the everybody writes area, and it was great to see so many children choosing to write at lunchtime, as well as through the whole day. As one teacher said, "Some children didn't notice that they'd been doing writing activities all day!"
At the end of the day, some classes shared what they had done, and they were all desperate to read what they'd created.
One Year 6 boy told me that he..."Thought it was going to be a bit boring, because it was just writing, but it's been really exciting!" They certainly enjoyed writing their magical spell poems, and were proud to show them off.
We will be displaying a selection of the writing from all the classes, in our school hall, so that everyone can enjoy it. As one child said... "I want to do more. It doesn't feel like we've been writing all day!"
Miss Proctor
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