Creative Writing Boosts Emotional Health

Year 9 students took part in a creative writing workshop for World Book Day. The workshop was inspired by objects from Leicestershire Museums and included a rather scary African mask. The workshop helped boost confidence, encouraged cooperation and raised self-esteem. It was also great fun and the writing the children produced was fantastic. Here are some examples:

A meeting with an African Mask

Do you want me to slit your throat?

It doesn’t look like a vampire

It looks like a goat

I ain’t scared.

What’s this!?

What’s that!?

Don’t stick your finger down its throat

Bad breath

Bone

It stinks

It looks like him on a bad day

A spell for poisonous bubbles

At 2am on Halloween

When the moon is full

Take 1 cup of time

The eyes of a cow

and a baby’s lash

boil into juice

add

a stone soaked in

holy water

Green dragon’s blood

A fistful of blonde hair

(Teachers’ is best)

A tissue of bogies

Blend into a smoothie

Boil the fat

From the head of a dog

Add the head of a

Lily to make it smell sweet

Boil until firm

And set in a skull

In the fridge

Once upon a time there was a village in Africa.

The villagers had a mask that they stuck on a pole at the village gates to protect them from evil spirits. They called it the mask protector.

Many years ago, there was a child in the village. She wanted to destroy the village. She had bad memories of living there. She was bullied for being a witch. She had powers she couldn’t help. She set a cat on fire by sneezing. She clicked her fingers and the village dog disappeared. Her eyes glowed green when she was angry.

The villagers stoned her, fed her worms and kicked her out of the village. They were scared by her.

For 21 years she lived in the desert. She spoke only to the vultures and she ate cactus, scorpions and red ants. She learned to live under the sand and eventually she came out only at night.

While she was under the sand, the witch, for that is what she had become, discovered an ancient temple. In the temple she found a book of spells.

She spent 21 years plotting her revenge. She spied on the village using the vultures for eyes. And practiced the spells in the book.

The witch learned a spell to become the mask protector and lived as the mask, coming out at night, for a year.

For a whole year all the new born babies died – that was the witch.

The meeting house burned down – that was the witch.

One morning, just as the sun was rising, the village chief saw the witch returning into the mask. He called a village meeting and formed an angry mob. They took the mask and threw it into the sea.

And since that day, the village has lived happily ever after.

Well done to all the students involved.