stories from found, scavenged and rather unexpected objects
I’ve been doing workshops at these gatherings for a few years now and they are always lively, cheerful events. Excellent opportuntieis for meeting people, catching up on old friends, making new ones, exploring ideas and having good-natured arguments with people
I am only there on the Saturday doing workshops:
the Value of Tiny Things
Finding Stories
(details below)
tiny crows too small for easy photographs!
Other excitements from a very busy programme include:
working with special needs students
circular map making
Biomimicry: learning from nature’s genius
trainer in a rucksack
…and lots more!
The conference often sells out (and at only £75 for the weekend, it’s a bargain – the fee includes 4 workshops,a cocommodation and food) and workshop spaces need booking.
Follow the Lindley Trust link to find out more – and come and join us!
Tiny pirates meet a Tiny mermaid
Finding stories
A lively session spinning new stories, wild tales and improbable characters out of found materials. Working indoors and out, we’ll look at techniques to use with groups to build stories to tell, practical hints and useful themes for ourselves as leaders and additional activities to give ourselves the confidence to weave new stories on the spot.
The Value Of Tiny Things
Two main themes coincide in this workshop: the sheer excitement a lot of children (and older people!) find in working on a small scale and the practical limits on what equipment we can carry with us. So, with a guide to “make nothing bigger than your own hand”, we’ll set off to explore some Tiny Worlds with pirates and goblins, castles, treasure maps, tiny books terrible, tiny monsters. There may be even a fleet of very small ships on a very small pond
The official details of this year’s Burrenbeo conference are pasted in below. I was at last year’s event and it was rich and delightful. Good company, a wonderful setting and lots of thought-provoking sessions. so if you fancy a trip out to the west of ireland and the spectacular limestone landscapes of the Burren in July…sign up!
Place-based Learning – building a network?
Kinvara July 18th-20th 2013.
Building on the success of the inaugural Learning Landscape Symposium Apathy to Empathy – reconnecting people with place in 2012, the Burrenbeo Trust are hosting an intimate networking event this year for place-based educators, teachers, parents and anyone with an interest in place-based learning and/or learning in the Burren.
This event aims to:
provide a unique opportunity to network with other place-based educators from Ireland and beyond, exchange ideas and experiences
hear from some leading practitioners both nationally and internationally
continue the momentum from our biannual symposium in 2012 and build towards our planned 2014 event
explore Ireland ’s ultimate learning landscape, the Burren.
This event will feature interactive workshops in community venues in Kinvara village as well as field trips to the Burren, cultural events and much more. It will start on the evening on the 18th, the workshops will be throughout the 19th, and there is an optional fieldtrip on the 20th.
Cost: €70 (€60 for OAP/Students, €55 for Burrenbeo Trust members).
Bookings are now open by contacting trust@burrenbeo.com and 091 638096 or downloading the attach form and sending it back. Places are strictly limited and bookings will be on a first come first served basis.
The full programme will be released shortly; keep an eye on www.burrenbeo.com for more information.
The Burren, Ireland ’s Learning Landscape – An Bhoireann, Tírdhreach Saíochta na hÉireann
Training has suffered a bit in our current distressed times so when there is a chance to do something exciting, we can only hope that people will dive into the opportunity.
Why not seize the moment and find new inspiration, activities to use and renewed delight in the work we share.
stories can grow out of anything.....
‘From Apathy to Empathy – Reconnecting People and Place’
featuring leading international and national experts in place-based education
22nd-24th August 2012, The Burren, Ireland
This unique event will bring together leading local, national and international thinkers and practitioners who specialise in the theme of place-based learning (jncluding your very own Creeping Toad). Place-based learning encourages the use of the local environment as a learning resource. It immerses individuals in local heritage, culture and landscape, encouraging them to become more aware of and engaged with their place.
Follow this link to the Toadblog for more information
improvising mantids
Monday 15th October 2012
Leaves, grass and plastic bottles: creative ways of using natural, found and recycled materials
activities and inspiration using natural, found and recycled materials with groups to encourage a creative exploration of the world around us
Description: with resources that fit in a single bag, quick activities to use natural materials in sculpture, storymaking, puppetry and mess on a walk through the woods with a group. Later, we’ll add more recycled materials and make masks, bigger puppets, illuminated sculptures, hanging mobiles, drifting ghosts. A chance to experiment, improvise and inspire yourself and your groups with the resources around us
Cost: £135
Where: Bishops Wood Environment Centre, Worcestershire
For further details and information about Bishops Woods courses, please contact:
“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.
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.
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.
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.
I am even more elusive than usual just now for people looking for workshops for adults or professional training sessions. (You can always set up your own training course and book me for that!). Most of the following events are still being finalised so come back to this page to find out more or drop me an email and I can let you know details as they confirm
Workshops in the diary just now for the next few months include:
Lights, Words and Inspiring Places, 4 – 6 November, near Dunkeld, Perthshire. Drawing ideas out of the November weather and from mountains, moors, stream, wood and stone to give us words, to shape poems, spin stories, making quick puppets and holding the essence of autumn in tiny lanterns, printed tissue and leaf-lightcages.
Wild Words: planned for early December, a one day workshop down in the West Country: playing with words, making stories, building books. Details to be confirmed – contact Gordon for more information
Institute for Outdoor Learning, March 2012, Hollowford Centre: probable workshops on this exciting event
Southend Educational Trust, Essex, (tentative) April 2012, a day working with school grounds and finding ways of inspiring literacy through playgrounds, playing fields, flowerbeds and vegetable plots. Details to be confirmed
A day to play with words, this workshop will help us find “adventures everywhere”… anywhere. It will offer activities designed to draw inspiration from simple observation, fostering confidence in participants’ own skills and encouraging improvisation within supportive activity structures. The activities used will also allow ideas to merge as a number of short activities flow together to give longer more intricate adventures
We will play with words, using language as another tool
to explore, enjoy and celebrate our environment.
We will use spoken, shouted, whispered, sung or written words and will explore exciting ways of holding onto written words in bog books, wild scrolls, mapsticks, water pictures and tales hidden in treasure chests
The activities used here have been tried and tested with family groups, on adult events and with school children – often in situations where Literacy is an issue and activities are needed that remove worry and fear and encourage simple enjoyment of words
Programme will include first words: setting out on an adventure
adventures everywhere: activities for a story-building walk: short activities with minimal equipment for use outside
holding onto adventures: ways of recording our words
bigger stories: working in groups to make quick, longer pieces
Activities:
o developing story characters
o deriving adventures from found objects or
artefacts
o making your own books
o the value of treasure
o story bundles
Price: £30 + vat (£36 inc vat)
Places are limited and will be allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis
Payment in advance will secure your place on the programme
To book or for further information please contact Hollowford at
enquiries@hollowford.org
Tel. 01433 620377
Bring: lunch, outdoor clothes, a sense of fun
Materials: provided
Finding Hollowford
Directions can be found on their website: www.hollowford.org
making stories, building books
Environmental storytelling, art and celebration – Education, Training & Workshops
