Tuesday 24 April 2012

Filming and sharing

Quite an interesting heading for this post as two vodcasts made in Canberra in March go live on both the Dorothea Mackellar website and the National literacy and numeracy website.

I share two of my most successful poetry strategies that have been consistently road tested and bring amazing poetry from children.  It feels a bit raw to share online and to share such hard-won techniques, but I know that many classrooms and schools want to teach poetry and many children take to poetry writing so naturally- it's a wonderful form of communication.  So here are two of my techniques shared online.  Enjoy!


Sunday 15 April 2012

Poetry month and a magic treasures workshop

It's been a busy month.  I am so happy to be part of 30 days/30 poets for children here.
It's an American site and I'm pleased to be the first guest Australian poet.

Always good to reach out to a new poetry audience.

I also took a day work-shopping and talking the writing journey to the little town of Beulah in the Mallee.  Here are some amazing boxes the 15 children in my afternoon session made and filled with lines of a poem aimed at showing how details matter so much in poetry.

Monday 2 April 2012

Family writing at Peppergreen farm, Bendigo

Saturday was a busy day at Peppergreen farm festival- a sunny day and lots of family entertainment so it was wonderful to have so many write about treasure hunting in the garden.

Here are some snapshots-


The lines/poems were written on paper flags made by another community group and displayed along the edge of a path near an eco-pod.

Walker books donated some of my books as prizes.  Wonderful to encourage writing and reading on a late March morning in glorious autumn sunshine.
Thanks Walker, thanks Tamara.