A fabulous day at The Peak School!
October 14, 2019 at 9:47 am | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Poetry Workshops for kids, Story Readings, The Peak School, Writing competitions for kids, writing workshops for children | Leave a commentTags: Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig
It’s been a HUGELY busy fortnight, and first of all I have to let you all know about my fabulous day at The Peak School back on Thursday 3rd October! We had a fun day of story readings and workshops for everyone from Year 3 to Year 6! We started with my How to Write a Riveting Story workshop for the Year 6s; next came an Introduction to Poetry for the Year 4s; the Year 5s then learned all the science explaining why Books are a Brain’s Best Friend, and finally the Year 3s had a funny story reading of The Tale of Ping Pong Pig where they learned all about the mighty Yongle Emperor, and cheered as Ping Pong Pig evaded the cunning Minister of Most Important Things! Thank you to lovely librarian Rebecca Rigden Green for being such a wonderful host! And I can’t wait to receive all your entries in my Clever Competition!
Well done Daisy!
June 22, 2019 at 1:35 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Japanese International School, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Boxed Set of Chinese Calendar Tales, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition
On Wednesday afternoon, I had the great pleasure of presenting Daisy Palmer, winner of the Grade 4 to 6 Category of the Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, with her First Place prize of a Boxed Set of the Chinese Calendar Tales! Here we are at the assembly at Japanese International School in Hong Kong, with, from left to right, librarian Cath Wan, Principal Simon Walton, Daisy’s mum Claire, and head of Student Support, Glenda Baillie. Thank you Simon for inviting me – it was a real honour!
Time’s Up! And the judging begins…
May 18, 2019 at 1:01 pm | Posted in Beijing Schools, Chicago schools, Clever Competitions, Hong Kong Schools, Melbourne schools, Shanghai schools, Sydney schools | Leave a commentTags: Primary School writing competition, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, Writing Competitions for Kids
Time’s up in my Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, and it’s time to start judging your fabulous entries! I’ve had over 50 magnificent entries from schools in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Melbourne, Sydney and Chicago – so it might take me a little bit of time!
So please be patient, all you clever writers out there, and Ping Pong Pig and I will be singing out the results as soon as we can!
A Writing Workshop at St Clare’s Primary School!
May 9, 2019 at 10:31 am | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, St Clare's Primary School, Writing competitions for kids, writing workshops for children | Leave a commentTags: How to Write a Riveting Story, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions
Here are the fabulous girls of Grades 4 to 6 at St Clare’s Primary School in Sai Ying Pun in Hong Kong preparing to contribute their clever ideas in my How to Write a Riveting Story Workshop on Tuesday this week! They had some fantastic ideas for stories! They learned all about the vital elements in a story, and how to make a story plan that makes a perfect skeleton story. I also explained some of the current science about the extraordinary importance of reading for leisure and pleasure if you want to have a creative and successful life – and the very real problems for the brain if you spend your spare time on digital screens, especially social media and digital games. Thank you to lovely English Panel Head, Ms. Sandy (with me below right), and to School Principal Elsa Hui (below left), for inviting me. The girls were a delight and I look forward to working with them again! And, of course, to their entries in my Clever Competition!
It’s Book Week at DBIS!
May 2, 2019 at 6:56 pm | Posted in Discovery Bay International School, Hong Kong Schools, Writing competitions for kids | 1 CommentTags: Battle of the Books, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Practically Perfect Pig Tale Competition, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
This week is Book Week at Discovery Bay International School, and I was honoured to be part of their celebrations today! The whole of primary school from Year 1 to Year 6 met my latest and last Chinese Calendar Tales character, the feisty Ping Pong Pig, not to mention the mighty Yongle Emperor and his crafty Minister of Most Important Things, in three funny and fabulous story readings of The Tale of Ping Pong Pig. Then I spent a fun twenty minutes during the lunch hour with the DBIS Battle of the Books team, who had just come back from the Hong Kong Semi-Finals, where they placed a very impressive Second! Well done to the DBIS BOBS!
You can see me with Head of English, Mr Jonnie Haines’, Class 5JH, above, and below, with my lovely host, school librarian Melanie Foti.
And below, you can meet wonderful DBIS author and illustrator, Luka Van der Noord, creator of The Adventures of Sticko! He’s already written and printed eight books! Keep up the good work, Luka! You’ll be selling in bookstores soon!
