Ed Boxall - Writing
Ed
Boxall
AIM High Writing
Summary
Age range All Ages
Books Yes
DBS Checked Yes, registered with the DBS Update Service
Booking
Contact
+44 (0)1535 656015
aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk
Ed is a writer, illustrator and performer.
About Ed
Ed is also a freelance teacher and has been running workshops, residencies and special events based on his writing and illustration for 15 years.
Ed’s poetry collection ‘Me and My Alien Friend’ was published by Troika in 2018, and was chosen for The Summer Reading Challenge in 2019. Ed’s 2021 gloriously illustrated picture book Carried Away with the Carnival slips between poetry and prose to create a joyous celebration of carnival. His most recent book We the Wild Ones is a delightfully unconventional collection of poems, stories and art about all things wild.
Ed’s passion for poetry shows in his illustration work- he has illustrated for some of the UK’s top children’s poets such as Brian Moses, Roger Stevens and James Carter.
Ed’s AIM High Writing Days
Ed’s creative writing days always include a fantastic mix of performances, writing games, mini activities and a longer project where children complete a poem which they both illustrate and perform to the group within the day.
Ed is currently focusing activities based on his two most recent books, We the Wild Ones (Upper KS1 and KS2) and Carried Away with the Carnival (KS1, foundation and early years)
We the Wild Ones Workshops:
These workshops offer a deep dive into writing for pleasure and enjoying our own unique experience of language.
In We the Wild Ones ‘Wild’ has two meanings. Wild is wild nature, but wild is also inner wild- the freedom to dream our own dreams and think our own thoughts.
Workshop 1- Word Dreaming – Words, Moods and Feelings
This workshop explores how language can be crafted to express different moods, tones and feelings.
Children pick moods out of a hat- e.g. lonely, derelict, tense, expectant. Children then make word collections for these different moods, enjoying the feeling and sound of words, as much as their meanings. Ed provides lots of examples and resources to help.
Children then complete their own version of Ed’s poem ‘We the Wild Ones’. Each verse must show a different mood, using the word collections from previous activity. Children might change the repeating phrase We the Wild Ones during the process to make their poem completely their own, e.g. We the Angry Ones, We the Sleepy Ones, or We the Anxious Ones.
Workshop 2- Wild Portal Objects
This workshop explores how objects can be portals to creative adventures.
The session uses Ed’s poems ‘The Spell Makers’ and ‘The Forest out of Time’ as starting points.
Ed provides a choice of amazing objects as inspiration- old camera apparatus, shells, pebbles, bits of clocks etc. It’s often not clear what the objects are. Children make a word-collection in response to the object and imagine what powers the object might have. They then write a narrative poem about their relationship to the object. They must explore how the object changes, helps or challenges them.
Workshop 3- Big Words/Little Words
This workshop explores how we all feel differently about individual words and words can inspire big complex feelings.
Ed uses the word ‘wild’ to demonstrate this, as explored in We the Wild Ones. In the workshop, a ‘big’ word is a word that means a lot to the participant.
Children explore this idea through games and then write a poem in the voice of their ‘big’ word. For example a poem about ‘Life’ might begin:
I am fresh green
I dance like restless fire
I am nimble and escape threat like a scampering mouse
Workshop 4- The Thesaurus Saw us breaking the rules!
This workshop explores how breaking the rules of language and punctuation can be fabulously creative and also help us learn about those rules.
Ed uses his story ‘Daisy and the Wayward Wind’ from We the Wild Ones as a starting point.
Children begin by picking phrases out of a hat. For example ‘The Feeling of having an ice cold drink on a hot day’. Children must invent a word for the phrase, experimenting with combining bits of different words together, onomatopoeia, and word play.
Children now describe a place that Daisy might have visited on her journey with The Wayward Wind…
But, they must do this using made-up words and must not use any traditional punctuation! Instead, they create a picture-poem ‘punctuating’ their poem by how they place words on the page- varying size, and style of words and phrases.
Breaking the rules like this is fantastically creative and liberating but also helps understanding of why those rules can be really helpful!
Carried Away with the Carnival Workshop:
This workshop is for KS1 and Reception children.
Ed often works with his book Carried Away with the Carnival with reception and KS1.
In this workshop children create picture-poems that capture the atmosphere of the carnival, through colour, drawing, pattern and word play.
Ed begins by performing the story with a giant book, along with songs and movement activities.
Children then work on large group pieces of paper that they pass around and take turns adding to, to create carnival ‘mood boards’. They:
Add carnival colours with small pieces of coloured paper.
Add carnival patterns.
Add carnival faces.
Add carnival words using a jumbled-up copy of the text from Ed’s book as a starting point, along with other carnival words and word-sounds. This includes lots of fun with making up words and onomatopoeia.
Older children use these group carnival ‘mood boards’ to make their own individual picture-poem inspired by carnival.
Younger children make their own carnival mask, decorated with their favourite carnival words and colours from the mood boards.
Ed is delighted to provide full details for his visits and tailor the days to your needs.
A Selection of Ed’s Books
We The Wild Ones
We The Wild Ones is a magical collection of stories, poems and art all about ‘The Wild’. The poems and stories are for 6 to 12 year olds and anyone who loves nature, magic and all things wild. 144 richly illustrated magical pages.
Carried Away with the Carnival
A little boy goes to the carnival with his grandad and gets carried away on a fantastic adventure including bright dragons, thundering drums, a mermaid and the giant scary strong woman.
Ed has often told this story in schools and has now turned it into a colourful picture book that children everywhere can enjoy.
It's perfect for sharing- full of detail, excitement, a little danger, and a lot of love.
Picture Book for 3 to 8 year olds
Bookings
To book Ed Boxall please contact
aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk
Ed also offers visits to schools and other settings, click here for more information.