You might have thought that our focus on writing would have tailed off as we moved toward the end of the year. In true Unley style, this was not the case! This term we rolled out an exciting new opportunity for our young aspiring authors – Writers on Wattle.

Every Monday after school, about 35 students gathered in our library and, after some inspiration, set about to showcase their talents – revelling in the joy of writing and delighting us all with their words. Below we have asked the Writers on Wattle children to capture one of their favourite pieces of writing from their time as part of the group.

We are determined to see writing continue to shine across all year levels next year and beyond. Thank you for the important role you play in helping us achieve this goal. Click here to read some ideas on how to keep your child engaged in writing. We hope there is lots of happy writing happening over the holiday break!

Some highlights from the Writers on Wattle authors:

I am a child of…

I am a child of the imagination.
I come from a world of make-believe
and upon my thinking I sail across the breeze.
I have sought across an endless pain of thoughts and along these tales I travel.
I travel over seas of narratives, discover treasures all around.
I can lose myself in forests of fiction, and escape soldiers from evil castles.
I will sleep in puffs of limericks,
And scream as loud as I want in a freeze motion world.
For this is the land I live on, the house that I stay at – different from anyone else.
More vibrant, more colourful and cheerful.
More bright, more happy and different.
For imagination is right!
Ava, Year 3

I am a child of love with honesty and the truth. I scramble all the words out my mouth to spell I love you. All the letters, all the love I give I always stop to say… thank you.
Senara, Year 1

I’m a child of music
I come from a world of melodies
And upon my imagination
I listen

I listen to songs that are already made
And come up with my own
Songs crazy like a beast
Or as delicate as ice

Music of Autumn, leaves drifting down
Or music of winter stormy clouds covering the cyan blue sky
Music a wonderful gift for anyone
And you can sail across music notes to a different world

We can listen to lullabies in the dark
Or rock’n roll in the flashing light
We’ll make a totally different styled song
Or keep the same mood
Adelaide, Year 4

I’m a child of wonder
I come from a land of curiosity and I’m used to asking questions,
they often don’t get answered.
I still love curiosity with all my heart.
I wonder, I wonder and I wonder.
I sail across a sea of ideas, popping into my brain like a balloon.
Upon my love of wonder, I start to get the feeling that my heart will grow more on other things but this is just the beginning.
Zara, Year 2

I am a child of crystal. l come from a world of rocks. l see a glittery rock shiny in the floor and I dig it up. To you I would say come to the moon and get one of the rocks you need then we can go to the cave of mysteries. Here, you mine and mine until we find the sea of me me me. 
Madeline, Year 1

I’m a child of learning, my eyes stuck to the page unless I have to stop – if you say.
Alice, Year 1

Let me tell you what really happens on Halloween once everyone has gone to sleep…

Once the clock strikes midnight, vicious vampires and monstrous mummies slither out of their tombs to carve pumpkins and terrify the villagers.
Eva, Year 2

Black bats get the score boards.Three ogres stand in town square in different sides. The prize is a smelly trophy. A witch holds a flag, “On your tails, get set, scream!!”
Hareem, Year 2

Every Halloween night vampires set traps for humans and suck their dark red blood if you fall for the trap. So don’t fall for the traps. Well, at least try not to.
Avalene, Year 2

Let me tell you what happens on this lolly-driven occasion. Witches brew potions with so many unique ingredients like rat’s tails and bright reddish velvet phoenix feathers. Emerald green hands reached out of gritty old graves with unimaginable, sorrowful dates of death whilst werewolves howled their intrepid hearts out.
Henry, Year 2

As the clock strikes midnight, witches brew putrid potions in cauldrons. They bubble and brew, splash and splutter. What do they do with the potions you ask? Well they pour them all over the lollies. Cursing them like sleeping beauty. The witches lose all their warts, and party until morning. They will be all back to normal by then. Trust me, you will not want to see their hideous appearances because they will send a shiver down your spine and an adrenaline rush through you body.
Nalia, Year 5

Let me tell you what really happens once everyone has gone to sleep… Werewolves creep from laneways, beckoning for others to follow. Vampires stir in coffins, black cats pad around cities spreading bad luck, and ghosts zoom from the heavens, all listening to the werewolves’ call.
Nina, Year 2

Poetry

The Heart of Me
Where is the heart of me?
Is it up a tree?
Or has a crook stolen it?
What about that book?
It could be taking a Sunday stroll.
Or is it in my blueberry scroll?
It has to be on earth.
The heart might be hidden in Perth.
Could it be lost at war?
Maybe a dog squashed it with its paw.
Maybe it is looking for spare parts.
Or is it playing darts?
Is it in my zucchini?
No it might be a piece of broccolini.
Oh silly me it was never up a tree it is my family.
Callum, Year 6

The Stolen Generation
Families torn apart in the blink of a mother’s eye.
Loss, sorrow and despair brought up into one emotion.
Tears swell up and crying will never stop.
Shrieks of desperation echo the vast land.
The life you once knew, stolen.
Changed forever just like that.
Taken forever, lost forever.
Heartbreak now, never-ending.
Life disrupted.
Stolen
Iris, Year 6

Writing
Writing is useful,
Writing is fun.
Writing is wonderful,
You will never be done.
Scribbling in notebooks,
Grasping a pen.
Writers on Wattle, we meet again.
Be very careful about what you write, for it might not be right.
Ideas whizzing in your head,
Writing, writing until you’re dead.
Sophia, Year 3

Poetry
Poetry isn’t a thing
It’s a piece of you layer within
Anyone could have it
Deep Beneath their skin

It’s not in your stomach
Nor in your heart
An X- ray won’t find it
Even if you’re taken apart

So start finding the poet
You know fits you.
Olive, Year 4

The Eagorsebee
Yesterday I saw a strange creature you might not usually see.
Was it a horse, with wings of a bee?
It leaps and prances, like a gazelle on the plains –
Spiralled horns, beak of an eagle, but not at all tame.

