This is a fun, accessible class allowing students to engage with the historical fiction genre. With lots of prompts it gives children the confidence to plan and write a story. This is a fun class, enabling students to explore their creative side with a step-by-step guide to creating historical fiction. It can be used in a classroom setting, but also works well if you are running a creative writing or drama club or similar. It is a relatively ‘light’ class in terms of academic content. It can (and has been!) enjoyed by students from age 7 up to about age 14 depending on ability and engagement levels. It creates a fun, lively atmosphere and moves very quickly through the different stages of planning and writing. It can also be used as a history lesson to reinforce a topic at the end of a module. The lesson is structured as follows: a) Introduction to historical fiction. What is historical fiction? What is an anachronism? There are a few altered pictures where students can pick out the very obvious anachronisms. There is also a (very cheesy!) short story set in Roman times which students can read as a class, or in groups/pairs and find the anachronisms (e.g. zips, microwaves) b) Students are all given a ‘planning sheet’ (This is available to print out at the end of the powerpoint) c) Planning 1 – what is your favourite period in history? (There are lots of visual prompts.) This can lead to lots of good chats about different historical periods, characters etc. d) Planning 2 – who is going to be your main character? (Some discussion about how you can make them particularly interesting.) e) Planning 3 – what is going to be your character’s mission? What obstacles will you put in their way? And what will the outcome be? f) Now students are given some time to write their stories. (This can be done individually, groups or pairs.) There are some starting sentences which can be used as prompts if required. g) Students are invited to share their stories, in pairs/groups/class. h) There is an additional page which discusses how you could take your story further, and looks at different ways to research backgrounds for historical fiction. This is a fun class, which prompts student to think more about how we create historical fiction.

This is a fun, accessible class allowing young students to engage with the mystery/detective genre. With lots of prompts it gives children the confidence to plan, write and act out mini detective plays! It is a fun class, enabling students to explore their creative side with a step-by-step guide to creating a detective play. It can be used in a classroom setting, but also works well if you are running a creative writing or drama club or similar. It is a relatively ‘light’ class in terms of academic content. It can (and has been!) enjoyed by students from age 7 up to about age 14 depending on ability and engagement levels. It creates a fun, lively atmosphere and moves very quickly through the different stages of planning, writing and acting. The lesson is structured as follows: a) Introduction to idea of detective plays. What is a play? What is a mystery? What is a detective? There is a short (very cheesy!) play for 4 children to read out to find out the answers to these questions. b) Students are all given a ‘planning sheet’ (This is available to print out at the end of the powerpoint) c) Planning 1 – what is going to be your MYSTERY? (There are lots of visual prompts) d) Planning 2 – who is going to be your DETECTIVE? (Some discussion about how you can make them particularly interesting.) e) Planning 3 – what is going to be your SETTING? (There is a brief child-friendly explanation about the concept of locked-room mysteries – NB that term is not used, just the concept!) f) Dialogue – how do we present dialogue in a play? g) Now students are given some time to write their plays. (This can be done individually, groups or pairs.) h) You can also give students time to act out their plays to the group/class. i) There is an additional optional activity which can be used for extension/homework – Can you turn the opening of ‘A Little Princess’ (text included) into a mystery play. What might happen next? This is a fun class, which prompts student to think more about how we create mysteries and why we need interesting characters and dialogue in our stories.

This is a unique mix of creative writing and language analysis. This is a really fun class, enabling students to explore both their creative and analytical sides. It can be a great confidence boost for students who struggle with creative writing because there are clear prompts and short bursts of writing. This is suitable for upper KS2, KS3 and KS4 and includes mix and match game, PETAL paragraph, pair and share tasks and creative writing prompts. – In the class, we examine some famous first lines and use them as a creative writing prompt. Do these opening lines of famous novels make us want to read on - or are they boring? Do they reveal something of the story that is coming? The lesson is structured as follows: a) Introduction to idea of first lines - why are they important? Pick a few books at random from classroom shelf – what do those opening lines suggest? b) Mix and match – famous first lines. Brief game matching 4 famous first lines with their covers. Which book would you be most likely to read (i) based on the line? (ii) based on the cover? c) Opening line of ‘Rebecca’. Pair and Share – what is going on? Then students get the opportunity to ‘copy and complete’. Can they write for 3/5/7 minutes and add to the first line creating their own version of ‘Rebecca’? Students are invited to share their creative writing. d) The actual opening paragraph of ‘Rebecca’ is presented – what does this show us? Encourage language analysis to spot the signs of decay, etc. Did the first line hint at this? e) The processes of © and (d) are then repeated twice using two other famous books. (Teachers can use all three in one lesson, or choose according to group/ability/age etc) Students are encouraged to be as creative as possible in the writing elements of the task, and as analytical as possible when they are looking at the original texts. f) As a class, consider all the things that seem good or bad in an opening line. What makes you want to read on? Can you create a super list of things which work in an opening line? g) There is an additional optional activity which can be used for extension/homework - Which opening line do you prefer and why? Write a PETAL paragraph explaining your answer. (Some scaffolding is provided) This is a fun class, which prompts student to think more about the stories they read and the stories they write!

This is a lively powerpoint which (briefly) describes Elizabethan entertainment, before moving on to explain how and why theatres emerged in London. It contains lots of information about what it was like to watch a play at The Globe Theatre, and a short diary entry activity. There is also a True/False activity, and a ‘Find the characters’ plenary game. It is suitable for KS2 and perhaps KS3 as part of an introduction to Shakespeare. If you like this powerpoint, please leave me a review : ) *