Showing posts with label summer activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer activities. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Summer stories: workshops for schools and public events 2016


Summer stories
Stories in school
and other excitements
with Creeping Toad,
Summer 2016
celebrating the richness of the season, here are stories, 
sculptures, flags, books and  boggarts

With stories spinning from the first signs of spring right through to earth giants, summer flowers and thunder-tigers, here are stories and activities to enchant and inspire.


a small story-house
Drawing on 30 years of professional experience, my 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”

Scottish Tour dates: 
April 25th - May 6th
September 5th - 16th

Dates for England & Wales:  
just about any other time - I tend to plan trips as bookings come in

These notes are written for schools. if you have a community grouup or fancy a public event these might give you a guide to what wee might do but talk to me about your specific situation...

a group telling their own stories,  Woodland Trust 2015

In school

A day’s visit to your school might include:

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

stories out of anything! 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
(allow 60 minutes for a class session)


New workshop!
headfulls and handfuls of river animals
puppets and headfulls of animals: like the illustration, we can make quick finger puppet animals or magnificent animal crowns. Allow an hour and a half for a class
New workshop!
Heroes for stories: building characters - as quick puppets and as written pieces: capturing the qualities of our characters for stories: their ambitions, triumphs, disasters and secrets - skills for a richer tale

make your own book
story and book workshops: taking a bit longer (allow 90 minutes for a class) as well as discovering those stories no-one has ever heard before, now we will build those into the books that no-one has ever read before and leave the classroom with a library no-one has ever visited before!

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

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

Ancient Lives:  a wider historical perspective could be involved, by adding a voice from the distant past to your history topics with stories that our Stone, Bronze or Iron Age ancestors might have listened to. Stories, models, artefacts and drawings can feed into art inspired by cave paintings, carvings and jewellery

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

an African selection

Charges: £250 a day: includes storyteller’s fee, travel and materials. Can be paid on the day or I can invoice you. Activities can be adapted to suit groups from P1 through to Secondary

For further information and to book    
contact Gordon directly at
         creepingtoad@btinternet.com
or by telephone:
landline: 01298 77964
mobile: 07791 096857

release the storytelling pirates!
 

Tuesday, 11 August 2015

Public event: Wild woodland life

 
Wild Woodland Life
Ledmore & Migdale Woods, Spinningdale
Saturday 29th August 2015
who knows who - or what - will be waiting for us?

telling stories, making up new stories and building puppets of the characters who now, once or just simply should live in the beautiful ancient woods of Migdale

These are Woodland Trust woods nor far off the A9 near Dornoch
Meeting place: meet at Torroy car park. From the A949 in Spinningdale, turn onto the minor road sign posted to Migdale.  Parking is 0.6 miles on the right (IV24 3AD).

When: there will be two sessions during the day: 10.30 - 12.30 and 1.30 - 3.30


a woodland full of wonders
Bookings: the event is free but please book so we can keep track of numbers (the afternoon is a repeat of the morning so you don't need to do both!)
To book a place, contact Juliet on 07810 027556 or ledmoremigdale@woodlandtrust.org.uk

An event for Woodland Trust (Scotland)

Thursday, 17 July 2014

Myths, legends and mazes: workshops in Derbyshire



Myths, Legends And Mazes
workshops in Derbyshire libraries
Derbyshire stories and monstrous tales; make a puppet and use it - or them - to  weave new stories of your own. 
secret woods and forgotten pools,
who knows where our local stories are lurking?

This year’s Summer Reading Challenge has “mythical mazes” for it’s theme...an invitation to go wandering down the corridors of our imaginations and to get lost in the knotted remains of furniture or in the dust under the bed...or perhaps to stray into the gardens where stone lions where coral hats, plastic bag dragons go flapping past and boggarts leer at us from the shadows....

The Summer Reading Challenge is an annual initiative inspiring young people to read 6 books during their summer holidays. At the end, they receive a medal and certificate. It is run through libraries in conjunction with the Reading Agency. Find out more here 


One of last year's
spooky houses
Last year's theme was Creepy House with readers earning some spooky smelly stickers during the weeks of the Challenge, (the strange scent of the garlic sticker lingers with me to this day). I was leading workshops in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City libraries creating the creepy houses we would like to visit. Who knows what will appear in this summer's sessions?