I tried to approach it
as it stamped its hooves.
But it just glared at me with cold blue eyes
and did not move.

So I left it alone
and to this day,
no one has spotted it,
near or far away.
Li-Ern, Year 4

The Hogging Frog
There once was a frog on a log
he always loved to hog
But once she meet Tim
his life was based on the Gym
until a friend Suzy moved in

Sometimes he’d prance or sometimes even dance
when his pet prancer was near
At last it was linner in between lunch and dinner
when he played his favourite game spinner.
Zora, Year 4

Writing
Writing is about how far you go,
How high you jump,
And what you show.

We reach higher,
For the sky,
Further, longer,
Just you and I.

A nice view from above,
Writing filled with passion and love.

Seeing the world from every point,
Just for writing I’ll lose a joint.

My love for writing is a whirling wind.

This is why I love writing.
Geordie, Year 6

Santa
Santa is as kind as a best friend.
Santa is as happy as a shark when it finds a yummy fish.
Santa is as thoughtful as a chess player.
Santa is like a big teddy bear.
Santa is like the most joy bringing person in the world.
Beatrice, Year 3

Free writing

I was washed away in the deep end of the bright sea. Dad threw me in with no goggles for no reason! We found cockle shells. There were lots of seagulls eating hot warm chips. There were big waves. I saw a fin. Was it a seal or a dolphin, or a shark?
Max, Reception

The Heart of my Family
The heart of my family is about our traditions. Our traditions are about what we eat, what we celebrate and what we believe.
Our diets are predominantly rice, noodles, dumplings, wraps and porridges. Also, we eat fried meat and veggies.
Harry, Year 1

One day, Juliet was walking in the woods near her house until she found a place where there was lots of colourful flowers.
She started to pick some flowers but instead of picking flowers she found a hard surface. She felt around the hard surface and found it was some sort of egg. She decided to take it home to see what it was. Inside, her Dad said ‘It was a ridgeback dragon egg.’ Juliet said ‘I want to keep the egg to make it hatch.’
Fergus, Year 1

It was early Saturday morning, on the 7th of November, when Holly was laying in her four-post bed, thinking about the day ahead of her. She wondered if her parents had forgotten her 11th birthday or if they just didn’t care. “They probably forgot” Holly doubtedly reassured herself. Her parents always ‘forgot’. Kind of. They would get her presents and place them in the living room but never acknowledge that it was her big day or even acknowledge her existence. Every year Holly thought that it was going to be different, but as it never was, she gradually began to see who her parents were – fame-seeking, money-scavengers. They cared for no one but themselves. She wondered if there was such a thing as selfless selfishness.
Abbie, Year 5  

Honey peeked out from behind a dark oak tree. She had heard hooves cantering near her earlier and had headed to the noise. She saw beautiful white majestic unicorns and they where disappearing underground! She quietly stepped out from behind her hiding spot and followed the hoof tracks until they came to an abrupt stop in the sand. Honey was about to turn around when the ground suddenly opened up to reveal a small tunnel. She gasped as she saw light in the tunnel. She walked through, her footsteps echoing through the tunnel.
Mia, Year 5

The sounds of air whipping and whirring echoed through the cold winter night, a red light emitting from the helipad “Alright, squad, let’s do a quick re-brief on our mission; we are sent to infiltrate enemy camp somewhere in the middle of a vast forest and grab some Intel on them, the recent bombings and attacks in London have all lead us to this new terrorist organization, and remember, check your shots and stay frosty, got it?’’ the squad gave an affirmative nod “Yes, Sir!” and with that, they climbed aboard the helicopter and took off.
Shaun, Year 5

I paced impatiently around the vast cave, the clicking sound of my claws making echoey noises. “Calm down, will you?” Jade said from the corner.
“Calm down?!” I spun around to face him. “We’re in the darkest depths of the underworld, waiting to be executed, with no way to escape, and you expect me to CALM DOWN?!”
Jade flicked his tail with a growl. “Complaining won’t do us any good.” He replied.
I rolled my eyes, ready to execute a witty and blistering retort, but a loud bang interrupted me. I spun to face the door, my claws out and my teeth bared, ready to fight. A sleek, battle scarred leopard was standing there, blocking out the light.
“My name is Kae,” she said. “Come with me if you want to live.”
Scarlet, Year 6

Thunder swivelled around the room, a giant vase next to me smashed and fell. Inky yelled,
“Look out” and threw herself towards me and I slid across the floorboards.
Lightning zapped next to me, I scrambled away from the sizzling spot that the lightning hit.
“Take cover!” Skye yelled from somewhere that sounded faraway.
I gasped but the air got sucked right out of my lungs. A voice started echoing through my mind,
“You have made it to the Trials Of Peril, now it is time to face your doom!”
Laughter echoed through my skull, as I threw myself away from another bolt of lightning.
Lara, Year 6