Time to Talk Resource Guide

Time to TalkCreative Arts StrandResource PackDelivered by Multistory

Contents

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Contents03 ................................. Introduction 06 .....................................Lightfoot 20 .........................Nursery Rhyming32 ...................................... Puppets44 .................................... Transform58 ........................Unfinished Stories 64..........Big Stories for Little People75 .................................. Conclusion77 ............ Recommended Suppliers79 ........................................ Credits

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Introduction

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INTRODUCTION

Introduction

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The Time to Talk programme was aimed at improving the speech and language skills of children from birth to age 5. The objective of the programme was to mirror national proportions in Foundation Stage in terms of speaking, listening and mathematical development as well as personal, social and emotional development. In the first stage of the programme, all three year olds were assessed using a speech and language assessment tool and this provided the baseline for the programme to then build upon.The tender for the creative arts strand of the programme was awarded by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council to Multistory, a community arts organisation based in West Bromwich in the borough of Sandwell, West Midlands. It was delivered alongside other borough wide Time to Talk activities developed by other external agencies all aiming to address the requirements of the Government’s ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda.

The Multistory creative arts strand of Time to Talk was developed to focus solely on the three to five age group. The creative arts strand encompassed several art forms including movement/dance, spoken word/nursery rhyming, puppets and creative play. The activities embrace the ethos that using creativity can support and enhance a child’s learning experience. They allow for a more abstract way of learning alongside formal methods within the traditional classroom setting.

This guide explores activities the artists delivered in the sessions and also shared through creative professional development opportunities for practitioners and teachers. Within each section you will find background information about that particular creative practice, suggested activities for you to initiate with your groups mapped against EYFS learning goals, and a list of resources to use. Attendees of the training should have received movement and storytelling resources that this guide will help you to use with your groups. At the back of the guide you will find a Audio CD containing music and another CD-ROM containing worksheets and further resources to support the activities suggested within.

We hope that this guide will empower you to become a creative leader in your setting, facilitating child led learning experiences and enable you to teach the curriculum in new and exciting ways.

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Lightfoot

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LightFoot Bespoke Creative Movement

Audio CD Contains music for this activity.

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This resource guide will support and direct you in delivering movement activities with the children in your setting either in conjunction with your resource pack of fabric and music, or as a standalone guide. This guide will:

Offer a structure for practical delivery of creative movement • within early years settings.

Introduce teachers/practitioners to the principles behind • using creative movement with 3 to 5 year olds.

Identify ways of making clear links between creative • movement exercises across the foundation stage curriculum.

Why Move?

To communicate.• To master the environment. • To acquire a sense of well being.• For health, fitness and fun.•

What is creative movement?

Creative movement as an area of study covers the following areas:

Focusing inward to increase self awareness.• Developing full use of the body through sequences of • movement and improvisational actions.Finding forms for fully embodying our emotions • (communicating through body language) and connecting with the environment (reacting to and interacting with your habitat).

How and why should I use creative movement within my teaching practice?

As creative movement focuses on self-expression, there is no better art form to employ when you are working with children to develop their sense of self, sense of each other and the world around them – all important goals within the EYFS.

One of the most important benefits of choosing to work physically within your setting is that children with dominant, kinesthetic learning styles will be given the opportunity to excel. Often the children considered to have communication barriers are most responsive to this manner of working which allows them to experience getting something right.

By using improvisation regularly in the class room, e.g. ‘let’s explore our feet to this trumpet music’, the child will rapidly expand their capacity for creative behaviour which will deepen their critical thinking and improve their overall experience and passion for being educated. Improvisation also requires the children to continuously relate to one another and will develop their ability to communicate with peers when problem solving and talking about feelings. Therefore, they are developing their understanding of themselves and the world around them. By encouraging the children to explore their own physical presence, and how it links to their feelings, they are developing a reference point to their own emotional development.

Teachers/practitioners may feel insecure about delivering sessions that do not attach immediately to any curriculum targets. One of the most important aspects of allowing children to participate in creative movement is the subsidiary benefits of taking part in communal exercise: emotional well being. In addition, we have included in this guide key learning goals from the EYFS that we feel Light Foot addresses. These are highlighted for your reference next to the activities you can try with your group.

Introduction

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Light Foot explores how children are able to initiate their own play experiences through movement. By using art, sound, objects and music, the children become more conscious of what they are doing with their bodies and how they can engage in physical expression. The children explore how to create sequences of movement and share them with their peers. Each week the group focus on what they, as individuals, want to talk about and how this can feed into a movement play-based activity.

The children make choices about how to use their bodies and discover how to interact with their peers to develop ideas.

The sessions explore how we can express feelings with our bodies and how people communicate using abstract and real movement. Children focus on how their body can be used to develop connections to sounds and music as well as ideas about the world around them. For example, the children might move like the sound of a wooden spoon being banged one week and the following week they may make up a performance about being a post box travelling to the moon.

What are the aims of Light Foot?

The overall aim of Light Foot is to give children a creative, communicative experience which is shared with their peers and adults. The aims of the Light Foot sessions are:

To encourage a culture that uses spontaneous movement • as a basis for expression.To develop the children’s connection of language to • physical movement and expression.To develop the children’s desire to communicate • independently with peers and adults.To develop the children’s understanding of language as a • tool for expression, as well as function.To increase the children’s confidence and understanding of • physical self-expression.To deepen the children’s ability to express feelings and • cross reference them through a variety of art forms/modes of communication. To engage the children in activities which use imagination • as the main drive of knowledge and experience gathering

Light Foot is based on an educational model that focuses on the processes of learning and exploration rather than the product of our learning and understanding. The key areas that a child engaging with Light Foot will focus on are creativity, imagination and individuality. This may differ from a pure dance curriculum, which would include a focus on the production of a dance, knowledge of dance forms and particular physical skills.

Light Foot follows a basic structure of:

Create• Perform• Appreciate•

Whilst accepting that dance/movement education needs to teach skills to allow the child a knowledge base within which to create their own movements/dances, Light Foot uses the cross curricular nature of early years work to provide the theme from which personal movement is to be explored. Rather than only exploring particular styles or movement vocabulary, Light Foot facilitates a process of using specific movement qualities to express ideas about feelings and objects. This model will allow teachers who co-experience the programme to quickly use creative movement as a regular teaching style.

