Reason to write #1. ‘La Luna,’ the Pixar short film.

How many times do we tell our children to come off their tablet/ away from their computer, phone, laptop etc… so that they can do some work. Perhaps, instead of separating them from their devices, we should harness the dark magical powers of the Internet and use them for good. And the 7 minute short film from Pixar is definitely good: so good that you’ll want to watch it again and again. So good that it just might prompt some beautiful writing.

‘La Luna’ tells the story of a young boy who goes to work for the first time with his Dad and Grandad, but what he finds when he gets there is very unexpected. I won’t tell you any more about the content of the film but what I will tell you is that this film is superb for literacy and that’s why it has secured the top spot of my ‘reasons to write.’ I’m sure that it will get your creative juices flowing but, just to start you off, here are a few activities I would do with my children using this film:

·        + teach speech punctuation and write down what the characters are actually saying to one another

·        + write a diary entry as though you are one of the characters

·         + create a ‘job specification’ advertising the position

·        + continue the story… what happens next?

·        + act the story out and film it- make your own 7 minute version of ‘La Luna’- if you’re looking for a full theme, why not make your very own moon, stars and boat? Or research astronomy…

Find it on youtube: La Luna