Friday 19 August – Young Authors Workshop
Member schools only event

Come and work with author and musician Craig Smith and illustrator Katz Cowley.

$10.00 per student – limited to 4 per school

Wednesday September 21 – Leading Young Authors to Writing – Gail Loane

Members $40.00, non-members $50.00.

Gail's book will be for sale  - watch for the flier for more details.

Newsletter once a term

An introduction to Craig Smith

Craig, "When I grow up I'm going to be a musician".

Craig's mother, "You can't do both!"

Craig then went on to greet the TM (token male) and reflected on, is it only women that read? Needless to say, by this time the smallish group that had attended the AGM, were all laughing. Craig then filled us in his route to becoming a story teller. His Grandmother told stories in rhyme, his grandfather also made up rhyming ditties to accompany such chores as washing the dishes. The one rhyme Craig shared cannot be printed! Craig told us that he hopes to turn one of his Grandfather's tall stories into a book, along with a sequel, or two, to Willie the Bumble-Bee.

Craig then talked about his years overseas working in the marketing and import/export business, and engaging in charity work on his return to New Zealand. All the while he felt he was not doing what he really wanted to do. He then was offered the opportunity to sail to Tonga, which he jumped at. In a huge storm, the boat he was in turned turtle. A thought Craig had at that moment, not being sure whether he was going to live or die, was that he wished he'd done more music. He then gave himself a year to live as a musician. Wonky Donkey was written, and his life changed. He now has financial security, as well as the freedom to do what he wants to do. Currently 95% of his time is spent working with children and 5% working with adults.

Craig then talked to us about songs that are only songs, how songs and poetry are closely linked and how some songs can become books. He spoke about the relationship between story telling and song and the relationship between the oral word and the written word. He is very keen to have a CD and music with his books. He has had many parents talk to him about how his books, with the Aural support, have helped children read a book for the first time. As he said reading is only 1,000 years old, whereas the oral story tradition has been around for much longer.

Craig then entertained us with The Wonky Donkey. He finished on a serious note, talking about how sometimes we need a catastrophic event to make us change to think more about what matters most.

(Craig can be contacted on craig@smith.co.nz He is available to do presentations at schools and charges $2.00 per child).  Barbara Strong

Jill Eggleton – The Music and Magic of Poetry

Jill asked us to be passionate about poetry and to use poetry to support our most vulnerable readers.

Jill asked us the question, "What is poetry?" She explained that it is a way to intensify all learning, something that has no cultural barriers, a way of teaching effective communication and coping with a short attention span. She said the poetry provokes thought, teaches punctuation in action and invites children to participate, as well as teaching a love of language and the power of words. She asked us to remember that the key to poetry in the classroom is found in enthusiasm, exposure and saturation.

Jill then provided her weekly plan for poetry.

However – that was not all. She encouraged us to use raps and chants as a way of keeping poetry user friendly.

Jill then introduced us to the concept of taking a poem to performance through repeating it in a variety of ways and including voice, action and sound.

Jill then asked us to consider how to lead our students to become poetic thinkers. She talked about helping them use all their senses to look at both the natural world and the world of art, and to teach them the skills of reflecting and remembering. She told us it was important to understand the elements of both rhythm and rhyme. Jill acknowledged that although forms of poetry, such as haiku, diamante etc, should not be ignored, it was actually more important to allow children to invent the form that suited what they wanted to say. Jill supported what she told us by sharing some examples of student writing. She asked us to get students writing poetically as early as possible and also asked that we, as teachers, awakened our own poetic soul. She shared some of her own poetry, written in a time of great challenge and then provided us with the opportunity to create and share own poetic writing about a memory we could find in our handbags or pockets. Jill explained her process for writing poetry.

President

Barbara Strong

c/- Manurewa East School

Scotts Rd, Manurewa

Auckland 2102

b.strong@manurewaeast.school.nz

Secretary

penekeay@xtra.co.nz