The pedagogic principles that Light Foot draws upon are taken from the work of Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget. The key points of their research encourage educationalists to create frameworks to assess how we are delivering exercises that are socially, artistically and academically enhancing the children we are working with. The basic thinking behind their work is that children develop through working with a range of people within different environments. It is through this range of experience that the child develops the ability to learn. Both believe that the act of learning is about the child’s experience of ideas rather than their ability to simply ‘understand’ what we are telling them.

Vygotsky basically argues that children need to be taught a concept and then experience it for themselves. For example, a child would need to have heard or read that water can come out of a tap to understand that this is what is was when they saw it for the first time. In addition, this first encounter with the element arriving from a tap would finalise their learning by offering them a physical experience of the concept. Within the Light Foot session we are constantly working in a manner that allows the child to construct knowledge themselves.

Light Foot enables the children to explore their expressive potential throughout the sessions. If we imagine the child as an artist, we are making sure that they never run out of materials by nurturing their creative thinking and imaginations. Instead of providing them with excessive resources we carefully select and limit materials, from a diverse range of options, to ensure that our teaching is offering them continuous opportunities to express themselves through their body and their imaginations as a resource. This is done through creating a learning space that constantly says YES to the child. Whatever offer the child makes, or chooses not to make, we acknowledge the validity of their act of communicating and ensure that they are clear that their opinion and their creative output is valid. We instill the culture of YES by offering them ‘creative gaps’ or opportunities to create movement and express their opinion.

What happens in a Light Foot session?

Is there an educational model that Light Foot is based on?

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What are creative gaps?

A creative gap is a moment when you are not providing the child with an answer. You are not creating a learning moment that is based on a predicted outcome; for example, if you ask a child the sum of three added to four, the only possible outcome is seven. However, if the question relies on an opinion or physical expression, rather than a fixed outcome, the child is going to have to engage in creativity to complete their exchange with you.

A creative gap may be a question, ‘how can I move my hand?’ A response may be a statement, ‘I can move my hand like this’; it may be a gesture like waving your hand; or it could be another visual stimuli like a picture of someone waving. These problems that we present the children with can trigger spontaneous movement that incites the children to make conscious choices about how they are communicating with others. This may not be a verbal cue, it could be physical, sonic or tactile, for example it may be a jump, tap on the floor or painting which could be interpreted physically. The teacher is able to incite these moments from the children by continuously observing their reactions to the creative gaps that they offer.

The teacher can develop this nurturing culture of YES by physically engaging in the exercises themselves to ensure that the children don’t associate the activity with being childish, which is what can happen when they see adult role models stepping out of an activity.

For maximum impact at least two teachers or teaching assistants should be available for the sessions to guarantee increased opportunity for acknowledgement and one-on-one interaction between children, adults and peers. Don’t worry if only one teacher is available - the activities can still work.

Always remember that all adults, both staff and parents, should be encouraged to participate and contribute in every activity with the children.

What equipment do you use?

Movement scarves.• Sound / music.• Large sheets of paper.• Paint/crayons/chalk - any mark-making equipment. • Miscellaneous objects to act as added stimuli e.g. if • exploring mini beasts in class use plastic insects in the movement sessions for thematic learning.Instruments. • Filming equipment to realise their ideas and support their • movement explorations. (This can be a camera on a mobile phone, a cheap digital camera with a filming facility, or more bespoke filming equipment if available. Record their movements and screen them back for a greater sense of self, and celebration of their achievements.)

Before starting any movement activities, lay out your paper and other materials across the room in different corners. Then ask the children what they can see, or what they can see that isn’t normally in the space before they explore / look at each item in turn. This way the items won’t provide a distraction when you are not using them.

How to deliver Light Foot

Handy TipWhen exploring the items you may want to say that they are asleep and can only be woken using specific actions or sounds. This can encourage children to have greater respect for the items, particularly when they are not in use. When it comes time to utilise any of the materials you may want to tell the children that we will need to wake them up first and ask them what we can do to wake them up. You may get suggestions of singing nursery rhymes, or shouting ‘wake up’ as loudly as possible, or you may want to encourage them to make up a ‘waking up’ dance. Equally, when you have finished using the items it’s a good idea to send them back to sleep and, again, ask the children how to do this.

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Light Foot Activities

Movement and Drawing

Ask the group what body part they want to explore and with the children, use the large paper to draw around that body part, whether it’s the foot, head, hand etc. You may need to demonstrate or assist in drawing around the body part.

EYFS Learning Goals

Show awareness of themselves•

In between movement activities ask them to draw pictures of their favourite movement qualities that you have explored, e.g. fast, slow, big, little. Compare the different drawings of the qualities asking, ‘What does small look like? What does slow look like? What would a jump look like?’

Demonstrate the act of drawing a quality through scribble rather than pictoral styles e.g. if the move is described as ‘fast’ then create a fast scribble – it can be any shape!

Connecting a visceral, focused experience with language and reflection on a physical act.

EYFS Learning Goals

Capture experiences, responses with music, dance, paint • and other materials or words.Differentiate marks and movements on paper.•

From discussions of which movements the children like best, invite them all to draw a picture of that movement and then give it to the child whose movement they drew as a present. Ask the children to think about the following before drawing their pictures, ‘What colour they think the move is? What shape does it look like or make? Is it a small or large movement?’

EYFS Learning Goals

Allows children to develop peer support and receive • positive peer feedback

Include:Group and individual experiences i.e. whole group, small group and individual: provide opportunities for the children to individually explore their movements to increase self awareness and sense of individuality as well as team working to provide group cohesion and exploration.

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Movement and Music

Play a piece of music and ask group to improvise movements as they move around the space. When they see someone moving that they want to copy they should do so, or they should continue to make up their own movement. If they want to run for five minutes then they are allowed to but, equally, if they want to stand still and nod their heads for five minutes then they can; any type of movement is a positive contribution.

If doing this in small groups encourage them to talk to each other. Make clear that the group cannot climb behind equipment or push each other. Encourage an open ended improvisation to music including opportunities for the children to adapt their movements to mirror the qualities of the music, e.g. slow, fast, bouncy. Also encourage opportunities for sharing movement with each other.

EYFS Learning Goals

Allows children to develop peer support and receive • positive peer feedback as they see others copying their movements.Move with control and co-ordination as they move freely • and spontaneously.Experiment with different ways of moving.• Respond to/ interact with others movements.•

Try exploring how different Individual body parts move and ask the children to volunteer ways of exploring parts they have chosen, eg. hands, feet, etc. Repeat this for at least three different types of movement or shapes per body part. Ask them to repeat the movements to music and ask the children to think about how the music makes them change how fast or slow, big or small they make their movements.

This problem solving strategy allows the children to create, rather than copy, movement.

