Spring storytelling 2026

pop-up landscape

Spring stories, 2026

Stories in school and other excitements
with Creeping Toad,

celebrating the richness of the changing year with story-telling, puppet-making, story-building, pop-up landscapes and boxes of treasures. Outdoors or indoors, the natural world will give us stories and offer inspiration for child-led creativity!

Here are stories from the edge of summer, of new life and growth, of the green under old trees and the thrills of cold water in a mountain glen. and activities to enchant and inspire.

Gordon MacLellan – Creeping Toad –is back in northern Scotland in 2026. (Generally working around Inverness, reaching east to Forres and Elgin, west towards Ullapool, south to Strathdearn and north of Dornoch

Putting together a set of new stories and some new activities (with a few old favourites), Gordon will be in Scotland in May and again in the autumn.

Dates: 13 - 27th May 2026

24 -28th August 2026

For a sense of what else is going in Toadworld, take a look at this blog or visit the Toad Instagram 

Mammoths in Buxton snow!

Drawing on 30 years of professional experience, Gordon’s work blends environmental experience with creativity. “Much of my work uses storytelling and story making but I also make small masks, giant masks, flags, lanterns, pop-up landscapes and create wild and wonderful occasions. We might work outdoors and take ideas from the world around us and our discoveries there. Indoors, herds of model mammoths combine with boxes of treasures to give children material to work from”



A day’s visit to your school might include: 

storytelling performances: lasting up to 60 minutes for up to 90 children at a time

a storybox

story boxes! outdoors or in, we'll use leaves and pine cones, twigs and stones and shells to inspire words, create poems and shape a set of stories never told before and finish with each child's new story built into a box of wonders.(allow 60 minutes for a class session)

pop-up storyscapes: allow an hour for a class: gathering ideas, images and words we’ll make quick 3-d landscapes holding the essence of a story in a setting, key characters and the words that set the adventure running depending upon age and theme we might make pop-up landscapes, storytowers or even foldedrivers that can run across a classroomfloor!

pop-up landscape

story characters: using found objects to inspire descriptions, we'll create a set of dramatic new characters and draw them or write them or make them as puppets



outdoor stories:(good for younger groups) ] starting with a traditional story we can head out into school grounds find the twigs, stones, feathers. leaves, grass, whatever, that will help us extend and complete the tale



simply treasure: picking up those boxes again; this time we could simply look at the world around us as a world where everything is precious and anything can be treasure: we'll forage, collect, map and maybe add a treasure-hunter or two

we can always spend time unpacking treasures!

Orchards and apples: we could pick up on the promise of richness with some orchard stories, tales of bilberries and brambles, unpredictable apple puppets (fake apples!), treasures hidden and jams made; who knows what stories wait among the fruit trees?

From across lands and times: I can select stories to suit times and places: so we have had days of Native American stories, or Egyptian or Greek or Roman, there have been Chinese tales and African animal stories….lots of exciting resources to draw on here, to make new writing vibrant and lively. Castles are popular, too, with boxes of treasures to inspire a new adventure and release a bold princess or courageous dragon

storytower

tales of old Scotland: a collection of stories of Highland folklore and Scottish histories, of heroes and sorrows, bravery and the magics of sea, mountain and moor. These can be steered in various directions and we might listen to stories from Viking days or medieval and Stuart stories and even add some Scottish explorers and their adventures and disasters…we can even build our own tiny castles, towerhouses and longships!

your own themes and ideas: or are you exploring a particular theme that you would like to involve some stories in? In recent projects, we have also made talking stone puppets, a giant eagle to hang from a classroom ceiling, prehistoric rockpools, a swarm of shadow dragons, pop-up castles

Charges: usually £280 a day. Fee includes storyteller’s fee, travel and materials. Can be paid on the day or I can invoice you. If I need to do a long journey for a single visit, I may have to charge more

a river pop-up unfolding into sunshine

Activities can be adapted to suit groups from P1 through to Secondary

For further information: visit the Creeping Toad website at

http://creepingtoad.blogspot.co.uk/

To book: contact Gordon directly at

creepingtoad@btinternet.com

or by telephone: mobile: 07791 096857