Extension Programs

Students' Work - Year 4 Extension Literacy

This term, students in the Year 4 Extension Literacy class studied poems from various authors and learned poetic devises which inspired their own writing. 

Peace

By Idil K

I watch as the blossoms awake and stretch to the sky.

I hear the angelic sound of hummingbirds swooping nearby.

I grip onto the big, rough tree trunk as the wind glides through my long hair.

I smile at the sun as pollen dance in the air.

The dazzling scent fill my nostrils as I take a long breath in and out.

I giggle and blow out the rosy petals.

I feel at peace with me and the blossom tree.

Spread

By Alana O

Running along the fields up and down the hills,

weaving near a little mill.

The colours of these little dreams blossom all round,

four little petals fly away off the ground.

Settling on a willow tree,

 the beautiful petals only count one, two, three.

The fourth flies quite far away,

lands on a window where it now lays.

It glistens in the sunshine,

like diamonds that you mine.

A swift gust of wind blows it north.

The little petal arrives on the willow tree fourth

Now separated but still together a tulip.

My Sunflower

By Bianca A

The tiny seeds glide down touching the ground,

seasons later in full bloom.

They watch the sun wherever it goes,

but when dawn turns to dusk, they gather close and go to sleep.

I go out to the meadow to meet them,

and smell the earthy scent that relaxes me.

The bees hum softly and dance with the butterflies,

as I pick a bloom and feel it brush against my fingers.

The yellow shines bright, reminding me all will be okay,

holding my majestic sunflower.

Young Writers Program

This term several students across Year 3 to Year 10 accepted the challenge of completing a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo as it has become known). For 30 exciting days, our Aitken WriMos locked away their inner editor, letting their imagination take over and just write! This online program helped students set their word count goals, develop a deeper understanding of the practice of writing, and gave them access to a community of writers—in the physical and virtual classroom. Students set individualised goals ranging from 1500 to 10000 words and wrote directly on their Young Writers on-site program, using progress tracking tools to stay on track. 

I would like to congratulate the following students who embraced this challenge; this would have been no easy feat!

Student Reflections:

NaNoWrimo was not a piece of cake. In October, I made a plan sheet, detailing what I had to write every day to keep the story flowing, all the plot twists, subplots and characters were listed, me researching more about the era the story was placed in, trying to give accurate scenarios in the story. The first week of November was easy; I always exceeded my daily word count in optimum time. The second week was okay, I had to occasionally give myself a few nudges to keep on writing. The third week was hard. I had been writing every day for days, my motivation losing strength. As the week became busier, I found it harder to find time to write, pushing it to the bottom of my priority list. I was falling behind on my word count goal and my plot, so then I finally decided to reset. I made my plot plan more realistic for me to write and changed my mindset. The fourth week was tough; I had to finish my story, recovering from the week before, and reach my word count. In the end I exceeded my word count by 3166 words, adjusting it higher on the last day, my final word count being 13,166 by the end of the month. NaNoWriMo was a learning process, and required commitment, determination, and creativity. Even though I went through ups and downs, I loved letting all my ideas form into a piece of writing, getting to get into my characters shoes, and improving my writing skills.

By Kisali P (5A)

We learnt how to lengthen and build decent structure to our stories. In this 30 day challenge we have written some amazing stories that vary from 1000 to 10000 words! This has prepared us to face bigger challenges that we might experience later in life. 

By Alana O (4A) and Idil K (4M)

This year has been one like no other – pandemics, lockdowns, and too much family time. However, despite the obvious (what’s that word) of COVID-19, I feel that I have made the most of the extra downtime I had during the lockdown. Instead of spending my time slacking off, playing games, or texting my friends, I decided to do something productive. I had always loved writing, and as I sat in my chair at my makeshift desk, I suddenly remembered a program I had taken part in back in Year 6 which ran during the month of November. This program was called the NaNoWriMo Young Writers’ program, and it was the opportunity I had been waiting for. It was August, maybe September, when I first began to jot down story ideas in my notebook.

Sure enough, in the middle of October, I received an email from Mrs Di Martino, asking me whether I would like to join a program for young writers, called NaNoWriMo. I signed up, along with my friend Devmi, and began exploring the website. Inspiration hit me from every direction, and every new icon I clicked on put a new story idea in my head. By late October I had started to write up my main plot points and brainstorm, and by 1 November I was fired up and ready to start writing.