EYFS Learning Goals

Show awareness of themselves. • Move with control and co-ordination as they move freely • and spontaneously.Begin to move rhythmically.•

After exploring individual body part movements ask for movements from the group that use our whole bodies. You can also explore how the individual body movement can pass through the whole body, e.g. starting a movement in the hand, then make the arm move in a similar way, before moving your head, then the other arm, then your torso before reaching both legs and feet. Again do this to music.

EYFS Learning Goals

Show awareness of themselves. • Move with control and co-ordination as they move freely • and spontaneously.Experiment with different ways of moving.• Respond to simple instructions.• Have a positive self image and are comfortable with • themselves.

To cool down and finish a movement session choose a relaxing piece of music that lets the children calm down, soften and go to sleep on the floor. This will help the children to understand that the session is over. Tell group that we need to go to sleep, so what actions shall we do to the music to help us? Ask the children what movements go with the words ‘relaxing, quiet, and slow’, allowing them to create the cool down movements themselves.

EYFS Learning Goals

Initiate new combinations of movement and gesture • in order to express and respond to feelings, ideas and experiences.

Include:Periods of relaxation, breath awareness, and movements requiring increased body control: ask the children to make smaller, slower movements or to melt to the floor; use music and lighting to help evoke a restful environment to calm and focus the children to stillness.

Movement sequences: allow the children to improvise and interpret actions to music or respond to a broad directive, e.g. ‘make your dance as small as possible; make your dance as slow as possible’.

Help children relate to something outside of self, through music and rhythm: find the beat of a piece of music by clapping it as a group; emphasise the dynamics in a melody by dancing in a manner that complements it.

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Movement and sound making

Pick a movement that the children enjoyed from a previous improvisation and ask what sound could be made that is like that move. Would it be a shaking sound, a loud sound or a ping sound? Ask a child to select an object or instrument from the box to suit the sound of their favourite movement. Everyone has a go at moving to the sound the child plays and then the whole group try making the sound with their own voices.

Exploration of dynamic and expressive qualities through sound.Association of different ideas.

Choose another child to select a different object or instrument to make a sound. Ask the children how they might move like this sound. Write down the words and draw pictures. Try the movements, either individually, in small groups or as a whole group. Repeat this activity for different objects/instruments.

Developing understanding of simile and movement.

EYFS Learning Goals

Explore and learn how sounds can be made.• Imitate and create movement in response to music.•

Ask half the group to create a mood by making sounds with the instruments /objects / their voices. The other half of the group then performs movement responses to these sounds. The groups then switch roles. You can also ask two groups to make up separate movements to music before taking it in turns to perform their movements to each other.

Suggest different movements they could include that both you and the children have made in the session to date exploring size, shape, pace, rhythm and volume.

Use instruments or other miscellaneous items, e.g. scarves or rustle paper, to create sounds and if necessary provide direction e.g. quiet, sad, soft, loud, etc.

EYFS Learning Goals

Move with control and co-ordination as they move freely • and spontaneously.Initiate new combinations of movement and gesture • in order to express and respond to feelings, ideas and experiences.

Movement and objects

Set out the scarves and allow children to invent ways of moving / using the scarves – discuss favourite ways of playing with them. You may want to provide them with imagery, e.g. ‘Can you make the scarves move like water, or fire?’

This allows a large element of free play that is sensory rather than cognitive, that relaxes the child. Let the children engage with scarves both individually and in pairs to see how they can make the scarves move differently. Encourage the children to scrunch up the scarves and throw them in the air - it’s great fun!

Movement exploration encourages development of gross and fine motor skills.

If working in pairs, this encourages negotiation and team working.

EYFS Learning Goals

Initiate new combinations of movement and gesture • in order to express and respond to feelings, ideas and experiences.Move with confidence, imagination and in safety.• Move freely with pleasure and confidence in a range of • ways

Provide the opportunity for sensory experiences to inspire movement. Children are able to attach their learning to a concrete experience and then develop this into an imaginative model of expression. If exploring a theme of ‘growing and the environment’ provide trays / pots of soil for the children to play with, sprinkle, feel. Again ask questions about whether it is heavy or light, fast or slow, what shapes it makes. You can replicate this type of activity with water, sand, leaves, stones or provide items to represent a them, e.g. fire can be represented by strips of corresponding coloured paper that create a rustling noise when scrunched.

EYFS Learning Goals


Before your next movement session, ask the children to bring in something they love or choose an item they love in your setting; this could be a favourite toy, book, colour, food, or anything else. This will be the inspiration and theme for their movement next time you use these activities. Discuss what they might bring.

EYFS Learning Goals


Include:Opportunities for individual self expression: observe a movement from one child and allow the group to copy it.

Keep the group moving and relating to each other: as the children improvise independently, provide opportunities for the children to notice each other’s movements, celebrate them and allow their actions to guide the activities. Include:

Movement themes: structure the class in an ordered manner to achieve a safe and focused activity. Exercises on a specific theme can encourage older children to develop imaginative (and other) skills.

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Movement discussions

Ask the child why they like doing specific moves throughout movement activities. Encouraging a discussion about what everyone likes regarding one particular move, e.g. jumping. Always engage in dialogue about shapes, size, pace and colour when initiating movement activities.

Guided discovery: when applying this technique you may have an outcome in mind, encouraging the children to have a final response such as light, sustained movement or big, heavy movements.

Displays their creative thinking and interpretation, increasing communication.

The moments of analysis can happen through asking:

What is the body actually doing?•

Look at body parts, supporting limbs, leading body parts and transfer of weight.

Where is the body moving?•

Look at the direction, pathway and level of where the movement is happening.

How is the body moving?•

Is it heavy or light? Fast of slow?

Why we ask them

All of these questions provide the children with creative gaps, opportunities to make choices and positively reinforce the action of independence.

As it is so important to engage in dialogue with the children about their movements we will explore how to do this in greater detail on page 14.

EYFS Learning Goals

Have confidence to speak to others about their own wants • and interests.Talk activities through, reflecting on, modifying what they • are doing.Use to talk and clarify thinking ideas, feelings and events.• Talk about personal intentions, describing what they were • trying to do.

Ask the group to pick a way of moving for the teacher/practitioner and get the children to verbally describe the action as well as physically demonstrate the movement. Ask what it looks like. When the group chooses what it looks like, ask them to pick a space in the room for the movement to happen in. Repeat this for a few different movement combinations.

Ask the children to go into a space and have a go at moving in that way. Once a few different ways of moving have been explored, get the children to repeat all of the movements together in a sequence.

