This year, Earth Hour is on Saturday 30 March. From 8:30-9:30PM, we all have one hour when we turn off non-essential electricity, all devices, all screens. The world goes dark. It feels quieter, peaceful – and that is the point. Earth Hour started in Sydney in 2007 as an initiative of the World Wide Fund…
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Step by Step Blog
Fun with Factual Writing
Many teachers ask us if the Seven Steps approach can be applied to informative writing such as recounts, science reports and factual writing. The answer is a resounding YES! In fact, the Seven Steps team – and some wonderful teachers – have been working out exactly how it looks if you use the Seven Steps…
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Grange Primary School Dominates Mayoral Make a Book Literacy Challenge
In just one year, Grange Primary School in South Australia has transformed their writing program, developing passionate, creative award-winning writers! Grange students performed over and above all expectations in this year’s City of Charles Sturt ‘Mayoral Make a Book Literacy Challenge’. Of the 650+ entries from students across the municipality, 23 of the 40…
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Putting it Together
When it’s all said and done, the end of the school year is the time of year to finish off, wrap up and enjoy. Students who have been introduced to the Seven Steps across the year may be wanting to practise all their skills. Time to put it all together! These four simple writing prompts…
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Getting Emotional
What is the most powerful book you have ever read? Books like this stay with us long after we have finished reading the last page because they engage our emotions. They might have made us laugh or cry. Perhaps they filled us with fear or hope. It doesn’t matter what emotion they inspired; the important…
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The Credit Goes to You, The Educators
Sometimes I feel like the luckiest person in the world! An average day for me starts by hopping onto the computer and reading emails from teachers about how engaged their students are and how amazing their writing has become. This one is from Cherie from Prescott College Southern in South Australia. I remember a young…
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So you want to be an author?
Lots of our students tell us they do. Which is wonderful, because it really motivates them to write! It can be a great boost to a class to ask each student to think like a real, professional author. Teach them the questions authors ask themselves: How are you going to start the story and grab…
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Making Magic with Words
Wearing all black today? Hair looking a bit odd, or is that a funny hat? No, you’re not in Melbourne for Fashion Week – it’s Hallowe’en and the costumes are out again! Before you groan – some of us do love the dress-ups and spooky stories – we just wanted to share some of our…
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