Excerpts from some of our books
The Best Colour
Orange exclaimed, “No more beautiful than I,
in petals of marigolds and wings of butterflies!
Orange is the best.”
Yellow chuckled, saying:“What about me? In buttercups, daffodils and the stripes of the bee.
Yellow is the best.”
Kedrig’s Challenge
In the depths of winter
It was winter and many of the trees were asleep, they had shed their leaves of red, gold and brown and they stood bare waiting for the worst that winter could throw at them. Kedrig had been helping his grandfather to prune some of the trees in a distant part of the forest. They headed home,
‘’ You can feel the chill in the air and there is a north wind blowing, ’’ remarked Kedrig’s grandfather.
“There will be snow before the night is over.’’
Kedrig shivered and rubbed his hands to warm them. Even though he was cold, he was excited about the prospect of snow over night. The trees always took on such a serene look when they were clothed with frost and snow. There was something deeply spiritual about it and Kedrig loved it. They hurried through the forest as the darkness gathered. They were glad when they could see the welcoming lights of the little cottage. Grandfather made sure Kedrig was home safely and took the short journey to his own cottage.
Tolsham’s Dream
Across the valley on the opposite hill lived a poor man whose name was Tolsham. He lived in a tiny cottage with his wife and three children, two boys and one girl, whose names were Dillem, Yosim and Abilla. The cottage was so small that the children always had to play outside; there was no room for their games within their home. Tolsham worked long hours in the quarry cutting the special stone that was taken to all the different parts of the world. He was a hard worker and had very few days rest. On those rare days he would sit outside his cottage and watch his children play, but his eyes would wander to gaze at the forest and that would make him think. He would day dream about how he would tame the forest and make it a place of beauty, but he would push these thoughts to the back of his mind. Sometimes he would visit the forest, but he would never allow his children to go there for it was too dangerous.
Ideas for writing Stories
Write about something that you are interested in.
It could be facts or fiction.
Have a good beginning, one that makes the reader want to know more.
E.g. It was a bitterly cold night, the wind was howling.
In a land faraway hidden in the mists of time.
Recently it was reported that…
This is how you make….
It is a good idea to plan your story, but remember you do not always have to follow that plan exactly. You can use it as a prompt, so that when you have finished writing one part, you can refer back to your plan to give you ideas for the next part. My stories changed as they went along. The plan that I did in the beginning was not completely followed.
Before you start your story have a go at writing down lots of words that you think might help you. You may not use them all, but that doesn’t matter.
Make your story as interesting as possible, try to think of things that other people may not. Use lots of different words.
Have a good ending one that explains your story, or brings it to a conclusion. Sometimes its good to leave the reader wondering what is going to happen next.
Hope you enjoy all your writing whether it is fact or fiction.
Activities (ideas taken from the stories)
Make your own castle, it can be made from any material you like. You could even draw your castle complete with secret passages and hidden rooms.
Who would live there?
What sort of life would they have?
Don’t forget the dungeons and the cellar.
Draw a story in comic form about your castle making up the characters, some could be bad others kind, you choose.
You could make a film about your characters using stik bots, play doh or clay or lego.
Create your own dragon
Give it a name
Is it friendly? or cruel? Perhaps it is a clumsy dragon that does silly things or tells jokes all day long. You can make it what you want.
What powers has it got?
What sort of things does it like to eat?
Make a menu
Where does it live?
What colour is it?
What does it enjoy doing most?
You can write these things or you could make the dragon using different materials. Cardboard boxes, plasticine, plastic bottles or containers. You could recycle your dragon when you have finished with it.
What would you say if you met a dragon? What would the dragon say to you? Write a conversation.
Make your own board game using dragons, a castle with tunnels, secret rooms and hidden staircases. Make it lots of fun to play.
Draw a map showing where the trail of groundnuts were placed right up to the Blue Waters. Don’t forget to include the cottage and the castle as well as the woods.
Write poems about the woods. Perhaps a walk in the woods. Choose your season. What would you see in Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter? Each time of the year would be different. Think of words that word fit into your poem, write them down and play with them, place them in different parts of your poem. Your poem does not have to rhyme, make it your own, put your feelings into your writing.
You could do the same with trees, leaves, animals or birds.
Poetry is a wonderful way of expressing yourself.
Try pretending that you are an old oak tree and someone wants to cut you down.
Choose the reason why. It could be that they want to make a new road or railway. They may think that you have just grown too big and they can no longer have you in their garden.
Write a letter telling them why they should not cut you down and how many creatures rely on you for their lives.
Try discussing topics with your friends about how to care for our environment. Some people have different ideas about the best thing to do. Put your ideas forward, but always listen to what other people have to say.
Write down a list of how we can improve our daily living, whether it is recycling or using less energy in our homes. There are many different ways we can improve.
Pretend you are a leaf swirling down from a tree in Autumn time. How does it feel? What will happen to you now? Write about your experience.
Collect some leaves around your home or school, look at the shapes of the leaves, see if you can identify the trees that they came from, you could use your computer to help you.
Use the leaves to make a picture of Autumn, write your poem in the centre.
Place each leaf under a piece of paper and rub over the leaf with a crayon to make a pattern.
Have you ever been out in a storm? Perhaps you have watched the rain and the lightening and heard the thunder. What did you see? write about your experience use your imagination and make your story really interesting.
The Christmas Gift
Once there was a little old lady. She lived all alone in the country side. Her children had all grown up and moved away, making lives of their own. Her husband had died many years ago. She decided to make the best of her situation, so with the scraps that she had left over from her meals, she took out to feed the birds. She enjoyed watching them. Some were acrobats, others were shy and would only come to feed alone and some would fight to have the choicest morsels that she put out. Each one was special, different colours, different sizes and different personalities.
She was very poor and the scraps of food became less and less. This made the old lady very sad. It was Christmas day and instead of having a special meal all she had was bread and soup, which was more water than anything else. Nevertheless, she went outside and gave the last of her crumbs to her little friends, the birds. She returned to her house feeling very weary. She dozed off by the fire. Then suddenly she heard singing, at first she thought that she was dreaming, but no it was definitely singing. She went to her window, and there in her garden, the birds were sitting in the trees all singing in harmony. To her it seemed as though they were all saying thank you for her gift.