Array ( [article_id] => 19208 [company_id] => 1 [user_id] => 0 [article_type_id] => 58 [article_seo_url] => ridiculouswriters [details] => Array ( [Title] => Ridiculous Writers [Description] => Bring your classroom bursting to life with ideas, laughter and imagination! [Subheading] => Create crazy combos to ignite the desire to write... [Age] => Elementary [Intro] =>

Would you love to have your whole school buzzing about writing?

Imagine classrooms full of enthusiastic students creating tall tales packed full of originality as they dream of being the next Jeff Kinney or Katherine Applegate...

Ridiculous Writers, the latest fantastic contest from Young Writers, will do just that! Download all of the amazing, FREE resources here and get your students excited to write.

You can go paperless if you prefer, why not use the Online Writing Portal where your students type their mini saga during a lesson, you then submit it to the contest. Simply sign in to your school account here.

[Rules] =>

Only one entry per student, there is no limit to the number of entries per school. Teachers please submit your entries altogether where possible!

Ask your students to write/type their poem, ensuring their name, age and school name are included.

To enter as a school the teacher needs to send the work to us.

Mini sagas can be on the entry form or handwritten on a sheet of paper or typed in Word / Online Writing Portal.

Your students' work must be their own!

Mini sagas have a 100-word limit. The title isn't included in this.

[School Prizes] =>

The Young Writers' Award of Excellence!

PLUS

Every participating school receives a free copy of the book their students feature in.

[Student Prizes] =>

Our favorite published writer wins Jenni Harrison's (Managing Editor) height in books... that's 1.67 meters! Plus a trophy and a gif of their crazy creation!

PLUS

Every entrant receives a bookmark and a certificate of merit is awarded for all young writers chosen for publication.

[Tips] =>

Ask your students to write 1 x adjective on a piece of paper and then their favorite thing (one word) on another sheet of paper.

E.g. 'Lumpy' and 'Pizza' OR 'Scary' and 'Rainbows'

Pop all the adjectives in one bowl and mix them up.

Pop all the favorite things in another bowl and mix them up.

Pick out one adjective and one favorite thing and read them out - what pair did you get? Read it out to your class. E.g. 'Happy Skateboard' or 'Angry Unicorn'.

Make up a short story as a class, inspired by a word pairing you have picked. It's a great activity to get your students warmed up to write their own mini saga!

If you have time you can always ask who put 'Pizza' etc as their favorite thing to help you and your students learn about their classmates.

Split your class into 6 groups. Each group needs 4 pieces of paper.

They need to write 1 x location/place on one sheet of paper
On the other 3 sheets, they need to decide on 3 famous people or characters and write one name on each sheet of paper.

You then collect the sheets and redistribute them through the groups. Each group needs 1 location sheet and 3 characters.

Your groups will end up with a ridiculous selection of people in a funny place:
E.g.
Joe Biden
Oprah Winfrey
Harry Potter

at a baseball game.

Each group then role plays their characters in their ridiculous situation - this can be done in groups at the same time, or you can ask each group to perform to the class.

This is a really fun way to get your students thinking about character, setting and plot as well as how they can write a ridiculous mini saga!

Why not have a ridiculous dress-up day!

Invite your students to wear wacky clothes, paint their face, dress as food, wear a headdress/mask or even make these in class to help them get in the ridiculous writers' mindset!

Who has the best ridiculous outfit? Why?

Can your students imagine any of their classmates appearing in their story dressed like this? What would they be doing?

Visual stimulation helps aid better comprehension, understanding and drives motivation, so enjoy!

Ask your students about their favorite books and where they like to read. You'll probably get the usual places, in the den, in bed, in the garden, at the library etc

Now ask your students of the most amazing (and silly) places that they could read... the more ridiculous the better!

Here are some ideas:
- Reading Harry Potter whilst scuba diving
- Reading Diary of a Wimpy kid while juggling oranges
- Reading Percy Jackson & The Olympians whilst doing a space walk on the moon

The idea behind this activity is to help your students take the ordinary and make it extraordinary, which is a great way to be a ridiculous writer!

Let's make Halloween ridiculous!

As a class create a list of things associated with Halloween, then think of one adjective to describe each noun.

E.g.

- Shrieking ghost
- Cackling witch
- Evil wizard
- Horrifying zombie

Now - change the adjective to antonym of it:

E.g.

- Whispering ghost
- Whooping witch
- Pleasant wizard
- Kind zombie

Can your students now improve the adjectives further to make them even sillier? What about a scared ghost? A chatty pumpkin? A vegan zombie?