Encourage the children to talk throughout the exercise and discuss how they are moving. Get the children to select movement qualities and see them demonstrated by you and their peers.

EYFS Learning Goals

Initiate new combinations of movement and gesture • in order to express and respond to feelings, ideas and experiences.Move with confidence, imagination and in safety.• Move freely with pleasure and confidence in a range of • ways.

Include:Problem Solving: looking at the what, where and how of a particular movement, without defining an actual outcome. You can ask the children to investigate how to balance on three limbs, how to travel on the floor, how to make straight lines. The dancing dialogue is shared between the teacher and child arriving at an unknown and shared outcome. (TORTORA:2006)

Note the importance of you participating in the activity and the value of responding directly to the action of the child. The child is able to lead the activity as well as engage in it. By picking out particular movements that one child has done they are able to appreciate this and learn from it.

Questions to ask the children

Positive Reinforcement

What could we do?• How do you do that?• Could we try doing it • more like this? (show an example)

That’s a great movement!• Oh, we could all do that! • Let’s do it again!•

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The system most widely recognised to discuss and analyse creative movement is Rudolf Laban’s ‘Efforts of Action Drive’. Laban divided the way we speak about movement into four categories: Time, Weight, Space and Flow. The most useful categories for you are the first three, which can be used as a tool to quickly identify how a child moves and then draw the child’s attention to these details. Within each action or movement, Laban decided there were two qualities which represented the extremes of that manner of moving.

The aim of your role in an early years setting is not to only use these six adjectives but to find many ways of describing these groups of dynamics, e.g. ‘his move is light and fluttery’, ‘her move is sudden and sharp’. We can also describe movement in terms of what the child is doing, rather than how they are doing it. You can describe the following responses of their bodies as:

Therefore as well as describing the ‘how’ and ‘what’ relating to the movement of the child you can also discuss the imagery this movement vocabulary creates. This may relate to a theme you are exploring, e.g. animals, mini beasts, feelings, memories, seasons.

Concentration

At this age children are learning to concentrate and therefore when you initially introduce this child-led manner of working it can cause the children to respond through unfocused, chaotic or nervous behaviour as they are not clear what the rules are. The boundaries of the class can only be established when the teacher knows the group. For example, it may be too overwhelming for a group of children to explore how to move their whole bodies and therefore you could begin by leading the class in different foot movements, hand movements, or nodding.

At the other end of the spectrum, teachers may find that children are becoming uncreative and robotic when they have themes dictated for them and perhaps the children are ready to lead the content of the class by deciding what to improvise around, the order of activities and how they participate in them.

Often children want to run in a space that is suitable for creative movement. The most important thing to do in this instance is to let them (after pointing out any hazards). We have found that often children need the opportunity to expel excess energy before being able to focus and concentrate on movement activities. Try to integrate the opportunity for some energetic moving into the start of your sessions.

Emotion / Confidence / Skill

The wind moves in a certain way, so do our emotions, there is not much variety in the world: straight lines or curves (Ewan:2005)

Our body is a container for our emotions. The way in which we move is based on years of built up habits which we have acquired over time. Our movement habits consist of pleasure, aggression, trauma and many other emotions which,in some way, are represented in the tensions of our body.

Usually our habits are made to stop us from feeling an emotion that we have previously not liked; for example when some people are hit in their shoulder they will raise this part of their body and hold it in defence for the rest of their life without realising it. When we move our bodies in a different way to what we are used to we can release particular emotions that may be difficult to deal with. This is relevant because when we choose to teach creative movement rather than dance we are putting ourselves into a very expressive place that requires us to overcome particular embarrassments about our body. Coupled with the emotional factors of delivering a subject that exposes us physically to other adults and children, we may also not have the confidence or skill in our ability to use our bodies.

What language can I use to talk about movement and dance with children?

Challenges and solutions when using creative movement within early years settings

HOW

Category Extremes

Time Sudden Sustained

Weight Heavy Light

Space Direct Indirect

WHAT

Category Type

Actions Travelling, touching things, jumping / flight, lying down, rolling

Shape Leading body parts, curves, twists, straight lines, circles and other recognisable shapes

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The great thing about creative movement is that we are not exploring any tangible skill, we are simply investigating our particular body use. The whole point of improvising is that we are creating material ourselves to explore with others – therefore anyone, literally anyone, is able to deliver a creative movement session. Don’t push yourself too hard. Start with very easy exercises that you feel comfortable with. Perhaps when you initially start delivering or practicing creative movement sessions, you might use only your hand and then in time you may feel confident enough to engage more of your body when describing movement qualities.

Although initially you may be terrified to deliver a movement class in front of other staff members you will find that the environment you create by taking this creative risk will allow others the freedom to test things out too. This may not occur in the form of dance and movement but, for example, perhaps they will have the courage to suggest planning a maths lesson within which the dressing up box is used – what is certain is that your peers will benefit from your initial risk taking.

Resources: space, time, music, staffing

Frequently we are confronted with less than ideal conditions in terms of delivering a creative movement session; small space, cluttered space or a noisy space. All of these factors can be dealt with by taking time to prepare for the session. A really important part of delivering a creative session is to respond to the environment around you and if this has to be a cluttered space then make the session about being in a cluttered space! Explore how we can move through the jungle of cluttered land and invent a dance that explores the contrast of being in and out of clutter. If you are finding it difficult to create room in the busy curriculum for movement activities then remember that all of these activities can be cross curricular.

As described throughout this section you may choose to explore any subject through creative movement and actually the allocated time in the children’s schedule could be given to science, it is simply that you are using dance to explore this. Music can often be obtained from the soundtracks of films, Lonely Planet music or world music as they frequently have no words which are more appropriate for improvisations allowing the children to imagine more freely. It is important not to fall into the trap of using music aimed at children such as Lazy Town, Ben Ten or other popular television shows and films!

The use of music in creative movement sessions is to trigger the imagination of children in a specific manner, therefore allow yourself to select music according to the feeling or image you want to create in the children. You want to avoid using music that is familiar to the children and associated with popular television shows so that their responses are intuitive and unique.

Creative movement can be used as a mode of adapting to a child’s particular learning style and encouraging them to invest in an unrelated topic through using this art form as a ‘way in’ to the subject. For example, you may use the idea of group dances as a manner of interpreting maths by asking the children to dance in pairs, individually and in trios. This would allow the children to have a physical experience of the language used within mathematics and therefore their memory would be enforced with an experience that helped them to understand the concept.

