A Little Concertina Book

Two gorgeous little boys I know decorated a cake for their grandad's birthday while I took photos. We cut and folded card into a concertina book and stuck in the sequence of photographs.

A cake and a book for his birthday - lucky grandad!

East 1 Writing Project

Last week, I met sixty pupils and their teachers from schools in Tower Hamlets for two days of fun and writing. The first day we travelled into the West End to see a matinee performance of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. After the show we walked to Oxford Street to see the Lights and have a pizza.
The following day we met to share our experience and write about our day out. On our experience day I asked the pupils to record the things they saw, heard and felt on post-it notes. What became clear when we shared our post-its - sticking them up in the sequence they happened - was that even though we shared the experience different people notice different things. Everyone has a unique perspective and the young writers are each developing a personal voice describing the day as they saw it. It was fascinating and impressive to watch the pupils focus their attention and begin writing. It was great fun to meet such a vibrant enthusiastic group and I am looking forward to working with these students again next year.

Cumbria Book Appeal

Last week I arrived at Alexandra Park School to meet Y8 students in the library only to find that the school had been evacuated. Torrential rain the night before had got into the electrics and made the school unsafe. An unexpected day off on a Monday morning will have been a joy to many students and I can easily reschedule my visit. But Cumbrian schools are still closed after the November floods and children there will be missing out on all the fun end-of-term activities as well as their education. Many are still homeless.
An email was forwarded to me this week from Chris Priestley who is rallying Children's authors and Illustrators to send signed books to Cumbrian children. To find out more see Chris's Blog and get involved if you can help.
Thanks