Class 4 E-Circle

  Neil Gaiman Norse Mythology, Unfortunately the Milk, Interworld, The Graveyard Book (Emilia's Book review),, Cinnamon, The Blueberry Girl. I can go on and on and these are only the children's books, he has also written loads of adult fiction and together with the late Terry Pratchet he wrote about a million books- if you haven't tried them yet, give them a go, they are SO funny. Neil doesn't only write prolifically, he also speaks about writing and mentors young writers through the process. He has brilliant tips on writing. This is why today's blog post is going to be The Neil Gaiman's Guide to Writing, instead of Tips from the Teacher. Spoiler alert: you will see that many of my suggestion come from him.  Let's start with the 8 rules of writing Love it that there is a rule for no rules: a man of my heart. Just to remind you: Another important tip: Recognise the 'butt in the chair?' from Elissa? So many great writers can't be wrong! A favourite...

 Ata marie Class 5, I hope this finds you all well- let's be honest, when the sun is shining, the tulips are flowering, new shoots on the roses are shooting and you have a great bean bag on the deck, lockdown is quite a treat, don't you think? I love it that you are all enthusiastically looking at Egypt and writing books, but make sure to enjoy that sunshine and make the best of that relaxation- it won't last forever... One of the strange positive side- effects of lockdown is that I connect with so many different people. That happened last time as well. The Theory of Angela is that normally, my day is so full of people (you!) and I am so satisfied on the People-Meter by the end of the day, that I don't really reach out much. Now of course, the People Meter is close to empty. And there is something magical in making connections- things happen. I am going to tell you the true stories of two connections with a magical touch I made in the last week. And if you're thinki...

Happy Birthday to Mayanna! Morena Class 5, great to see how many of you have read the blog. If you can leave a comment below, even better, feels like we are in class having a chat. Love to hear what you are up to! This morning, when I cuddled up in my Morning Coffee Chair, there was an amazing gorgeous spiderweb in my garden. The sunlight bounced off the string, making it all sparkly. Which made me think of Charlotte's Web and how I don't care when we do it, but we definitely are going to do it.  I hope you took your script home and you can read the characters with your family, using different voices. Try to get really familiar with the script okay, so when we get back we can start cracking. The spiderweb also made me think of a great exercise I do about every 6 months. It's a sort of check in with yourself, seeing if your Web of Life is nicely balanced or very wonky. If it's very wonky, you need to put a bit more effort into the part of the web which is weak. Check th...

Kia ora Class 5! I am experiencing this very strange mix of feelings: grieving that bookweek came to such an abrupt ending but enjoying sleep-ins and slow breakfast coffee in the sun, enjoying walking through my quiet neighbourhood and connecting with all the roads I did become so familiar with last year. This lock down I have a dog on a leash, and Merlin really doesn't enjoy a leash, so walks are somewhat more adventurous this lock down. And I was completely surprised about the ions of happiness flowing through my veins when I opened this blog! Hope you are happy to be back here too, we are going to have a lot of fun. After last week's inspirational visits from Elissa and Joanna, I bet you guess what's coming. I have started the Treehut Publishing Company.  Let's  Make a Book You've learned all about the process, you've seen the drafts that authors revisit and revisit, you've seen Joanna's AWESOME illustrations- which weren't even used for the book,...

This will be my last post for this blog. I have very mixed feelings about that, because I am ecstatic to see you all for Real next week, but I have really enjoyed making the blog, thinking of topics, finding videos and images and best of all, providing the Peeks into Bubbles with you. It's going to be sad to let go of that. I'm quite sure next Monday will be full of mixed feelings too. It will be fantastic to see your classmates and your teachers again and to get on with things. At the same time, you've been living in a bubble of just your family for nearly two months- suddenly you'll be surrounded by more people in one room than you have seen in all those weeks together. That's bound to take quite a bit of adjustments, and adjustments are not always easy. No doubt you can do it, you've done it before, but be kind to yourself and to your classmates and your teacher, give each other some space and kindness. Being well organised takes SO MUCH stress out of ...

Apart from when I went teaching bubble Gum, all I have been wearing is my yoga pants over the last two months. I bet you have been living in your comfy clothes as well and you haven't given your wardrobe a lot of thought. Excellent timing to start thinking of get your clothes sorted and Be Ready For School and Life in General. When you look at tidying Super Heroes, you can't go past Marie Kondo. She has whole television series on tidying and wrote several books on it. She LOVES messy houses because she so enjoys tidying up. I am not suggesting you start living like her, I personally would find it a tad too extreme. But it is always a good idea to learn from extreme people. Take their wisdom and use it to enhance your own life, without going the full extemist way. Marie Kondo What I love about her, is that not only has she taught me how much fun tidying up can be, she also treats objects with love and respect. For example, when you tidy your wardrobe, she sa...

Today I would like you to meet one of my super heroes, Andy Goldsworthy. When we think of art, we often think of paintings and drawings and sculptures made out of bronze or stone or wood. And we saw a bit about Banksy who uses the streets as his exhibition space. Or Frida Kahlo who painted from her bed and in her diary.  There is also a group of artist who work in the wilderness.  Mr Goldsworthy is such an artist. He works out on the land, listening to what nature is trying to tell him. He works with utmost respect towards nature, working only with the materials he finds. Most of the times, he doesn't even use tools, only his hands. He might use a rock he finds to cut a branch to the size he needs, or he uses pine needles to pin leaves together. I have also seen him using his teeth to cut a piece of icicle to the right shape. Or he warms the ice with his hands so it melts together. But that's it. You might think, yes, that's nice, but ar...