I had a word goal of 10,000 words which I stuck to throughout the program, and from the very first word I knew this month was going to be something special. I could clearly see where the storyline was going, and I had it all planned out in my head. I was completely immersed in the journey of my main character, Lehana, and the first week of November was nothing but, “ooh, how will I write that next scene?” “When am I going to introduce him?” “How long do I have left?” I was writing more than 600 words per day.

Of course, I could not keep this momentum up forever, and by the second week I was starting to doubt myself. Was 10,000 words a bit overly ambitious? I still knew exactly what I wanted to write, but what I did not know was how I was going to get there – writing a full book was a lot more exhausting than I had first thought. What really kept me going was just the fact that if I finished, if I met my goal, I would officially have written a real book. Not just in a random word document on my iPad, or a vague storyline stored away inside my imagination, but a real book. I wanted to show everyone who did not think I had it in me that I could write something, and I would finish it. I wanted to show everyone who doubted me that I write anything I wanted, and it would not just be a waste of time. Thinking over this in my head, I gave myself a metaphorical slap across the face and told myself to get back to work. Clearly, I must have done something right, because here I am with 10,000 words of my own unique story. Even though I have met my NaNoWriMo goal of writing 10,000 words in a month, I have not actually finished my novel yet – in fact, I am not even halfway there! I plan to continue this story on the website and attempt to eventually write an ending!

I will be forever thankful that I got the chance to think up this novel, even if it was not under the best circumstances. I will also never forget all the memories and new ideas the NaNoWriMo program has helped give me. I had never thought for one second that a disaster like COVID-19 and the boredom that the lockdowns brought would result in such an amazing story, totally out of the blue. 

By Aoide A (8C)

During Home Learning, like all of us, I had a lot of free time. Lots of this time was used for thinking and daydreaming. On one fine day, I was casually thinking (as we all do) and suddenly, I was struck with inspiration for a book. I have always been passionate about spreading awareness about diseases and illnesses. There was one illness that a dancer named Briar Nolet took to the internet, sharing her own experience. This illness was, epilepsy. Her story was inspirational, and I wanted to incorporate something similar in the story. One of the other things I wanted to include was an important message. I decided to make the main character a man, purely so I could show that men are vulnerable. Like women, they have emotions even if they do not show it. I wanted to write this story to show girls and women that even if it does not look like it, guys do have emotions. I also wanted to show boys and men that if they are emotional, or if they cry, it is okay, because other men do it too, even if you do not witness it. I wanted to somehow tie this all together. In a book, I read about a lightning strike and that people go into a sort of spasm. I did some research and found that lightning strikes can affect the brain, so I decided that the best way to show these two themes was by making this man get epilepsy from a lightning strike. From this, he would become sad and vulnerable.

Now, this idea was stuck in my head for a while, a few months at least, and my lazy self was not motivated to write it down. Usually, I prefer doing things if there is a motive, or a goal I must achieve. Throughout lockdown, I really did not have the motivation to do anything, but at the start of term four, I was reading the bulletin and I saw that people could sign up for a young writers’ program. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to finally bring this story alive. I was not sure if I was going to fully enjoy this, but my friend Aoide reassured me that it was going to be fun, and she joined me. We signed up for it, and I could not have been happier with the outcome. Initially, I thought this story would be maximum 2000 words and that is it. This NaNoWriMo program taught me that I can write so much more. To begin with, my word goal was at 5000 words, but by the second day I was already halfway there. I them decided to boost it up to 10000. I had never dreamed that I would ever be able to reach that goal, I thought I was being too optimistic, but I stuck with it and tried my best to reach it. Once I started writing, I could not stop. The ideas kept flowing in non-stop and the story evolved into something I could never have imagined. When I was writing, I legitimately felt like I was in his shoes. I felt what he was feeling, I felt like I was genuinely him whilst I was writing. I was so engaged in what I was doing, and my love of writing had never been so prominent. This program gave me the opportunity to unleash my creativity - the NaNoWriMo program showed me that I could go far beyond what I thought I could do. By the end of the month, I was more than 3000 words over my goal of 10000. I had never thought I would ever be able to write that much in one single story. This program helped me find my true potential, and without it this story may have never become what it has today.

Devmi P (8C)

Mrs Mary Ann Di Martino

Head of Faculty Extension Programs