build a library for your classroom!
Workshops for National Book Week,
13 – 19th November 2023
(These workshops were planned for Scotland's National Book Week and I am delivering workshops in Scotland from 14 – 23rd November but am entirely happy to take bookings for other places and other times!)
CONTACT: Gordon at creepingtoad@btinternet.com
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| book building, print making, rubbing, sketching |
Make a library for your classroom, your den, your secret corner or visitor centre!
Let's start with a story from some ancient manuscript! There might be ancient Egyptian myths first written on papyrus or Sumerian legends etched in cuneiform scripts on clay tablets. We might recite Viking runes that were carved into stones. We might simply tell tales from old, old books.
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| concertina pages |
We’ll start with stories but then we will open our own books. And design our own pages….in these workshops every child (or other participant! I'm not worried about your ages!) will have the chance to make their own book. We may not have time to complete the stories that go in them in the time we have, but we’ll plan, design, cut and make so that by the time we finish, there will be books inviting new words to fill them!
Depending upon time and desire, there are different book forms we could use:
· One-piece books: fold, fold again, cut a door, cut a window, unfold, open the door and there – a house! A castle! A tree to hold a story together
· Concertinas: small, neat, folded and unfolding books: ideal for drawings, small prints, adding maps and tiny pop-up characters in corners
· Bound with book rings: here individual pages are held together with metal hoops giving us opportunities to play with different papers and textures, with foldout pages, pockets, flaps, transparent pages and more
· Georgian secret books: historic “love letters”- folded booklets with flaps revealing and concealing endearments or, for us, hiding or uncovering parts of a story. Traditionally wrapped in paper and sealed with wax, we’ll give our booklets covers and use the sealing wax as a brand on the cover
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| Georgian folded letters of secrets |
Age: workshops can be adjusted to suit ages but we could talk about what would suit your own groups best,
Time: most workshops need 90 minutes or so with a class of about 30 children
Bookings: talk to me about possible dates and costs: creepingtoad@btinternet.com
How about a book building session for National Poetry Day (5th October 2023), World Book Day (7th March 2024), National Storytelling Week (Jan 30th - Feb 6th 2024), - or just because it would inspire the folk you work with!
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| Book rings let us play with different shapes and sizes of pages |
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