This is a comprehensive and flexible resource that contains 60 stand-alone modules that cover all the essential aspects of writing a story and a number of other resources for teachers.

Developing children's writing abilities boosts their confidence, creates enjoyment and relevance in the task and cultivates a range of decision-making and problem-solving skills that can then be applied across the curriculum. The Countdown series provides all the support you need in helping children to improve their prose, poetry and non-fiction writing. Countdown to Non-Fiction Writing is a comprehensive and flexible resource which you can use in different ways. It includes: 37 stand-alone modules which cover all aspects of writing and understanding non-fiction texts, including the nature of language, logical thinking, recognising ‘facts’ and planning; A countdown flowchart provides an overview, showing how modules are linked and allowing teachers and pupils to track their progress; Photocopiable activity sheets for each module that show how to make decisions and solve problems which writers face on the journey to a finished piece of work; Teachers’ notes for each module with tips and guidance, including how modules can be used in the classroom, links to other modules and curriculum links, and advice on helping and guiding pupils in their writing; A self-study component so pupils can make their own progress through the material. This option gives young writers a sense of independence in thinking about their work and through offering a scaffolding of tasks, encourages confident and effective writing; 'Headers' for each module showing where along the 'countdown path' you are at that point; Contents page for quick access to particular modules and relevant aspects of writing. In short, Countdown to Non-Fiction Writing saves valuable planning time and gives you all the flexibility you need in helping pupils to prepare for, understand, and write non-fiction. The structure of the book allows teachers to utilise the modules for ‘self-study’, as a longer programme following the ‘countdown’ structure, or to dip into the book for individual lesson activities and ideas to fit in with wider programmes of study.

Developing children's writing abilities boosts their confidence, creates enjoyment and relevance in the task and cultivates a range of decision-making and problem-solving skills that can then be applied across the curriculum. The Countdown series provides all the support you need in helping children to improve their prose, poetry and non-fiction writing. This guide provides all the support you need in helping pupils to improve their poetry writing. Countdown to Poetry Writing is a comprehensive and flexible resource that you can use in different ways, including: stand-alone modules that cover all the essential aspects of writing a poem, including word play, use of metaphor, rhyme and many others countdown flowchart providing an overview showing how modules are linked and how teachers can progress through them with the pupils photocopiable activity sheets for each module that show how to make the decisions and solve the problems that all writers face along the road from first idea to finished piece of work teachers' notes for modules, with tips and guidance, including how modules can be used in the classroom, links to other modules and curriculum links, and advice on helping and guiding pupils in their writing a self-study component so that children can make their own progress through the materials, giving young writers a sense of independence in thinking about their work and offering built-in scaffolding of tasks so that less experienced or less confident children get more support from the resource 'headers' for each module showing where along the 'countdown path' you are at that point. In short, Countdown to Poetry Writing saves valuable planning time and gives you all the flexibility you need - teachers might want to utilise either the self-study or 'countdown' aspects of the book, or simply dip into it for individual lesson activities to fit in with their own programmes of work.

Discover insightful guidance, tools and techniques to become a skilled writer and learn how to share your work with the world. How do you sustain your ideas and overcome self-doubt in your talents? How do you transmit your ideas so that the world will take notice? What techniques can you use to create discipline and make your writing sessions a joy? We live in exciting times: anyone with an idea can reach a worldwide audience, but how do you separate yourself from the thousands competing to be heard? This is a warm, comforting guide to stepping into your new life as an empowered author. You'll learn how to generate more ideas, build confidence in your writing and take your manuscript to completion. Studies have shown it takes just 21 days to establish a new habit. If there's a skill you've always wanted to take advantage of, the answer is only a few weeks away with Hay House’s 21 Days series.

A daily writing practice requires constant feeding of new ideas to draw from deep inside your writing well. This book offers daily prompts to get your creative juices flowing and provides the kick start necessary when you are faced with writers block. Give your writing a boost whether you are writing your memoir, have a daily journaling practice or building fictional characters for your next book. Break through writers block with 365 prompts and creative ideas to expand your thoughts and open new writing avenues. Filled with words, phrases and spiritual inspiration, this book sparks the writer to write on the blank page - anytime. These creative exercises keep you writing and help you build a daily writing practice to complete your book, initiate change and promote personal transformation. Writing feeds the mind and heals the soul. No writer should be without these prompts.

This exciting practical resource is full of immediately usable activities to help children develop their literacy skills and creative writing abilities. The 'story strand' technique begins with one simple picture and by adding others to form a sequence, shows children how to build narrative in an enjoyable, creative and systematic way. Story strand activities help children weave their thoughts into a coherent pattern and so become more skilful writers. The activities are sequenced to increase the creative and intellectual demands on pupils, and can also be used individually to highlight different aspects of the writing process such as: Exploring the varied meanings of certain words through association webs Moving from simple to more complex sentences Learning how to enrich writing using strong, vivid adjectives, verbs and adverbs Understanding how to use connectives more insightfully to give narrative a greater logical consistency Creating narrative refinements such as subplots, flashbacks and 'cliffhangers' out of basic plot sequences A 'thinking skills' agenda underpins each story strand game, and many promote speaking and listening skills by encouraging discussion and collaborative exploration of the images. Supported by a companion website that includes downloadable images from the book, colour images and worked examples for the 'story string idea', additional activities and games, as well as links to the National Curriculum.

Developing Thinking Skills Through Creative Writing: Story Steps for 9-12 Year Olds is a practical and easy-to-use teacher resource helping children across a wide age and ability range to develop the skills necessary to write more effectively. Step-by-step instructions encourage children to tackle tasks of increasing difficulty while broadening their knowledge and experiences of fictional genres. With chapters separated into distinct genres: ghost story, fantasy, science fiction, history, pirate story, thriller and Gothic horror, this book: Offers a summary at the start of each chapter to help teachers select the relevant activities. Covers multiple aspects of storytelling from narrative structure, plots, characters and settings to vocabulary, word choice, sentence structure and punctuation. Provides a cross referencing grid showing which aspects of writing appear in each chapter. Includes guidance notes, extension activities and general tips. Adaptable to different teaching situations, this book offers the opportunity for teachers to work through the book genre by genre or take a 'skills route' with different activities from different chapters to create their own programme of study. Fully illustrated and supporting the requirements of the National Curriculum, Developing Thinking Skills Through Creative Writing is a valuable aid for all Key Stage 2 teachers.