Truth might be stranger than fiction, but most of the time lying is more fun. In this workshop, students will play around with the truth to compose a short poem made up of false statements designed to amuse the reader.

Students imagine a hungry monster living under their couch and write about their first epic encounter with it as a narrative poem. Students will be guided through key aspects of the form and the use of various poetic devices including repetition and simile.

Calling all young ghost hunters and master storytellers! Students unleash their imagination as they create spooky stories and characters that will give you goosebumps! Students will learn how to build suspense, conjure eerie settings, and bring their characters to life.

First Nations people have tens of thousands of years of knowledge sharing the unique shapes and stories of the stars visible from this hemisphere. In this workshop series, students will explore the Star Stories of the Dreaming and consider the senses as they use poetic storytelling techniques to respond to stories from Aboriginal Astronomy.

In this workshop Story Factory guides students through an exploration of the creative techniques used by cartoonists to anthropomorphise objects and animals. Students will bring objects from their daily lives to life, creating unique characters, imagining daily activities and drafting dialogue. As students work through the writing process they will role-play interviews and create the content for various written texts including letters. A fun, engaging way to explore character creation!

Through different workshops week to week, all themed around food, students will be introduced to different literary devices, work with model texts and scaffolds, and bring their own tastes and passions to the table to write a collection of poetry.

In this workshop students will explore the artworks of contemporary Australian artists including Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, using their quirky and colourful pieces to inspire poetry. Students will learn to unpack visual art and expand their vocabulary. Bringing art to life by reimagining the stories and characters behind the works.

Students imagine they have travelled through a vortex and are now trapped inside the world of a retro video game called Video Vortex. They choose their own avatar who progresses through the strange and different levels of this game as they overcome obstacles to “level up” and return home. Students develop skills in sensory writing and focus on world building and narrative structure as they create short episodes/chapters that describe their experiences moving through the game.

What is freedom to you? It means different things to different people at different times. What if you could build your very own freedom machine? What would it look like? How would it move? Where would it take you? In this one hour workshop students will explore Kirli Saunders and Matt Ottley’s beautiful picture book The Incredible Freedom Machines. They will use this as a starting point to design their own freedom machine. Students will then write a one-stanza poem describing their machine and where they would use it to go to feel free.

Ever heard of Cheese Rolling in Coopers Hill, or Worm Charming in Willaston, or the Wife Carrying Race in Dorking? In this program students act as news reporters, sent to investigate the weird traditions of small towns with odd histories. They will create a monologue for their news report, summarising town traditions, and incorporating interviewing skills in their final piece.

Looking to share contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices with your students? Each week students will explore a track by Indigenous artists and use it as inspiration for their own lyric writing. They will learn about Indigenous cultures and languages from diverse communities around Australia, and will explore their own experiences and values as they write lyrics in such forms as rap and lullabies.