Learning through movement has been pioneered by such organisations as Write Dance and Gymboree amongst the early years sector. It is important to remember that all they are doing is providing a context for the movement and, whether this is snow flakes or spiders, it can all be linked to the national curriculum.

Using movement as an applied (rather than pure) art form has two benefits; the ability to provoke discussion about previously taught material and/or the potential to further demonstrate a principal. For example, asking a group of five year old children to make up a dance about mini beasts will allow them to engage in a peer-led discussion about the physiology of mini beasts and will also provoke other areas of conversation. In contrast, you may choose to introduce a concept to children that is particularly suitable to creative movement. This could be the creation of an imaginary engine out of a series of linked repeated movements between a group of children. It may be useful to show a flower growing out of the ground in a physical manner rather than explaining it pictorially.

The most exciting factor when working with creative movement in early years settings is that the teacher has the ability to work through their own creativity. If a particular aspect of the curriculum seems to need a more physical approach, or perhaps within a particular year the children are predominantly kinesthetic learners, this is an opportunity to employ your skills as a creative pedagogue and use movement as a way into the children’s minds.

Using movement to explore across the curriculum

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From the CPD training days we have delivered to promote the use of movement and creative activities with teachers and practitioners across Sandwell we have established some useful ways to help you plan this type of activity individually and with your colleagues.

Preparation for Planning

Make sure your mind is warmed up before you begin your planning session. Take time to engage in a creative task on your own or as a group prior to any brainstorming sessions. These activities should involve you in a process which has no planned outcome and allows you to work free of worry over any technical aspects, e.g. a collage. By doing this exercise you will literally change the way you are thinking, allowing your imagination to become active and encouraging a more focused thought process.

Examples of creativity exercises for you MovementListen to different pieces of music and move in response to the sounds or words you hear. Afterwards explore what shapes you made, how fast you moved. Initiate your own movement dialogue, writing words down it made you feel and maybe even drawings of your moves.

MakingMake a sculpture - this could be in clay or plasticine; in training we start the session by inviting the group to make an object out of things on our craft table of recycled objects - tissue paper, card, tubes and feathers. We provide no themes to work to and just see what is created. It can be challenging at first, having no decided final outcome, but see what ideas your sculpture inspires.

DramaUsing your setting/environment as a source for inspiration is a great way to initiate drama, role play and movement ideas. Work in pairs and see what actions, feelings a space inspires you to make and portray; use props from within the space or from a different area and film it on a digital camera or your mobile phone. It doesn’t have to be a long film, just 1 to 2 minutes is good. Is it a small, dark, cramped space or an open large, free space? What could happen there? What normally happens there? What wouldn’t happen in that space? Play it back so that you and your colleagues can see it, see if the rest of your team can guess what you are doing, feeling and showing.

Starting Points for Planning

When planning for a movement or creativity session you need to put yourself into a space that allows you to think creatively. Rather than approach planning in the same way every time, find new ways to stimulate your lesson planning. Try beginning a planning session for the children using the following starting points:

an object - an item of clothing, a natural object, a song - • one of the children’s favourite songs, a cultural song;a space in your setting - a small space, a cubby hole, a • large open space or a space you have created with the children using the Transform ideas.

Think of how you can mind map around these starting points without using the curriculum guidelines. Then, when you have written down your ideas, see if you can find a way of associating the ideas you want to explore with the outlined objectives in the curriculum. Starting with the curriculum objectives first can inhibit yours and the children’s creativity; by mapping the curriculum back to your ideas you can find new ways of exploring these topics and linking themes together.

Planning Movement Activities

Handy TipsRemember, to be creative you need a structure so ensure there is a simple set of rules for each creative activity, e.g. when making the collage you must select from only three trays of equipment, or when making a film you can only use three props.

You can use all of these activities with the children as well; see what choices they make and ideas they inspire from the same activities as you.

Handy TipsDo this on your own or in a group; more people means more ideas and resources to draw upon. Each member of your planning team could bring a different starting point to map ideas and the curriculum. It will be fun to see what each of you brings to your session and how you can combine them all together. If it’s interesting for you it will be interesting for the children too.

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Reflection

It is important to consider the relevance of what you teach and the manner in which you teach it. All of these things can be captured to evidence the response and needs of the children throughout your sessions. It is important for reflection to balance how you are feeling and the effect the work has on the children; if you neglect either aspect then this form of evaluation will become less useful to you or others.

A movement and creativity leader needs to reflect on their work continuously to ensure that they are challenging themselves and the children. It is important to reassess what you do and how you are doing as the children will inspire new ways of working; remember each group will be different and will respond best to different activities. The forms of reflection could cover the varied content of a session – visual, aural, verbal, written; you might want to ask a colleague to observe you and give you feedback. As you observe the children it important to reflect on what works well, areas for improvement or new ideas generated in the session for use next time. As long as the reflection means something specific and useful to you then there are no rules as to how you should reflect.

Reflection Tools

You could choose to keep a written diary and have key questions to prompt you to tease out useful learning points and new actions. Perhaps you would prefer to record your reflections on a Dictaphone or even a video camera. A video can be downloaded onto the computer so you don’t have to make time to write anything down; it is more instant and can record a conversation between you and colleague who may have observed you.

Maybe you want to work with visual material that you can collage into a notepad or perhaps you have more of an interest in drawing your reflections, feelings and new ideas with symbols you can easily refer back to.

Whatever mode of recording you choose, it is useful because it is encouraging a growth in your practice as an early years teacher.

When talking about movement with your colleagues or when researching other movement and creative activities you may come across different terms for describing specific movements; below is a useful reference of movement terms.

Motor skills - physical skills. Gross motor skills - actions that use the big muscles in the body.

Fine motor skills - actions that are smaller – like pinching.

Locomotor - the different ways the body can move or travel from place to place - walking, hopping, galloping, running.

Non-locomotor - activities that the body can perform without moving from place to place - balancing, bending, stretching, twisting, hanging and swinging.

Manipulative movements - includes skills for when the body is controlling an external object such as a bat or ball - throwing, catching, kicking, hitting, bouncing, pushing, pulling. (Tortora:2006)

Handy TipA balanced reflective journal can include aspects of all of these tools as methods of documenting your work. Try them all to see which is best for you in your schedule and with your colleagues.

The worst time to reflect is when it is a chore as you won’t be usefully thinking about how you can nurture your relationship with the children and improve your own practice. Make time immediately after an activity to jot a few key words or symbols down to enable you to record your initial reflections in more detail later. It can be easy to forget something really important that you think of during, or straight after, a session and this can be different to when you’ve though about it a lot more.

