I have been helping out at primary school with "Golden Time", which is an half-hour reward period on Fridays when the children can choose to do what they want from a variety of activities. I usually do storytelling. This term, rather ambitiously, I opted to offer "Write, illustrate and publish a book".
It was with enormous pleasure, tinged with quite a lot of relief, that in school assembly on Friday I presented each of the children with their own copy of the completed anthology.
The children did virtually everthing - from writing and drawing the content (or choosing the clipart) to the cover artwork and design and deciding the title, "P.S."
I was ably assisted by another mother during the sessions, and yet another "volunteered" to do the proof-reading. The final book contained stories about such diverse, though possibly expected, subjects as a horse, a fairy, unicorns and Sir Galahad, though the "Fashion Pup" was a surprise. There were also poems, "Spot the animal" pages and some life writing.
It was hard work, but the look on each child's face as they received their book was unmissable.
Here's the front cover:
And here is a little selection from the anthology, reproduced with authorial and parental permission.
Amazing!
Amazing, amazing maths!
Amazing, amazing me!
Amazing, amazing stupidness!
Amazing, amazing me!
Saw
She cut a piece of wood
And nearly cut her finger off.
What an accident!
A short extract from "Galahad's Destiny".
A wizard comes to see Galahad, to tell him that trouble is coming and someone is trying to kill him.
The wizard asks Galahad, “Is there anything you would like me to do?”
Galahad says, “Yes, I would like my sword attached to my arm. It’s so I can do tricks and moves for the great desert battle. Do you know how the Shadow Knight is?”
The wizard replied, “Yes, he’s my evil sister’s warrior.”
“Who is your sister?” asked Galahad.
“She’s an evil witch, Felon is her name. I am Howgfo, a wizard that travels all around the world finding warriors to give gifts to, but only to brave ones. Now, bye, brave fellow!”
And here's the back cover.
The childrens' ages ranged from 6 to 9 years.
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