At last! The results are out in The Rascally Rat Tale Competition!
May 9, 2020 at 12:53 pm | Posted in Arden Anglican School, Beecroft, Australian schools, Challenges and activities, Hong Kong Schools, Shanghai schools, Singapore schools, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Books about China for kids, Covid competitions for kids, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Rascally Rat Tale Competition, The Year of the Rat
Illustration by Harry Harrison from The Tale of Run Run Rat
Hooray! At last the results in The Rascally Rat Tale Competition have been posted on my Clever Competitions page! Now I know that a lot of you have been doing lots of school work online during the Covid epidemic, so we had fewer entrants than usual, although we still had entries from Hong Kong, Melbourne, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney! They were of a very high standard, so it was difficult choosing the best! I did so using my special spreadsheet, with all the entries anonymised, which you can read more about on the results page.
Congratulations to everyone who put in an entry, and to all the place-winners! Special congratulations to Therese Li of Arden Anglican School in Beecroft, Sydney for placing FIRST in the Year 1 to 3 Category, and to James Bruser Zarin of Shrewsbury International School, Hong Kong, who placed FIRST in the Year 4 to 6 Category. They both win a signed copy of the Chinese Calendar Tale of their choice, as well as a Boxed Set of the Chinese Calendar Tales for their school libraries! Well done! Congratulations also to the English teachers of Arden Anglican School in Beecroft, Sydney whose students write to an exceptionally high standard for their ages!
So go to my Clever Competitions page right away to read the winning stories and enjoy!
Hang in there, all you fabulous competition entrants!
April 27, 2020 at 5:09 pm | Posted in Challenges and activities, Clever Competitions, Great Year of the Rat Challenge 2020 | Leave a commentTags: A Rascally Rat Tale Competition, Books about the Chinese Zodiac, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Chinese Calendar Tales, The Great Year of the Rat Challenge 2020, The Tale of Run Run Rat
Run Run Rat from The Tale of Run Run Rat, illustration by Harry Harrison
Hang in there my friends! We are SO nearly there with the results for two great competitions:
The Great Year of the Rat Challenge 2020 and my A Rascally Rat Tale Competition!
I promise the results will be published here on my blog REALLY SOON!
The Rascally Rat Tale Competition ends tonight!
April 17, 2020 at 2:36 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Rascally Rat Tale Competition, The Tale of Run Run Rat
Run Run Rat is racing for the finish line – and so should you be if you’ve been writing your Rascally Rat Tale for my latest Clever Competition! The deadline is midnight tonight so send that story in right away – I can’t wait to read it!
If you’re sitting at home looking for a bit of fun!
February 12, 2020 at 8:04 am | Posted in Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Rascally Rat Tale Competition
Hello all you primary school kids out there who are sitting at home with all that home school work! If you want a bit of fun, this is your PERFECT opportunity to enter my Rascally Rat Tale story writing competition! You can see all the special ingredients and rules here! So get out those pens and start writing!
Kung Hei Fat Choi! It’s time for a Rascally Rat Tale writing competition!
January 24, 2020 at 2:43 pm | Posted in Chinese Calendar Tales, Chinese New Year, Clever Competitions | Leave a commentTags: Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Rascally Rat Tale Competition, The Tale of Run Run Rat, The Year of the Rat
Picture credit: Harry Harrison, The Tale of Run Run Rat
Kung Hei Fat Choi! It’s Chinese New Year! My feisty Run Run Rat is telling his family all about his adventurous plans for his trip around China. His mum is busy baking some delicious steam buns for a Chinese New Year feast! His dad is taking a break from his hard work as a miner, and his big sister is STILL filing her claws!! As for Run Run’s little brother – he’s wondering how many egg tarts he can gobble up before his mum notices!
So it’s high time we had another writing competition!
It’s open to anyone, anywhere in the world who is:
- a primary or elementary school student from Grade 1 to Grade 6
- or home-educated students of equivalent stage
This time I want you to write me a story about a rascally Rat, set in China, with the following further ingredients:
- a Chinese emperor
- a brainy princess
- three magic tangerines
- an evil talking dumpling
- the colour malachite (if you don’t know what that is, then look it up!)
- a long drought
Click on my Clever Competitions page right away to find out what I’ll be looking for, and all the competition rules!
The deadline date is Friday 17th April, so you have 3 months to write your story! And with a fabulous Chinese New Year holiday just starting, you could begin your story plan right away!