When keeping a journal remember to refer back and see if you have made any of the changes you’ve thought of or used new ideas and how well did they work.

Glossary of movement terms

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Should you want to learn more about creative movement and the sources we’ve used to inspire Light Foot and the CPD, we’ve picked a few key books you may want to check out and should you be really interested then you can always refer to some from the bibliography.

Suggested Reading

The Dancing Dialogue • by Suzi Tortora, 2006Movement and Dance in Early Childhood 0 – 8 Years • by Tina Bruce (2nd Edition), 2002Child Development and Learning 2 – 5 Years • by Cath Arnold, 1999

Bibliography

Arnold, Cath (Ed. Bruce, Tina)• Child Development and Learning 2 – 5 Years Georgia’s Story Hodder & Stoughton, 1999Arnold, J Peter Education,• Movement and the Curriculum New York Philedelphia London, The Falmer Press, 1988Bloom Katya and Shreeves Rosa• Moves a source book of ideas for body awareness and creative movement Harwood Academic Publishers, 1998Bowlby John• The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds Routledge, 2005Ed Bruce, Tina Davies, Mollie • Movement and Dance in Early Childhood 0 – 8 Years (2nd Edition) Paul Chapman Publishing, 2002Ed. Camilleri, Vanessa A.• Healing the Inner City Child Creative Arts therapies with At-risk Youth Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007Ewan Vanessa• Pedagogy Lecture: MA Movement Studies 23rd June Central School of Speech and Drama, 2005Fowler, John S.• Movement Education Saunders College Publishing, 1981Kleinman, Matthew• A Central Role for Physical Education in Early Childhood New York University Education Quarterly, Spring 1975Marshall, Lorna • The Body Speaks Methuen, 2001McGreevy-Nichols, S, Scheff, H, Sprauge M• Building Dances Human Kinetics, 2005McGreevy-Nichols, S, Scheff, H, Sprauge M• Building More Dances Human Kinetics, 2001Ed. Mertz Annelise• The Body Can Speak: Essays on Creative Movement Education with Emphasis on Dance and Drama Southern Illinois University Press, 2002Newman, F. & Holzman, L. Lev Vygotsky:• Revolutionary Scientist Routledge, London, 1993Rubin, Janet E.,• Merrion Margaret Creative Drama and Music Methods Introductory Activities for Children Linnet Professional Publications, 1996Smith-Autard, Jacqueline• The Art of Dance in Education (2nd Edition) A&C Black. London, 2002Stewig, John Warren & Jett – Simposon, Mary• Language Arts in the Early Childhood Classroom Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1995Strasberg, Lee• A Dream of Passion London : Methuen Drama, 1989, c1987.Tortora, Suzi• A Dancing Dialogue 2006Ed. Ullmann, L• The Mastery of Movement Northcote House 1988

Final Thoughts

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Nursery Rhyming

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Nursery Rhyming

Resources CD On the accompanying CD you will find the following resources for this activity:

Mask Template (PDF)• Polarbear Video (Quicktime)• Polarbear’s Nursery Rhymes booklet (PDF)•

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This section was produced using material taken from Polarbear’s nursery rhyming sessions; these lively, interactive sessions provided children with an introduction to rhyming.

On the disc included with this guide you will find an electronic version of the book that Polarbear used with the children. You can print out worksheets from the disc, as and when you need them, or prepare a ‘book’ for each child to keep and work on each time you do nursery rhyming activities.

During the sessions, the children learned Polarbear’s animal rhyme, ‘The Dog and Friends’ – shown opposite, as well as accompanying actions. We have included film of Polarbear performing this rhyme on the disc so that you can watch it and then teach it to your group. The other activities which form the nursery rhyming sessions also look at animals.

Introduction

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Suggested ActivitiesWorksheet exercises taken from Polarbear’s nursery rhyming book should always be interspersed with games and other more lively activities. This will provide a good mixture of different elements which will appeal to the children’s various learning styles as well as providing opportunities for child-initiated play. The techniques used by Polarbear can be adapted for use with different topics and encourage a creative and imaginative approach to exploring any subject.

Handy TipAt the beginning of each session it’s a good idea to get the children to stand in a circle to perform ‘The Dog and Friends’ together. This way everybody can see you leading the rhyme, and the children can take cues from each other regarding actions and words. When you get to the last verse, everyone should begin to creep closer into the centre of the circle ready to jump and roar at the end of the last line!

Polarbear’s animal rhyme, ‘The Dog and Friends’

‘The Dog and Friends’ and Activities

The dog plays in the yard.He chases the cat and chews the bone hard.

The cat lives in the house.She sleeps on the mat and chases the mouse.

The mouse lives under the floor.He eats lots of cheese and looks for some more.

The bird lives in the tree.She sleeps in the nest where no-one can see.

The bear, he’s big and he’s brave.He eats lots of food and lives in a cave.

The lion is hard to ignore.You know when he’s near because of his ROAR!

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During each session, Polarbear took the children on an imaginary bus journey. This is an active game and would ideally be played in a large, open space to allow the children’s imaginations to run wild.

For this activity you will need:

a chair for you to sit on;• lots of enthusiasm and imagination!•

Polarbear’s imaginary trip would often take place in the jungle or the North Pole but you can take the children anywhere. You can ask the children to choose where the bus journey will lead, or keep it a mystery. If you keep the destination a mystery, you can steer their ideas with key prompts and questions throughout to find out where they think you have travelled to.

Before the group can go on their journey they will need to pack a few things. Ask the children to prepare an imaginary rucksack for their trip - this encourages them to think about what they might need and provides lots of opportunities for all the children to get involved. Polarbear encouraged the children to pack imaginary food and then asked them to choose what it was they’d like to take. You could also suggest they include things like rope and binoculars. Encourage the children to pretend to get dressed for where they are going. For example, if you are going to the North Pole you may want the children to pretend to put on a woolly hat, wrap a scarf around their neck or pull on a pair of snow boots. If you are going exploring in the jungle, the group could mime putting on a sun hat and hanging some binoculars around their neck. You can adapt this to suit any trip: if you were going to the farm what might you need to take? What would you need to take if you were jetting off into outer space?

The Bus Journey Game

Handy TipThe adult leading the session should sit on a chair in front of the children and take on the role of the driver. When you are leading the bus journey game help the children to transport themselves into an imaginary world by miming actions; for example putting things into a rucksack, closing it up and swinging it onto their shoulder. This provides a physical connection to the experience and to the activity.

