Kenneth C. Steven,
writer, poet

 

 

School events

Primary

Very simple imagination games and object workshops are possible for nursery children; these generally last just twenty minutes. For early primary children there’s storytelling, and reading sessions drawing on my books from Little Tiger Press: The Bearer of Gifts, The Song of the Trees and The Sea Mice and the Stars. Another title I use (and which is much valued for school assemblies) is The Raven’s Tale and Other Stories.

The book I’m now using with older primary children is Imagining Things, a collection of poems from Lion Hudson. This is intended for 8-12s (though plenty of adults are stealing a look too!) and what I offer schools are readings for this age range, potentially for quite large combined classes. I generally make these Meet the Author sessions, providing a half hour reading with fifteen / twenty minutes for questions thereafter. These readings are often launch-pads for imagination workshops with a cluster of keen young writers (ideally a dozen to fifteen in a group) where we brainstorm language and think about the construction of poems in more detail.