Tag Archives: environmental art

Winter tales and Spring stories

 

 

Winter tales and Spring stories

Stories in school with Creeping Toad

December 2014 – April 2015

marking the changing edge of the year, here are old stories, new adventures and chances to create tales that no-one else has ever heard before!

With stories running from the frozen edges of the world right through to the first flowers of spring and the waking of the bumblebees, here are stories and activities to enchant and inspire.

 

in performance, photo c/o Laurence Crossman-Emms and the Woodland Trust

Gordon MacLellan – Creeping Toad – is one of Britain’s foremost environmental art and education workers…and he tells stories as well! Take a look at the Toadblog: Creeping Toad

 Here are some suggestions for activities that you might like to invite into your school,

park, library or thrilling crypt (I’m very broad-minded). Booking details are at the foot of the page

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! usually we might do this outside but given wintry weather, we’ll use leaves and pine cones, twigs and stones and shells indoors to inspire words, create poems and shape a set of stories never told before (allow 60 minutes for a class session)

 

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 or maybe the thrills of a lifecycle in a setting, key characters and the words that set the adventure running

Winter lights: finding words and images to hold the essence of winter or the hopes of spring in quick poems, we’ll slide words  and pictures into lanterns and make a swarm of small glowing lanterns to glow through the darkest nights or gloomiest days

shadow stories: out of my stories might come new stories: drawing on whatever theme we are working with to create quick performances of shadow puppets. Incorporating silhouettes, translucence and transparency, we’ll mix science with story to create an (almost) instant set of story performances to show or perhaps to film

 

Ancient Lives: add 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? pirates….tropical islands….ancient Greeks…fairies, frogs and trolls…..where in our school would bears live?…the Great Fire of London  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. Activities can be adapted to suit groups from KS 1, 2 or 3

 

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:

landline: 01298 77964

mobile: 07791 096857

 

you never know who, or what, will end up in a Creeping Toad story!

 

 

 

 

Learning Outside The Classroom – new courses!

NEW LOTC COURSES 2012
Afternoon workshops

“Learning Outside The Classroom” courses with the Peak District National Park

 

NATURAL CELEBRATIONS

9th January 2012 , Flash School near Buxton

waving giant at the Just-so Festival, 2011

How do we get our classes to take hold of their own inspirations and work together to create exciting and dramatic events? What activities can capture the colours and patterns of nature for our celebrations?

 

This workshop will offer:

• activities to help groups plan and design celebrations

• a look at creative themes you might use in a celebration

• give you a chance to try some useful  art activities with lanterns, flags, big masks, spectacular standards and unbelievable hats…

• take time for us all to share ideas and experiences

All courses run from 1:30 – 5:30pm and cost £70. If your school books more than one of any of our charged for courses you will receive a 20% discount on all courses.

 

Newham, London: processing through the local park

For more details, please contact:

Sarah Wilks, Tel: 01433 620373     learning.discovery@peakdistrict.gov.uk

 

MATHS NATURALLY

21st March 2012, at Losehill Hall Youth Hostel, Castleton,

Based around a maths treasure hunt, come and discover how learning in the fresh air can help develop an enthusiasm for maths, as well as deepen mathematical understanding and thinking.

shapes, patterns, sizes and silhouettes - an old oak has so much to offer!

This workshop will offer:

• activities to develop mathematical skills in real life contexts

• working with maps and coordinates to engage pupils and encourage them to lead their own learning

• developing maths through story and drama activities

• activities that use a kinaesthetic approach to teaching maths OR enjoying maths through hands-on, engaging making and doing

 

 

All courses run from 1:30 – 5:30pm and cost £70. If your school books more than one of any of our charged for courses you will receive a 20% discount on all courses.

 

For more details, please contact:

Sarah Wilks, Tel: 01433 620373     learning.discovery@peakdistrict.gov.uk

and pirates offer coordinates, geometries, distances, depths and arguments over the fair sharing of treasures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADVENTURES EVERYWHERE

22nd March 2012 Moorland Discovery Centre, National Trust Longshaw Estate, Hathersage

small hands create precise stories with natural objects...

Step out of the classroom and into a world where everything around us is having adventures. The processes and patterns of nature, the lives of animals and plants, all offer rich inspirations for new poems and wild stories

Looking for Adventures Everywhere, during the afternoon we will:

• shape communal poems out of special moments and memories

• work outside building our own storywalk: with activities that could work either joined together to create a whole experience or that might stand alone as individual exercises: atmosphere poems, riddles, animal diaries and wildlife characters

• make laced-up books drawing all these earlier activities together

• end with a quick story-telling session, sharing our new poems and stories

 

All courses run from 1:30 – 5:30pm and cost £70. If your school books more than one of any of our charged for courses you will receive a 20% discount on all courses.

 

For more details, please contact:

Sarah Wilks, Tel: 01433 620373     learning.discovery@peakdistrict.gov.uk

Workshop leader:Gordon MacLellan: as Creeping Toad, Gordon has been leading celebrations with schools and community groups for more than 20 years. From playschemes with hundreds of children to quiet garden events, Gordon’s experience reaches from South African arts festivals to Manchester schools, from Highland woods to Buxton’s lantern processions.