With the new list of ridiculous ideas, can your students write their mini saga inspired by a Halloween setting and character with the ridiculous twist?

You can either do this activity as a class or as in smaller groups. It’s great to get them coming up with original ideas for their piece.

1. Get each student to name their favorite books, mash them all up and see if there’s a sentence, storyline or title that could be used!
2. If films are more to your students’ liking, repeat idea 1 but with movie titles.
3. Ask your students to name one person they would choose as their hero, collect them all and see if the characters inspire some storylines
4. Pull up a news site (preferably tailored for a younger audience), are there some wild news stories that may inspire your students? News for Kids is a good place to go.
5. Use the name generator on our website to find some funny mash-up characters.

Ask students to suggest superpowers, e.g. invisibility, flying, indestructibility, or shapeshifting. Write these down in adjective form, if necessary, e.g. invisible, shapeshifter, etc.

Now put these superpower adjectives in one pot and the nouns we provided in your resources pack (or you can download them here) and ask pupils to pick out a crazy combo...

From The Shapeshifting Ninja to The Invisible Teacher we can’t wait to see what combos your students create!

It's Thanksgiving! What a great time to draw inspiration from our surroundings and channel that into creative writing.

Ask your students to come up with nouns and adjectives/verbs to pop in two separate pots.

They then pick one noun and one adjective/verb to create a crazy Thanksgiving combo to write about.

 E.g.

The forgetful turkey
The clumsy granny
The annoying aunty
The ugly pilgrim
The unknown pie
The lost stuffing balls
The confused cranberry
The wacky hat

If you already have your combos figured out, ask your students to list three of their favorite things about Thanksgiving, can they link those things together to make a ridiculous mini saga?

Myths and Legends are a fantastic way to intrigue and inspire your students. From strange beasts like dragons, hippogriffs or the Minotaur to magical creatures like mermaids, unicorns and Anasi, there is literally something for everyone!

Can your students re-tell a myth or legend in their own words? Can they put a ridiculous twist on the original tale? What if they set the myth or legend in modern-day? What if a dragon lived in a condo in Miami today, could the Minotaur be a dance champion? There is so much scope for original mini sagas inspired by some of the greatest stories ever told!

[YouTube] => gDe5bdMqW88 [Opens] => 2021-11-01 [Closes] => 2022-01-07 [Extended] => 1 [Orion ID] => 473 [RR Ontraport ID] => [DL Ontraport ID] => 423 [Post Class] => [Orion Teacher Year] => [How to Enter] => [Winners Subheading] => We're delighted to announce the winners... [Winners Intro] =>

Thank you to everyone who took part in Ridiculous Writers!

Congratulations to our student winner, Katharine and our school winner: Warren Area Elementary Center!

We have loved reading every single crazy combo creation - what imagination!

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[Independent Rules] =>
[Independent Prizes] =>
[Meta Title] => Ridiculous Writers Creative Writing Contest [Meta Description] => Ridiculous Writers Creative Writing Contest [Meta Keywords] => ridiculous writers, young writers, creative writing, mini sagas, contests, writing contests, school resources, elementary school [Share Title] => Ridiculous Writers Creative Writing Contest [Share Description] => Perfect for 6-12 year-olds. Write a mini saga inspired by a crazy combo... so much fun to be had! [Layout] => main-comp [Icon] => https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bonacia-sites/young-writers-usa/contests/ridiculous-writers/4284-thumbnail.jpg [Category] => Elementary [Type] => creative-writing [Country] => USA [How to Enter Image] => [Video Placeholder] => https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bonacia-sites/young-writers-usa/contests/ridiculous-writers/7434-video-placeholder.jpg [School Prize] => https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bonacia-sites/young-writers-usa/contests/ridiculous-writers/6674-school-prize.jpg [Student Prize] => https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bonacia-sites/young-writers-usa/contests/ridiculous-writers/7100-student-prize.jpg [Banner Background] => https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bonacia-sites/young-writers-usa/contests/ridiculous-writers/1589-banner-background.jpg [Banner Logo] => https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bonacia-sites/young-writers-usa/contests/ridiculous-writers/7687-banner-logo.png [Share Image] => https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bonacia-sites/young-writers-usa/images/page-content/8446-share-image.png ) [date_created] => 2021-11-01 00:00:00 [last_updated] => 2024-09-23 08:09:50 [sort_order] => 43 [incoming] => 0 [live] => 1 [archived] => 0 [deleted] => 0 )