Once bags are packed, the group have to travel to their destination so encourage the children to get on board the bus. Remember - the more enthusiastic and energetic you are in leading the activity, the more enthusiastic the children will be! You don’t have to pretend to be on a bus - you may want to imagine you are on a rocket, an aeroplane or a boat for your journey.

Encourage the children to get onto the bus by forming a line sitting in pairs behind you, the driver, as they would on a bus. If they are slow in forming the line, hurry them along by saying, “Quick, quick, the bus is about to leave! You don’t want to be left behind, do you?”

Handy TipYou can use this activity and method of hurrying up before the bus leaves as a way of encouraging the children to finish up a previous activity and join in the game.

Polarbear would start by asking, “Who’s got the keys?”, and encourage the children to pretend to throw the keys to him. He then mimed catching them and asked the children to make sure they’d done their seatbelts up. He listened out for the children to make the clicking noise of the seatbelt before he turned the ignition key and then encouraged the group to join in making the sound of the engine.

Whilst you’re ‘on the bus’ you can pretend that you’re driving up a hill (lean backwards), turning left, turning right or breaking (pretend to make a sudden stop by jerking forwards and making a screeching noise).

Handy TipAny action you ask the children to undertake will need to be demonstrated by you. This helps to show the children what it is you want them to do and also removes any reservations they may have about participating.

Whilst you are on your bus journey, encourage the children to look out of the windows and ask them what they can see by pretending to stop the bus and point out of the window. You could describe an animal for them to guess or make the noise of the animal you want the children to believe is outside. You can ask the children questions to explore whether the animal is big or small, friendly or scary and if we should let them on the bus. If the children decide to invite the animal on board, then ask the children to open up the doors and gets everyone to ‘stroke’ the animal to explore what it feels like to touch.

The journey continues, turning corners, going up hills and when you come to stop don’t forget to slam on the brakes. You can then encourage the group to unfasten their seatbelts and get off the bus.

You can lead the children on the adventure in whatever way you wish. Some ideas that Polarbear uses are as follows:

Make an animal noise, such as a roar or monkey noise or pretend that you have heard a noise coming from the imaginary trees or bushes. Ask the children what they think is making the noise? What does the creature look like? Where is it going? Do the group want to follow the sound, or move away from it? You can suggest they feed the animal something from the rucksacks. What did they pack that the animal would like?

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Skills gained from this activity

EYFS Learning Goals

Communication, Language and LiteracyEnjoy listening to and using spoken language and readily • turn to it in their play and learning.Use language to imagine and recreate roles and • experiences.

Handy TipYou could ask another member of staff to make the animal noises. With the help of props or simple costumes to transform their look, you could even ask them to go into role play as different animals or characters. Another fun idea is to use Talking Tins with pre-recorded animal noises on - this will add to the sense that there are animals in your setting.

As you continue walking around the space pretend to come across an obstacle such as a river, some long grass, a hole in the ice, etc. Ask the children to come up with a way to overcome the obstacle. Perhaps they could use something from their imaginary backpack? What did they pack at the beginning? This is a good way to test their memory and to see in which new and inventive ways they can solve the problem.

Ask the children to explore different parts of the room pretending that each corner is a different area in the imaginary place. For example, maybe there’s a cave near the door - who do they think lives in there? Is it cold inside? Is the creature asleep? You could make snoring noises as you encourage the children to creep past it. As they continue to tiptoe past you could create a sense of urgency by pretending that the animal has woken up and is chasing after them!

Handy TipAs this game is usually quite lively, Polarbear found that it is often useful to return to a calmer activity such as collage or drawing once the bus journey is over.

Encourage the children to return to the bus quickly and lie down and hide. As you keep looking up to see if the animal is still there, you can make noises and encourage the children to keep hiding. You might want to drive off quickly so ask the children to get back in their seats, fasten their seatbelts and ask who’s got the keys (as before when the group get on board the bus for the first time); or you could ask the children to throw something out of the bus to distract the animal; or you could ask everyone to help carry the largest piece of food out of the rucksacks to the cave for the animal to eat. Do the children have any more food in their backpacks?

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tables and chairs for the children;• enough masks for each child;• colouring crayons;• PVA glue;• child safety scissors;• lolly sticks for the bottom of the masks;• a selection of collage materials (we have found that fur • fabric scraps, pompoms, feathers, card and tissue paper work well);print outs from the enclosed disc.•

This activity is most successful when you are able to provide the children with a range of different materials for the mask making and collage activities. For ideas of where to buy such resources please refer to the ‘Recommended Suppliers’ section on page 77.

Before this activity you will need to prepare enough masks so that there is one for everyone. You will find a mask template on the disc included with this guide. Print the mask template onto thin card and cut out (don’t forget to cut out the eye holes). Instead of using elastic on the back of the masks, the Time to Talk artists have found that it is easier to attach a lolly stick with a piece of sticky tape to the bottom for the child to hold.

Distribute the masks and encourage the children to think about which animals they have ‘seen’ on their trip, or about the names of the different animals they have heard in the animal rhyme. Ask each child to choose an animal and they can then decorate the front of the masks with the collage materials. The mask is a generic shape which should allow the children to make whichever animal they like. Pompoms make good noses and tissue paper can be screwed up into little balls and then attached to the masks with PVA glue. We have found that scraps of fur fabric are popular with the children and are available in a wide range of colours – some realistic fur shades, and some brighter colours too.

The nursery rhyming book contains worksheets that accompany the activities and these can be printed from the disc. On some of the pages you will find a single sentence or phrase from one of Polarbear’s rhymes and above it will be a large section of blank space for the children to do a collage or drawing to accompany the words. For example for the phrase, ‘The dog plays in the yard. He chases the cat and chews the bone hard’, encourage the children to draw a dog and a bone and decorate it with a selection of different art materials.


EYFS Learning Goals

Creative DevelopmentExplore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or • three dimensions.Use their imagination in arts and design, music, dance, • imaginative and role-play and stories.

Physical DevelopmentHandle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials • safely and with increasing control.

Mask Making and Collage

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Nursery Rhyming

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an open space (a school hall would be ideal but could be adapted to smaller spaces);• a copy of the rhyme which features on page 10 of the digital copy of Polarbear’s nursery rhyming book.•

This activity looks at a poem which Polarbear uses as an interactive game. All of the rhyming words are colour-coded to help the children to recognise the rhyme patterns. For example the words ‘fat’, ‘cat’ and ‘mat’ are all in blue. Each time an animal is mentioned in the rhyme, Polarbear selects one or more children to take on the role. The children stand in a line and as the rhyme is read aloud and their animal’s name is said, they make that animal’s noise and do an action to represent the animal. For example, when the “two kangaroos who wear running shoes” are mentioned Polarbear will select two children to go and stand in a line at the front. He will ask the children to pretend that they are kangaroos and he will do the same thing each time another animal is introduced to the rhyme.

