During our last few NWP workshops we have been gearing up for National Writing Day on the 23rd June, and exploring the theme of ‘connections’.
When we were thinking about connections, that useful little word, ‘and’, cropped up. Young children used to write stories that were punctuated by ‘and’, a beautiful daisy chain of action joined on a rope of ‘ands’. I think that they don’t often get the chance to try that out any more because the fullstopcapitalletter police are onto them. In our teachers’ group we had enjoyed some of those ‘and’ connections: hook and eye, egg and spoon, fish and chips and I thought that our very youngest writers would enjoy that collection and connection.
It was serendipity, then, that when I was riffling through the children’s books in a charity shop, a board book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg caught my eye: Doll and Teddy. It is one of four little offshoots from The Baby’s Catalogue and contains all the Ahlberg’s genius for the subject matter and cadences that attract young children.
Open the page and It continues: Duck and bottle; Kittens and Cat;
Bricks and ball, and so on through a flurry of “Butterfly and flowers and bird and worm and ants!’ and:
Making a list of things that go together, joined by ‘and’ is fun, we found, and not to be reserved for the youngest writers only.
The sound and rhythms of these pairings are tremendously satisfying and we began to see that there could be themes and jokes. I found myself wanting to rhyme, and maybe adding a few rogue phrases in [whatdyoumacallit, how’s yer father, over the hill…] There are pairings we commonly use: cup and saucer, salt and pepper, biscuits and cheese; the idiomatic: an arm and a leg, down and out, over and out; and some people began to think of characters from fiction and others searched valiantly for pairings that are unexpected: fish and bicycle, clock and whistle [that sounds like a pub name, there’s another idea]. Is there a connection?
Here’s Vikki’s list for starters:
Harry and Voldemort
Knife and fork
Bells and whistles
Bread and butter
Coat and shoes
Brother and sister
Kettle and pot
Jeeves and Wooster
Moon and stars
Salt and vinegar
Hope and glory
War and peace
King and queen
Cat and hat
Lion, Witch and Wardrobe
Alicia is going to invite her Reception/ Year 1 / 2 class to add their and phrases to a paper chain. I hope we may have some pictures after the event. And someone suggested to me once, that ‘and’ was a better word than ‘but’, particularly when giving feedback. Think about it. I often do …
Amongst the other connections that we thought of when we talked about the theme for this year’s National Writing Day, came the idea of trains and maps, and, in particular, the London Underground map. A group or class tube map could indicate the connections we have made over the last year. You could start by talking about what kinds of connections we have experienced and how they have been made -Zoom might feature as a large station on the line with many connections, but there may be some connections that are unique to one or two people, a connection with a neighbour you had not met before, perhaps, or a particular connection with a local footpath through woods.
The idea is that you make a map, with large and smaller stations that indicate different kinds of connections. Then Lisa suggested that you could have different coloured lines that indicate the kinds of connection being made. You could define these categories and they might give some structure to initial discussions. I have included family connections, friends, school, shopping … But your categories could be different -on-line, by text and hone, face to face close, face to face distanced … You and your group will have your own ideas.
It is a bit tricky drawing the map -it would take time to have it beautifully presented – but I do like it as a visual reminder of the connections we have made – and missed. Then each writer can make their own journey in writing. We only have to fill the box, so you could choose one connection, or write a short piece for each relevant station. We have found that he more opportunities we have had to talk and write about the experiences of the last year, the better we have been able to make sense of them. I think I might give out small squares of paper to write on which could then be attached to your lockdown tube map.
