This week we looked at similes. The idea was to get the mums to create a description of a monster using similes.

From a group who weren’t sure at first what a simile was, we managed to create some brilliant ones. First of all we listed food we liked, thinking about why we liked it, and using all of our senses. We made up similes for each food, then we did the same with the food we hate. We wrote theses down onto paper plates, front and back, spiraling inwards. Here are some examples…

Food we like
as stringy as spaghetti
as chunky as chicken
as velvety as risotto
as crumbly as a flapjack
as crispy as spring rolls
as cheek tingling as honey
as lumpy as custard
as slurpy as spag bol
as crunchy as cucumber
as slick as a mango
as colourful as haribos
as crunchy as toast
as al dente as pasta

Food we don’t like
as eyeball squishy as cherry tomatoes
as awful as offal
as benign as avocado
as putrid as pulses
as chewy as octopus
as murky as mussels
as sad as pork
as lifeless as liver

The idea of writing on things other than bits of paper came from a creative writing and disability class organised by the Scottish Book Trust. It’s to try to make the writing less constrained – breaking out of normal formats. I think it definitely helps to loosen the writing up. It also makes it feel less like a school lesson.

To create the monsters we listed body parts including some animal parts (claws, antennae etc.) and expanded our list of things we don’t like, to included everything and anything – things we don’t like to touch, to see, to hear, to smell, to taste. By mixing these up and partnering with body parts we created some hideous monster characters.