We are over half way through the adventure now, so hopefully it is time to really develop some stories/letters/poems and narratives or other responses to the ideas of the inklings and also about the power of trees and nature as communities/homes to other real creatures too. How the children respond and develop their ideas and imagination in response to the prompts so far is open ended and up to you to help take them in different directions.

Here are some ideas for how you might inspire and support the children in your class this week, building on what you’ve done up to now, to develop literacy and communication in response to the adventure so far.

PLEASE NOTE: in the coming weeks, Nikki will be gathering up and collecting creative work by the children to transcribe/scan/copy and include in a special printed newspaper that will be shared as part of the Project Ending Celebration. So do think ahead to what your class are working on to submit to be published and part of this?

WEEK SIX: 20 MAY - 24 MAY

THIS WEEK IS ALL ABOUT:

  • CHARACTERS & CREATIVE WRITING / VISUAL RESPONSES See below for various prompts and ideas for how the children this week can focus on creating and developing some of their stories/poems. See below for different Year adaptations and ideas on this.

  • STRANGE VISITORS! Across Friday 24 May, two guest visitors will arrive at the school from “Strange Sussex” zine and podcast. Do give children advanced warning and a bit of a social story about this ahead of them visiting their classroom. They will come and interview/speak to the children and do some audio recording with children from every class, investigating reports they’ve received of odd happenings at Laurels. Think ahead of Friday what the children might want to read out/talk to these guests about (they’ll bring microphones)/show the guests. And how you facilitate this (in groups/whole class discussion etc). It’s a chance for the children to share what they’ve learnt or created so far (and a way of us documenting / seeing the children’s different responses sneakily whilst it is within the narrative). Work in progress/debate/questions/suspicions are all welcome! These two “Strange Sussex” guests will want to hear about clues, creative writing imagined responses to the inklings, the tree, and also all conspiracy theories from older children/suspicious children are very welcome!

VISUALISING THE INKLING CHARACTERS - what do we imagine they look like? How do they move?

This week, on Friday 24 May, two special guests will visit all of the children and teachers at the Laurels. Journalists and investigators from ‘Strange Sussex’ zine and podcast, these two people will be keen to talk to children and staff to hear what has been happening lately at the school that is curious/unexpected/strange…

The guests will visit each classroom and ask questions, want to be shown any clues/evidence of any unusual encounters, and invite children to be audio recorded speaking or reading their writing for their podcast and zine.

They will also want to hear any conspiracy theories/alternative explanations for what the Inklings could be and so Year 5 and 6 and any Inklings ‘sceptics’ will have their chance to argue and share why they think it might be fake / who or what they think it could be all about too. Let the debate and theories be shared as wild as they might be!

Strange Sussex is also very interested to hear any learning or writing about trees/folklore/myths or creative ideas about nature too, so there’s freedom to share any of this not limited to Inklings themselves.

THE INKLINGS SYMBOLS - what could they mean? Do they remind the children of anything else? Can they design their own patterns/versions? Are they drawing s of Inklings or something else from the Inklings world?

IDEAS FOR DIFFERENT YEARS TO TRY THIS WEEK FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT WORK (to match literacy goals):

RECEPTION: Create expressive images /drawings of the Inklings, imagining what they look like more. Using paint/ink/torn paper for this or giving children ink blot shapes/collaged shapes to then turn into different characters by adding features etc

FOR YEAR 1 & YEAR 2: Clay character creations to inspire writing! Collect clay that has been delivered to the school office for you to use/ask Helen where the clay is. Invite children to shape and sculpt the clay into figures or faces of what they imagine the Inklings to look like. They can choose one inkling character (maybe every inkling looks different?) and shape what they imagine they look like. Then describe the name and a bit about their inkling on a label to go with the inkling created. Can use just clay or add in leftover moss and other natural materials (beads/twigs/seeds) to add into the creations if want too. Send Nikki images of these creations!

FOR YEAR 3: Set the task of children to write a Clerihew Poem (a poem about characters) about an Inkling character they imagine or about the character of a tree or about someone else connected to the story (eg Wren Stone/Kit Kelp) - using this online how-to masterclass by Joseph Coelho to help you talk through step by step on this

You might want to first do the character development worksheet, to help generate ideas of characters ahead of the Clerihew writing format

FOR YEAR 4:

See the Inklings character development worksheet to complete here to help them write about an imagined character. This can then be used as starting point to then do the following":

● Create a list poem 

  • Use similes and alliteration 

  •  Reading aloud writing to others

FOR YEAR 5:

- Writing a campaigning letter /and or speech to MOUTH agency to persuade them not to cut down the tree in the playground 

OR

● Create a newspaper report on what is happening with the tree and/or the inklings and why the tree shouldn’t be cut down- these reports to be submitted to be printed by Strange Sussex and in a school newspaper

FOR YEAR 6:

  • Write a newspaper report / article on what is happening with the tree and why it shouldn’t be cut down, to be submitted to be printed by Strange Sussex and in a school newspaper AND/OR

  • Writing a campaigning letter /and or speech to MOUTH agency to persuade them not to cut down the tree in the playground 

FOR YOUNGER YEARS:

 MY INKLING CHARACTER & STORY WORKSHEET 

Fill in the blanks to help you develop ideas about an imagined inkling character/story.

Let me tell you something surprising. I once met something called an inkling!

I met them in the ___________________________________________________.

What is an inkling? An inkling is____________________________________________.

The inkling I saw was as small as______________________________.

It looked a bit like a _____________________________________________.


If you see any inklings, be careful not to_________________________ and 

definitely try to _____________________________________!

This inkling’s name is ____________________________________.

The sounds they make sound like ________________________________.

This inkling comes from ______________________________.

They are ________________________ old. 


Their favourite thing to do is________________________ and they also love________.

Their biggest fear is________________________________________.

What makes this inkling quite unique is that ___________________________

___________________________________________________.

Their powers are _______________________________________ and you might be surprised to know about them that they can ______________________.

They need __________________________to survive. 

They are friends with____________________________________. 

Here is a drawing of what the inkling looks like (insert drawing)