This weeks 100 word challenge, (see below)
Is a picture of an unfortunate person, that ended up in a haystack.
This reminded us of a poem we read, called Mulga Bill’s Bicycle.
A man called Mulga Bill gets a new bike but doesn’t know how to ride it.
He takes it out to ride for the first time, and crashes it into a lake.
Here are the links to some of our writing.
One of the things that we are beginning to do as we focus on our writing this term is the 100 Word Challenge. This is a weekly writing challenge that we complete and post on our class blogs. There is a prompt each week, which is sometimes a phrase, or some words, or even a picture. We are able to compare our writing to other kids around the world, who have also done some writing using the same prompt.
The first prompt is the image below. Have a look at our individual blogs to see what we have come up with!
I ran through the blazing wind and drenching rain searching for shelter. I couldn’t see any trees or buildings and the violent storm was beginning to grow. Then I saw through half shut eyes a large tree. I ran as fast as I could shivering in my drenched clothes towards the tree, but as I grew nearer I noticed that it wasn’t a tree but a rusty barn. I heaved the door open and peeked inside to make sure it was safe. The barn was empty apart from some hay bales, but it would be good enough for the night
In 6HU, we are habitual participants in the 100 Word Challenge, a global writing challenge that develops writing skills in students by asking them to respond to a stimulus in only 100 words. This is indeed a challenge sometimes, as it can be difficult to frame our ideas into such a small amount of words. Similarly, some students can find reaching 100 words without ‘waffling’ the real challenge.
Usually, the challenge stimulus is a picture or a phrase. These really allow the students to develop ideas around a theme and apply their writing skills to the task. Every week, we will frame our responses with whatever our focus has been in the classroom for writing or grammar. For example, we might all incorporate direct speech into our responses, or perhaps the focus will be on the use of adjectives. Some students like to try incorporating their spelling list words into their responses, while keeping the meaning of their writing relevant.
This week, the prompt was not a picture or a phrase, but rather an introduction to a concept. This concept was that of sharing, and can be seen here. The contrasting nature of the images brought to mind by an Ethiopian child with the description of the child’s actual reality was one that took some of us some time to get past. This boy did not seem to live in poverty, or want for food, but our preconceptions led us to assume that he would be. In fact, he was being held up as an example of the joy to be gained from sharing what we have with others. These mixed feelings that the prompt elicited in us, held us back as we began our writing.
Despite that fact we had been given the instruction of beginning our responses with “If we share…” a lot of us were unsure of what to write, as more often than not, our responses are narrative based and this seemed to require something quite different. Using a variation of a Y-Chart, we unpacked the concept of sharing, examining what it meant to share as well as some of the more abstract uses of the word; share a meal, share a decision, share an experience.
In the end, everyone was very pleased with what they came up with. We will not highlight any individual posts here, as we feel everyone did very well, so we are listing them all. We would really value your comments about how we have chosen to represent a concept through our writing.
Billy, Harry, Jack, Henri, Ellaina, Charlotte, Paris, DiHan, Chris, Thomas, Scott, Cooper, Emily, Nathan, Laura, Alyshia, Henry, Eva, Cody, Henny.
This week, we will be using different media to present our 100 Word Challenge. Instead of typing it out, we will be recording us reading it. We will use the program, Garage Band, and it will include sound effects.
Here are a couple from Paris and Thomas
Stay tuned for some more…
We in Mr Huebl’s Classroom are mourning the UK holiday enforced 100 Word Challenge hiatus. So we are making our own stimulus so we can continue the fun and excitement of micro-writing. We have chosen the stimulus….
“…I’m sorry…”
We will be posting the links to our posts below and we would love to see some other classes do so as well.