Designing a story's character

Getting started writing a story

Creative Resources for primary children
June 30, 2024•3 min read

If I was working with someone else and they said that I would literally say, write something, anything, we can always tweak it later, or change it completely if we need to. Writing the first word is the hardest part.

I’m possibly embarrassed to admit that I often learn as much from the children I work with, as they learn from me. During lockdown when we had to change to zoom, one of the lads I worked with at the time, taught me just about everything I know about using zoom and doing online lessons.

On Saturday, a lad was explaining the benefits of AI to me, how it supported him and how his parents use it in their business.  

I’ve sat here staring at the screen for about 45 minutes now wondering what to write. Not knowing how to start.

And finally, the brain has kicked in…

What should I write about?

If I was working with someone else and they said that I would literally say, write something, anything, we can always tweak it later, or change it completely if we need to. Writing the first word is the hardest part.

Sometimes we would have a picture and before we start to write anything we would think of as many words as we can to describe the picture, either implied or otherwise. From here we have something to work with.

Sometimes it’s easier to not have the picture but to instead think about a location. What can you see, hear, smell, etc? Write it all down. We don’t need to use it all but it might give us some inspiration. For some children structuring a sentence might be an issue.

Here, I often play ‘Silly Sentences’.

Write down a selection of sentences, for example:

The large brown dog ran quickly.

The old orange parrot squawked loudly.

The healthy yellow banana sat silently.

You get the idea.

Then cut all the sentences up so that you have piles of articles (The) adjectives (large, old, etc) and another pile of adjectives describing the colour, then the nouns (the actual thing), followed by the verb (the doing word) and finally the (adverb) how you do the thing.   Muddle the words in the pile up and take one from each pile. Write down your sentence putting in the correct punctuation.

Normally the sentences are quite silly: The large orange banana squawked loudly!

Sometimes they make sense. Some children don’t like the ones which are silly and insist on changing them so that they do. Others quite enjoy trying to create different combinations.  

I’ve done it. Once I started writing it got so much easier and the words started to flow.

 Our goal at Clara James Tutoring is to make learning fun and accessible to everyone. If children are engaged in what they are doing they are more likely to want to participate, if they are enjoying it, they are more likely to relax and retain the information.

If they are retaining the information it will help boost their knowledge and with knowledge comes confidence.

If you have a child who enjoys learning through games and being more creative, and you enjoy spending time with them, you might be interested in the Clara James Approach, the membership group we have put together to support you in supporting your primary school aged child with their maths and English.

Interested?

Click here to learn more: The Clara James Approach

Silly sentenceswritinggetting started writingprimary educationPrimary EnglishparentingEducationlearningcreative learning
For the past 20+ years I have been a firm believer that learning should be an enjoyable experience. I appreciate that traditionally education has revolved around worksheets, textbooks, listening to teachers. But a grounding in early years and working with children who had a variety of learning styles from I learned that it is an individual activity that is personal to all of us. We don’t all learn in the same way. Our influences, our experiences, our capabilities all influence how we retain information. But through it all, I believe that if we can make it enjoyable and engaging, they will want to participate. With participation comes practice which in turn boosts skill and confidence. With an increase in skill and confidence comes a willingness to have a go. This in turn leads to more practice which leads to a positive spiral of success. The moral, we need to make learning fun, engaging, use a range of techniques.

Dawn Strachan

For the past 20+ years I have been a firm believer that learning should be an enjoyable experience. I appreciate that traditionally education has revolved around worksheets, textbooks, listening to teachers. But a grounding in early years and working with children who had a variety of learning styles from I learned that it is an individual activity that is personal to all of us. We don’t all learn in the same way. Our influences, our experiences, our capabilities all influence how we retain information. But through it all, I believe that if we can make it enjoyable and engaging, they will want to participate. With participation comes practice which in turn boosts skill and confidence. With an increase in skill and confidence comes a willingness to have a go. This in turn leads to more practice which leads to a positive spiral of success. The moral, we need to make learning fun, engaging, use a range of techniques.

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