This summer I am doing workshops in both Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire libraries. Follow this link for Notts venues and dates. I am also part of a team leading workshops across Derbyshire. There are three of us: Maria Whatton, Debi Hedderwick and myself and while all three of us are doing individual workshops, there will be four days where we will work together in a library creating a performance story that will be told, danced, plunged through or whatever at the end of the workshop.
There is a blog for this project: Derbyshire myths and legends where details of other workshops can be found. My dates follow
who is hiding behind the reflection
in a mirror pool?

My sessions
Come along and listen to Derbyshire stories; make a puppet and use it - or them - to  weave new stories of your own. 

doorways to marvels
Suitable for 8– 12 years 
Booking essential 
Workshops
are free
are aimed at 8 - 12 year olds and spaces are limited os places need booking. 
will either be morning or afternoon: there will be another workshop in a nearby library in the other half of the day

Contact your local library to book a place and to check times

http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/find_your_local_library/default.asp

Date (August)
Library
Time
Saturday 2nd
Eckington
10am - 12noon

Staveley
1.30 - 3.30 pm
Saturday 9th
Killamarsh
10am - 12noon

Dronfield
1.30 - 3.30 pm
Monday 11th
Brimington
10am - 12noon

Whitwell
2 - 4pm
Saturday 16th
Old Whittington
10am - 12noon

Wingerworth
1.30 - 3.30 pm
Monday 18th 
New Mills
10am - 12noon

Gamesley
2 - 4pm
Tuesday 19th
Chapel-en-le-Frith
10am - 12noon

Hadfield
2 - 4pm
Thursday 21st
Hayfield
10am - 12noon

Whaley Bridge
2 - 4pm
Thursday 28th
Creswell
10am - 12noon

Clowne
2 - 4pm



 



Joint event days

Date
Library
Time
Tuesday 29th July
Glossop 
10 - 4pm
Wednesday 30th July
Ashbourne
10 - 4pm
Tuesday 5th August
Long Eaton
10 - 4pm
Monday 1st September
Chesterfield
10 - 4pm
Derbyshire's stories run back
through hundreds of years
Images in this post include one (the last) from Buxton Museum's digital collection, why not visit their website and take a look? Here!


Monday, 24 March 2014

A summer full of stories




A Summer full of stories
Stories in school with Creeping Toad, Summer 2014

From the secret treasures of frogspawn to the first birds’ nests, bees in trees and flowers in fields, we’ll meet stories that encourage us to look with new eyes on the world around us and remember that there are stories inside the humblest of creatures and the most ordinary of plants, and that we can all have adventures too

I am releasing ideas and workshop spaces for the summer term - and through into autumn - if anyone out there would like a storytelling or workshop day in school -or as an event in a country park, nature reserve, or some other place that would enjoy a bit of extra excitement!

A day’s visit to your school might include the following: shorter sessions might include bits of one or two of these longer activities

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

stories outside! using the school ground, we’ll take storymaking out of the classroom and use the immediate environment, the day’s weather and whatever we can find to inspire words, create poems and shape a set of stories never told before (allow 60 minutes for a class session)

New workshop!
puppets and headfulls of animals: like the illustration, we can make quick finger puppet animals or magnificent animal crowns. Allow an hour and a half for a class

New workshop! 
Heroes for stories: building characters - as quick puppets and as written pieces: capturing the qualities of our characters for stories: their ambitions, triumphs, disasters and secrets - skills for a richer tale

New workshop!
Limestone life: working with fossils and models of life in ancient seas, we can look at the worlds that gave us the limestones and sandstones of the British Isles adding finger puppets and rockpools from ancient seashores as we go! (allow 60 - 90 minutes)

story and book workshops: taking a bit longer (allow 90 minutes for a class) as well as discovering those stories no-one has ever heard before, now we will build those into the books that no-one has ever read before and leave the classroom with a library no-one has ever visited before!

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

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

your own themes and ideas: or are you exploring a particular theme that you would like to involve some stories in? pirates….tropical islands….ancient cave people…..where in our school would bears live?…castle adventures,  have all featured in recent Creeping Toad projects


Charges: £250 a day: includes storyteller’s fee, travel and materials. Can be paid on the day or I can invoice you. 

To book: contact Gordon directly at
or by telephone: 
landline: 01298 77964
mobile: 07791 096857