A visit to a Oakdale Infants School

At the end of November I was invited to go into Oakdale infants school to talk about my book.  I went into two classes in the morning and one class and then the nursery in the afternoon.  I took costumes, Horace, a participation poem and some of my other work.

I started off by telling the children how I became a writer and took in my 1993 diary featured in my You Tube video   http://youtu.be/rpurx3fRGO8  We read the participation poem which encourages them to take a look inside my book.

I then read some of the poems and the children dressed up as the characters.  This always goes down well.  I tried to vary the content and showed them some examples of new ideas to inspire them to write poems.  It helped having a background in Nursery Nursing.  The children all seemed interested in the book and I hope to go back and help them write poetry on another occasion.

The highlight for me was seeing my Nephew who attends the Nursery.  He seemed amazed to see me and was delighted to be given Horace to cuddle.  'Your Aunty is here' one of the staff told him.
'No' he replied  'Not Aunty, just Fifi' he told her.    I then read toddler tales and he informed his friends he was the monster.  I just hope when he is bigger he will forgive me as the monster is a snotty one.

I really enjoyed going into the school and hope to return in the spring.