Workshop: Adventures with early years

 Working with younger children?

a training course

Thursday 5th November,

Wildwise, Devon

Who shall we send on our adventure?

Where shall we go?

What shall we find?

Who shall we meet?

The questions that spark stories, that have little fingers finding little treasures, that send us creeping through the bushes, building tiny houses out of twigs, telling stories. Telling stories: stretching language, finding new words, discovering descriptions through movement, through holding and handling, through being in the middle of our own adventure

Great ideas to further the excitement and opportunities for the children*

Do you work with younger children? I have another training course coming up in November aimed at creating these storytelling and art adventures with young groups. 

If you are interested in joining us, you are welcome to talk to me about the content and details but to book and discuss money you need to talk to the organizers, Wildwise

Workshops like these are aimed at teachers, countryside rangers, environmental educators, youth group leaders….

Confidence in working with stories and making them! Inspiration for activities to use at home and work. Ideas to carry forward to others

During a workshop, we will aim to

            explore ideas

            try out (hopefully) new or different ways of connecting people to the natural world

            experiment with materials and techniques

            give you time to think and plan for your own situation

            meet fellow professionals

            remind youself that working with people and nature is fun, and rewarding!

LOADS! My head is buzzing with ideas that will encourage all ages and abilities to engage in writing starting from the outdoor environment. Great way to get children outside without an excuse

Outdoor Adventures with Younger Children

Thursday 5th November: activities for creative times with younger children - from instant characters to take adventuring to finding treasures, making up stories, looking for secrets…for Wildwise in Devon

9.30 am - 4.30 pm

on the Dartington Estate

£115 / £95 / £70*

 Build your own toolkit of activities and themes to use with younger children. Looking at the world around us as a treasure-trove of stories, to inspire language, encourage communication and foster a deep sense of excitement. Discover the best pizza for a troll, and how to call a dragon from a flowerbed! Using readily transferable techniques and easily sourced materials, this workshop will encourage us to value and cherish the creativity of younger children.

(I feel I should point out that I am an environmental educator, artist and storyteller - not a bushcraft worker so we'll be happily muddied into art, story and leaves rather than bush-crafter stuff! There are lots of other workshops you can go to for this - look at the rest of the Wildwise programme for a start!)

* rates for business/voluntary-charitable organisations/individuals

Bookings: contact Wildwise.

Wildwise office 01803 868269 / 07919 093784

WildWise Events
Dartington Space
Dartington Hall
Totnes
TQ9 6EN

* the quotes are from participants at my October workshops for the Outrageous Nature Company

The Lost Tales of Old Milngavie

 

The lost tales of Milngavie

Douglas Academy,

8th September 2015

card, ready for action

back in early September, I led a workshop day at Douglas Academy in Milngavie, working with mixed groups of children drawn from the feeder primary schools and S1 students from the academy (Years 6 and 7 for English folks!)

Our brief was to create some of the lost tales of the academy: stories pulled out of stone, tree and artefact, creating stories as pop-up landscapes and instant performances…..

artifacts to inspire

The workshops grew into excited, hectic sessions: 100+ young people for a 2 hour session, trays of Useful Bits, cardboard to work with, stories to hear, retell, invent

Children from Milngavie Primary School have added their own comments…

"The part of the afternoon that I most enjoyed was when (we) had to create our own story…My group's story was about a knight who had to defend his king's treasure" Raj

a room full of storytellers

"My favourite part of the afternoon was when we got to make our own pop up story scenes. That was different and new. It was amazing to see how you managed to get us to turn a story into art"  Rory

"I also enjoyed making the pop-up pictures. Mine was about an old man who lived in a barrel of walnuts"  Sam

"I liked how you had a natural style and were very creative in your ideas"  Nicola

"I also enjoyed making the stories in groups and I think all teachers should give us items to write about rather than telling us what to write"  Myfi

"I found it lovely that you included natural things in our stories" Keziah

With many thanks to:

Douglas Academy for organising this lovely day

Academy S1 students for becoming my workshop assistants

the storymakers, artists and inspirers of

Milngavie Primary

Clober Primary

Craigdhu Primary

Baldernock Primary

St Joseph's Primary School

(schools: if there are any photos that need editing, let me know)

Apple Day: autumn riches

 

Apple Day

autumn fruits

Sunday 18th October 2015

12 noon-4pm

Dove Valley Centre

autumn colours

Bring the family for a day of apple-related fun

·      Apple tasting & identification

·      Orchard wildlife

·      Apple juicing with Leek Food group (bring own apples & bottles)

·      Story telling

·      Appley fun activities for children

·      Bake apples in the fire

·      Raw food demo with 'Raw Appetite'

·      Bring jars of jam and chutney to swap

·      Barn owls in the Moorlands- slide show

·      Bring your apple recipes and apple dishes to share and taste.

autumn seedheads

Creeping Toad and Stone and Water will both be here adding our own distinctive touches. We'll be telling stories, making apple-y bunting, inviting people to print their own autumn cards and making some of the strange little Peg People who might fill an autumn orchard

Stay for the day - bring a packed lunch and warm clothes!

A free event - donations will go to Staffs Barn Owl Group

Supported by Borderland Voices, Stone and Water, 

The Leek Food group, Raw Appetite

and volunteers

autumn stories

Dove Valley Centre

Under Whitle, nr. Longnor, 7m. south of Buxton. SK17 OPR

Tel: 01298 83282, 

www.dovevalleycentre.co.uk

 

celebrating the riches of autumn

A light on the Moors

 

wondering what patterns hold our homes

Lanterns of the Peaks

planning

small Guardian ideas...

The plan began with the thought of creating lantern installation that would hold the essence of "what we value about ourselves, our homes and the wild hills we live among". Where it will go to, we still don't quite know. We thought we might make tall Peak Guardian figures with our thoughts printed onto their robes. We thought there might be abstract sculptural shapes or swans or even rabbits...

We began with willow, tissue and time to fiddle about and get a feel for the materials our group are working with. This is a Project eARTh series of workshops for High Peak Community Arts and our Monday afternoons are becoming wrapped in glue and paper, printed with paint and wobbled with willow

By Session 2, our first forms were reaching completion and people felt more confident about what we could with willow. We played around with printing: working with styrofoam sheets and inked leaves to print on paper and then onto tissue. As our main installations take shape we'll probably print our peak district images, patterns and words onto tissue to build into our lanterns

Session 3 (today!) saw us working as a whole company and to create a jigsaw puzzle deer: with people working on legs, body and head ready for a joining together and covering next time. So our Peak District feelings are going to be held, at least in part by a deer. A stag or a hind? Not sure yet

designing a deer

 a head begins

an elegantly crooked leg

a small lantern girl watches...