Aims & principles

In early September the lead teacher for the project led a staff meeting to discuss setting up a project to inspire writing across the whole school.  Many ideas were put forward such as dinosaur footprints, doors being found under the school and alien landings.  The staff settled for the giant eggs idea as they thought this would have the most immediate impact and would also be the easiest to set up.  The school wanted to inspire writing across the board but boys were a particular focus.  They had never done a project like this before so were keen to see the results as well as try out new methods.  As part of the day the school also chose to teach the girls and boys separately in one part of the day to see what impact this kind of writing project would have upon attainment.

Summary

The whole school produced writing in various styles focused on the mystery appearance of a giant nest and eggs in the school field. The pupils were charged with investigating the event along with adults in role as scientists, teachers and the local police.

In Practice

Overnight a giant nest with 3 giant eggs appeared on the school field.  Nobody knew what it was or where it had come from. As the children arrived for school in the morning they were confronted with this sight.  The local police played along with the teachers and cordoned the area off, making sure onlookers stayed well back.  A couple of ‘scientists’ from Nottingham University also came along to help us discover what had happened.  This all added to the authenticity of the situation. On closer inspection of the nest, bones, blood and broken egg shells could also be seen as well as a lone feather.

On arrival at school there was a real buzz.  Children and parents were very inquisitive and lots of people entered into the spirit of the event.  When the whistle was blown for the start of school there was a large groan from the huge crowd around the eggs.

After registration there was a whole school assembly.  The headteacher introduced the two scientists, Dr. Laprosky and Dr. Bonzo, to the children.  They explained to the children that they had never seen anything like it before. They also set the children a set of questions to find possible answers to. 
During the assembly, a call came from the office asking the headteacher to attend urgently as the eggs were moving and starting to crack. This really gained the children’s attention.  Many children had ideas - some thought the mystery concerned aliens and the credit crunch, others thought the eggs had come from a bird or other animal, and some believed they might belong to a dinosaur or dragon.

The children then returned to their classrooms to engage in a variety of activities to solve the problems.  The main focus of the day was to produce a piece of writing. 

• In the Foundation class the children wrote about what had happened and what it might be.
• In Year 1 the children produced video reports and created newspaper articles.
• In Year 2/3 the children created fact files for the imaginary creatures, made models of them and then used them to create stories.
• In Year 4/5 the children produced plays and wrote fact files about the creatures.
• In Year 6 the children produced news reports.

During the day there were many theories.  Many children were convinced they had heard a noise in the night or had seen something strange in the air when they went to bed.  Others believed they had heard animal noises during the night.  Others spent the day finding more clues.  Blood stains (red paint) were found as were stones with footprints, as well as more bones, all adding to the excitement.  However, there were a few sceptics and cynics. 

It was lovely to see their ideas changing as the day progressed as more and more evidence was revealed.  At one point, some children believed the nest and eggs had come from the main stock room; however, a clever deviation soon saw these children changing their minds about the reality of the situation. - Class Teacher

Partnerships

The school contacted the local police who appeared on the day of the project and helped teachers convince children of the mysterious event.  They were very willing to attend and entered into the spirit of the occasion.  The school also enlisted the help of two drama students from the local secondary school who took on the role of the ‘scientists’.

Outcomes

There was a real buzz at the school that day - everyone was involved and all staff helped to create the reality of the situation.  Below is an evaluation of the day based upon comments and observations from staff.

What worked well?

The children were excited by what they had seen.  It was great to see cynical older children begin to change their minds about the reality of the situation.  This was due to the seriousness of the assembly. It captured the children’s imagination. They loved thinking that a normal day had been abandoned.  The element of surprise and shock worked well. Having the police and scientists involved helped with the authenticity.  Filming was a great way to make them talk before writing.  Having it set up before the children arrived was a great idea.

What would you change if we did it again?

Do the activity over a longer period so that it could be more cross-curricular.  Have a sharing assembly at the end of the day.  Allow time for talk before writing. More staff participation required to share out jobs.

Did you notice anything different about the children’s writing?

It was more spontaneous, detailed and informative - the children weren’t so worried about what to write as they had lots of ideas.  The excitement was a bit of a distraction so I didn’t get their best work.  The children talked about things more confidently and because they had experienced it, it made the writing easier.  The excitement meant that writing was not their priority.  The children wrote far more than normal.  They were more enthusiastic about writing and worked mainly independently. The vocabulary was better but punctuation was weaker than normal.

Were there any significant differences between boys and girls?

Girls chose to write playscripts and stories whilst the boys preferred reports and explanations.  The boys’ work was significantly messier.  Verbally the boys had more ideas than normal but struggled to write them down.  The girls were limited in terms of their own ideas; however, the girls wrote significantly more than normal but didn’t necessarily improve their grades.  Both sexes enjoyed the competitiveness of boys versus girls.  There were differences between the sexes in terms of their explanations.  It definitely enthused the boys to write.  The boys were more sceptical at first but were believers by the end of the day!

Was there any difference between higher and lower attainers?

Lower attainers were more enthusiastic and had more ideas than normal.  Higher attainers enjoyed it but didn’t seem to get carried away so much.  All were very involved.  It motivated the lower attainers more.  Higher attainers lacked punctuation - they got carried away by the excitement.  The lower attainers did not struggle for ideas.  Lower attainers performed better (behaviour and writing).  Higher attainers struggled with the freedom. 

Quotes from children on the day

I heard 3 noises in the night

I saw it flying

Are they real?

I’ve found more blood.

I definitely know they are real now

Does that mean a dinosaur has been to our school?

Was there a dinosaur here last night?

I thought I heard a noise last night

Was it a T-Rex?

This is the best day of my life ever!

The day was clearly a success. It enthused the children and brought the whole school together.  It also restored my faith in the innocence of children.  The writing produced was inspired by the activity, but as we have seen, may not have been up to the same quality as normal due to excitement. I believe Everybody Writes Day has raised the profile of writing in school and proved that a good stimulus will inspire writing. - Class Teacher

Resources

To make the giant eggs the staff used papier mache and formed it around a large gym ball.  They then coated this with white paint.  A local farm donated a bale of hay which teachers used to make a nest.  Staff collected chicken bones, egg shells and natural resources such as twigs, leaves and feathers to add to the nest.  They also used the remaining papier mache paste as ‘goo’ in the nest - mixed with a little red food colouring for effect!  The local police supplied the school with some police tape to help them cordon off the area authentically.

• Download a powerpoint presentation of the project
• Download a PDF displaying students’ work

Contacts

Jo Seagrave, Class Teacher,

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