Storytelling Workshops to Inspire Writing
Our storytelling and story making activities encourage children to create their own stories; written and spoken.
Our workshops can follow on from performance, can be part of a day's visit or a selection of activities can be tailor made for a term long Residency and Partnership with your school.
The step-by-step activities inspire ideas, define content and structure narratives, build characters and explore descriptions and details.
Workshops build skills and abilities and encourage confidence, self-expression and emotional intelligence.
Popular Workshops include:
What is a Book?
Year 4 upwards, 45 - 90 minutes.
Exciting and engaging storytelling performance to inspire writing in children, incorporating a workshop that sets the audience the challenge of becoming authors themselves.
The start of a story is read from one of the storytellers favourite books, before that same story is told as a highly detailed and descriptive performance. Following a discussion of the merits and variety of description, children are set the task of writing the story, or a scene from the story, in their own words, playing with sensory description, character perspectives and alternative endings.
This workshop helps children structure their writing, use detailed and creative descriptions, consider how perspectives give different and fuller pictures of a situation, see that there can be more than one correct answer and therefore gain confidence in their own ideas, interpretations and expression.
Depending on the length of the workshop, we may conclude by hearing a selection of endings the children have created.
Finishing the Tale.
Key stage 2 + 3, 45 - 90 minutes.
A workshop with storytelling performance and a follow-on activity. A selection of vibrant folktales are told, culminating in an unfinished story, leaving the children all desperately needing to know the ending.
This is where they become authors and storytellers themselves, each writing their own, unique ending and including some special instructions from the storyteller.
By writing just the end of the story children experience narrative structure and learn more about what goes into the different parts of a story, while encouraging them to be carried away by their imaginations.
Depending on the length of the workshop, we may conclude by hearing a selection of endings the children have created.
Making a book
Key Stage 1 + 2
A storytelling performance is concluded by children compiling a book of their own interpretations of a story they have just heard.
Depending on age, this may be by becoming illustrators: in groups of five each drawing an important scene; or authors and illustrators. This would require groups to write the story, in their own words, as well as illustrate key moments. These books can then be simply bound, either to have in the class library, or as a gift to future classes from their year group.
All materials to be supplied by the school.
Book Week.
Key Stage 1, 2 + 3
What better way to celebrate your school's Book Week, World Book Day or Children's Book Week than by inspiring your pupils with an exciting storytelling performance. Our visits bring stories to life, engaging the children's imaginations and illustrating for them the magic that can be found within books and springboarding them into their own creative writing.
StoryMap
Key Stage 1, 2 + 3
An ideal, interactive and collaborative storymaking session, ideally for groups of up to 10 children. Stimulated and guided by questions the group creates the story of an object, with the storyteller, who draws the story as it builds. From this storymap the group's story is told back to them. As follow on activities children can write their own interpretation of the story up or the story can be used as a foundation to other creative or performance work. Stories can be inspired or theamed on particular cultural or historic objects or based upon pertinent stories or narratives being covered in the class at the time.
Autobiographical Stories
Key Stage 2 - 3
A set of workshops and complimenting INSET ideally suited to GCSE English coursework, and adaptable to younger years.
The project challenges pupils' writing and performance skills using a range of storytelling activities devised to inspire, form and structure content for an autobiographical story.
As well as improving writing skills and contributing to coursework the project can have a personal impact on students too, building on their confidence to express themselves and to positively interact and engage as classmates.
How storytelling can benefit your school or place of education:
Are your pupils excited about reading and books?
Do your teachers embrace the opportunity of taking an assembly?
Looking for an excellent Book Week activity?
Have you got a theme that needs exploring?
Do all your pupils write with enthusiasm?
Looking for a new way of creating a play?
Need a storyteller who is great with Nursery through to KS3?