What a fabulous way to start your celebrations for the Year of the Rat! Run Run Rat would surely approve!
And if you don’t have your copy of The Tale of Run Run Rat yet, click here to purchase right away!
Well done Shiv!
December 14, 2019 at 4:05 pm | Posted in children's literacy, Clever Competitions, Glenealy School, Hong Kong Schools, Poetry competitions for children | Leave a commentTags: A Dirty Story, Glenealy School, My Favourite Season Haiku Competition, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions
Say hello to Shiv Mohan, who regularly enters my Clever Competitions, and won Third Place in the Grade 4 to 6 section of the My Favourite Season Haiku Competition! (He also came third in his section in the Clever Competition before that!). Here he is accepting his prize from the Principal, Mr Briggs, at Glenealy School. Well done Shiv!
I’ll be posting details of the next Clever Competition early in the New Year – so make sure you enter! You’ve got to be in it to win it!
2 Clever Competition finalists from Taiwan!
December 2, 2019 at 12:18 pm | Posted in Hsinchu International School, Taiwan Schools | Leave a commentTags: My Favourite Season Haiku Competition, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Sybil Snake
Say hello to two clever young writers from Grade 2M of Hsinchu International School in Taiwan! Isabel Huang (holding her prize, a signed copy of The Tale of Sybil Snake) won 2nd Place in the Grade 1 to 3 Category of my latest competition, the My Favourite Season Haiku Competition, and Alyssa Lin (holding a signed copy of The Tale of Chester Choi), won 3rd place! Standing with them is their lovely teacher, Cairan Meister, Congratulations girls! You can see their winning entries on my Clever Competitions page here!
Just 11 days left to enter the Favourite Season Haiku Competition!
November 4, 2019 at 8:14 am | Posted in Clever Competitions, Poetry competitions for children, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: My Favourite Season Haiku Competition, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions
Good morning everyone! I hope that you’re enjoying the new buds and shoots of Spring (if you live in the Southern Hemisphere!) and the sight of autumnal leaves changing colour (if you live in the Northern Hemisphere!).
Yes, the weather is changing and the days are ticking down in the My Favourite Season Haiku Competition! So if you don’t have your entry in yet, click here right away for all the rules and conditions – and get your entry in SOON!
Remember, the deadline is Midnight EST Friday 15th November!
I can’t wait to read your entry!
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!
Welcome back – and a new Clever Competition!
September 3, 2019 at 3:23 pm | Posted in Clever Competitions, Uncategorized, Writing competitions for kids | Leave a commentTags: My Favourite Season Haiku Competition, poetry, Sarah Brennan's Clever Competitions, Writing
Photo credits: Summer – https://all-free-download.com/free-photos/download/sunflower-image-06-hd-pictures_167025.html; Winter – https://www.123rf.com/photo_11049126_beautiful-nature-winter-scenery-frosty-trees-in-forest.html; Spring – https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-pink-flowers-1045615/; Autumn – https://wallpapercave.com/w/8r8chAr
A very warm welcome back to school!
Don’t you just love the four seasons? They are all so beautiful in their own way! Now if you’re anything like me, you’ll love Autumn best, when you can rug up in a warm coat and go walking with your dog in a nearby park on a crisp, clear day. Or you might prefer lazy, hot Summers when you can go to the beach and splash about in the sea. Or those stormy Winter days when you can sit beside a roaring fire feeling snug and safe inside as the wind buffets and the rain buckets down outside. Or those cool, damp Spring mornings, with their drifts of blossom and gorgeous scent of narcissi and jonquils filling the air.
And just about everyone I know also loves haikus! They’re very short poems, dating back to the 17th century in Japan, and with very strict rules. And they’re PERFECT for describing nature, weather, and the seasons! In fact, the four seasons were regular topics in the very earliest haikus!
So today I’ve posted a brand new Clever Competition, to hone your wits and test your writing skills and have a bit of fun, whilst pursuing world wide fame as a published writer on my blog!
And this time, I want a haiku, all about My Favourite Season – and by that I mean YOUR favourite season!
See my Clever Competition page here to read all the rules and requirements. The deadline for this competition is FRIDAY 15th November, in just over 10 weeks’ time.
So get out those writing pads, pick your favourite season, and start writing your My Favourite Season Haiku NOW!
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