Last but not least, a message to all you DBIS writers – I’ve decided to extend the deadline for my story competition for just one more week to give you all time to get your stories in! So the deadline will now be midnight on Friday 17th May 2019! Just click here to find out all the rules and special ingredients for your entry!
Fabulous fun writing poetry at PLK CKY today!
February 20, 2019 at 5:14 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, PLK CKY School, Poetry Workshops for kids, Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: An Introduction to Rhyming Poetry Workshop
I had so much fun today with the Year 4s at my old friends at Po Leung Kuk Choi Kai Yau School at Piper’s Point today! I talked to the kids about writing my favourite rhyming verse, then after a few rhyming and rhythm exercises they got down to work to complete a funny poem called Let’s Destroy the School! in perfect rhythm and rhyme! At the end of each session, the first groups to finish got to read their masterpieces out to the class! Warm thanks to Joli Moore, to my left above, who was my wonderful host for the day! And kids – remember, writing poems is FUN!
The Kennedy School kids meet Ping Pong Pig!
February 17, 2019 at 10:13 am | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Kennedy School, Story Readings | Leave a commentTags: Books about Chinese history for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac for kids, Books about Pigs for kids, Books about The Year of the Pig for kids, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
On Wednesday I took my tasty little Ping Pong Pig to meet all my old friends at Kennedy School in Pok Fu Lam! 900 kiddies from Year 1 to Year 6 made that difficult choice between crispy pork and cute pink pigs as they exhorted Ping Pong to Run Pig Run! or Stay Pig Stay! while the crafty Minister of Most Important Things tried to track her down, in four delicious story reading sessions! A big Thank You to English Co-ordinator Jeff Moore for inviting me in, and assistant librarian Susan Mifsud (below to my right, with Michelle Spratt teacher librarian to my left) for being such a welcoming host! And to all you Kennedy kids – I look forward to receiving your entries in my new Clever Competition!
A great day at CAIS!
February 17, 2019 at 8:57 am | Posted in Christian Alliance International School, Hong Kong Schools, Story Readings | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac for kids, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
On Tuesday I visited the fabulous new Butterfly Valley campus of Christian Alliance International School! The Prep and Grade 1 kiddies met my hungry, lonely dragon in The Tale of Chester Choi, and everybody else up to Grade 6 just LOVED PORK when we shared The Tale of Ping Pong Pig! Warm thanks to teacher librarian Phebe Liu (to my left, above) for inviting me, and assistant librarian Eunice and tech wizard Brunel for looking after me so well! More photos to come!
Ping Pong Pig visits Japanese International School in Tai Po!
February 11, 2019 at 3:39 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Japanese International School, Story Readings, writing workshops for children | Leave a commentTags: How to Write a Riveting Story, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig
Today my plump little Ping Pong Pig and I dashed into Japanese International School in Tai Po, just up the road from my house! We met the gorgeous Grade 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s in two funny story readings, then the Grade 5s and 6s had two workshop sessions where we explored How to Write a Riveting Story! It was so great to see you all again! Many thanks to my lovely hosts below, Principal Simon Walton (who also fixed my car at lunchtime when the battery ran out!), and Cath Wan, librarian and PYP co-ordinator, to my right, as well as to the terrific staff including support teacher Angie Bilbow on the far right in the picture! I had a lot of fun!
A Funny and Fabulous Visit to Shatin Junior School!
February 4, 2019 at 2:35 pm | Posted in Hong Kong Schools, Shatin Junior School | Leave a commentTags: Books about Chinese history for kids, Books about Chinese Zodiac for kids, Books about the Year of the Pig, Emperor Zhu Di, Ming Dynasty, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Tale of Ping Pong Pig, The Year of the Pig, Yongle Emperor
Illustration credit: Harry Harrison. From The Tale of Ping Pong Pig.
My second school visit last week, on Wednesday, was to my dear friends at Shatin Junior School, just around the corner from my office in Fo Tan! In four very noisy and animated sessions all the kids from P1 to P6 made friends with Ping Pong Pig, and echoes of “Run Pig! Run!” could be heard in the playground in all the breaks! Above, you can see Ping Pong heading off to the Forbidden City in the evil clutches of the Minister of Most Important Things! Run Pig! Run! And below, me and my toy pig Paavo (cousin of Ping Pong Pig) with a fabulous bunch of Year 6 Pig lovers!
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