“ When it comes to writing, you can take a supercomplicated or boring topic and make it fun by writing about it in an interesting way.” – Reya, Grade 7
LEARNING with Alumnae
NARRATOR THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS: MONKEY ATTACKS, ROBINS, AND WACKY SKELETONS
BRINGING SCIENCE AND STORYTELLING TO LIFE WITH RACHEL POLIQUIN’ 93
Writer-in-Residence is a CHS Junior School tradition that connects students with visiting authors from near and far, inspiring their own writers’ brains in the process. In November and January, students in Grade 4 – 7 had the opportunity to explore non-fiction writing with Rachel Poliquin’ 93, an alumnae mum and an award-winning author of children’ s non-fiction.
Through a variety of lessons across grades, Rachel helped students navigate the twists and turns of research and discovery, and encouraged them to lean into their own writer’ s voice so their ideas truly came to life.“ Truth is, the world is filled with completely ordinary and amazing things,” Rachel said.“ Creativity and imagination are the most powerful tools we have to learn about the real world.”
YOUR OWN STRANGEST CREATURE CREATION
With Grade 4 students, Rachel talked about what non-fiction really
“ When it comes to writing, you can take a supercomplicated or boring topic and make it fun by writing about it in an interesting way.” – Reya, Grade 7
means and how facts can be super-interesting with creativity and imagination.“ My key takeaway is that it takes years just to make one book,” said Natalie, Grade 4.
Together, students dreamed up their very own“ strangest creatures”, combining four animal traits to invent something never seen before. They also imagined how their creatures would move, eat, and avoid becoming someone else’ s dinner.“ Something I learned from Writer-in-Residence Rachel was that there were so many sea animals that looked like swans and UFOs,” said Alyssa, Grade 4.
Grade 5 writers examined non-fiction narrators. Rachel read from both a creative non-fiction book and an encyclopedia-style book, showing how voice changes everything.“ We learn better when someone is communicating directly to us,” Rachel explained. The students especially loved hearing about Rachel’ s books, where unlikely narrators appear, like the wise old wisdom tooth in The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers.
Did You Know? Rachel’ s book The Gland Factory was inspired by the fun facts her niece brought home with her after her Grade 7 science lessons at Crofton House School!
Students worked through a“ monkey attack” scenario to explore how different perspectives can change a story. They described a robin from the viewpoints of humans, cats, and worms, discovering how the right narrator can add life and curiosity to non-fiction writing. Lastly, in a“ wacky skeleton” activity, they wrote stepby-step instructions for assembling mismatched bones, incorporating real bone facts from their chosen narrators.
BEASTLY PUZZLES
The theme for Grade 6 – 7? Beastly puzzles! Just like letters home from early explorers, students compared creatures and the world around them.“ One quote from Rachel that stuck with me was‘ Ideas come from being a person in the world’,” said Hannah, Grade 7.
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