It is a good idea for you to work out how many children will need to be assigned to each role before the activity begins to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to take part. It doesn’t matter if you need to have extra kangaroos so long as every child has the opportunity to participate. Every time you choose the next animal, start the rhyme from the beginning.

Example Rhyme

Interactive Rhyme Play

The frog, who sits on the log, is friends with the dog who chases the cat who is incredibly fat and sleeps on the mat or sometimes the chair, one of a pair, made by the bear who works in the shop that sells fizzy pop to people who stop like the two kangaroos who wear running shoes and both hate to lose whenever they race all over the place they run and they chase and play by the lake which bothers the snake who is trying to bake a cake for the duck who keeps getting stuck while reading her book because of long words that she’s never heard. She went to the birds but they couldn’t help. The duck said, “Oh well” and went to her friend who sits on the log and is friends with the dog and we already know him his name is the frog.

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You can ask one or more children to go to the front and pretend to be a frog. Next, a dog, or several dogs are selected to go to the front and stand next to the frog. Children are selected for each of the remaining roles. When an animal is mentioned more than once (frog and duck) the same child can perform the actions each time or, alternatively another child can be selected.

The rhyme is then recited by you and it will help if you point to each child when it is their turn to ‘perform’. The children should be encouraged to try and remember which animal they are playing.


EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentContinue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn.• This rhyme game is fun, everyone gets a part to play and • has to remember their animal.Maintain attention, concentrate, and sit quietly when • appropriate.The children will need to pay attention to the rhyme • and listen out for the name of the animal that they are pretending to be.

Communication, Language and Literacy Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language, • and readily turn it to their play and learning.Listen with enjoyment, and respond to stories, songs and • other music, rhymes and poems and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes and poems.Explore and experiment with sounds, words and texts.• Hear and say sounds in words in the order in which they • occur.

Creative Development Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, • imaginative and role-play and stories.

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an open space (a school hall would be ideal but could be • adapted to smaller spaces).

A useful add-on activity is ‘Pass the Rhyme’. Ask the children to make a circle and explain the game to the group before starting. To begin, you should select a single word that will be passed around the circle. You should start by saying the word loudly and clearly; for the purposes of this example we will use the word ‘cat’. You should encourage the child standing next to you to say ‘cat’ loudly and clearly, then the next child will say the word so that it travels around the entire circle eventually ending up where it started, with you. It may be useful to pass an object such as a ball around the circle too as it will serve as a visual sign to the children that it is their turn.

The next stage in this game is to alternate the words so that the children start to recognise rhymes. An example of this would be you saying ‘cat’ and then asking the child next to you to say ‘mat’; the next child would say ‘cat’ and so on. This game can be used with any rhyming words. It is often useful to ask the group to think about why the words sound similar, for example the ‘at’ sound shared by ‘cat’, ‘fat’ and ‘mat’.

This activity can also be adapted so that the group pass the rhyming sound (e.g. at) first. As the children become more confident in understanding and using rhyming words you can up the number of alternating words around the circle. Another way of changing the game would be to send one word clockwise, and a different rhyming word anticlockwise, thus encouraging higher concentration and teamwork between the children.

Pass the Rhyme

Handy TipsWhere shy children feel unable to initially contribute aloud within the circle, don’t force them but ask the child next to them to say it with them or ask them if they’ll say it with you.

When the children engage in the ‘pass the rhyme’ activity, try getting them to pass the word as quietly or as loudly as possible through whispers and ‘play ground’ voices. This adds an extra element of fun for the children and encourages them to explore volume.

After any circle activity always celebrate the achievements of the group by asking the children to clap each other for their great contributions.

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EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentContinue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn.• Maintain attention, concentrate, and sit quietly when • appropriate.The children will need to pay attention to the rhyme and • take note of the word that is travelling around the circle. If you decide to expand upon this game and introduce two or more words the group will need to pay attention to work out which word they need to say.

Communication, Language and Literacy Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language, • and readily turn it to their play and learning.Listen with enjoyment, and respond to stories, songs and • other music, rhymes and poems and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes and poems.Explore and experiment with sounds, words and texts. • This game provides a great opportunity to introduce rhyme-• play to the children and to encourage your group to enjoy experimenting with different sounds. Hear and say sounds in words in the order in which • they occur.

You can adapt these activities to suit a range of themes of your choice or the children’s choices or you can repeat the same activities each time and observe what the children remember. Always remember to ask the children why they have made a particular choice and encourage them to explain their reasoning.

These games are fun for both you and the children and help to develop rhyming skills and the use of descriptive language.

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Puppets

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PUPPETS

Puppets

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As part of the Time to Talk programme Multistory has developed a loan resource pack of specially designed puppets which is available to borrow from The Children and Young People’s Trust and SMBC. The puppets can be customised by the children to create their own characters. These blank puppets come with a selection of different features including eyes and noses, as well as lots of different wigs, and horns. You will also find different outfits for the puppets and lots of accessories for the children to choose from.

In this guide we’ll explain how best to use these puppets with your group and suggest a range of activities you might like to try to support the speech and language development of the children. Puppets are a great tool for use with children and as Multistory’s puppets are completely interactive the children have the opportunity to shape the appearance as well as the characteristics of their new friend.

Puppets can be utilised in your setting in lots of different ways. They can be used to explore a variety of topics and can help to give shy children increased confidence by shifting attention away from themselves and onto the puppet. Puppets can also encourage children to express their feelings in a non-threatening way. Throughout this guide we have evidenced how the activities link to specific EYFS learning goals.

The puppets were developed by Multistory and a local puppet maker for use on the Time to Talk Creative Arts Programme. The planned outcomes from the Time to Talk puppet activity were:

Children and adults will develop skills in story telling through • the use of puppets.The use of puppets can lead to increased confidence when • telling new, original stories.The use of puppets can increase social interaction within a • group.Emotional learning and development can be explored • through the use of puppets.Puppets can help to increase children’s communication • skills, ability to work together as a group and their creative thinking.

This guide has been produced using ideas and activities from the programme which were developed by Jennifer Smith of Spit Spot Theatre Company and Multistory.

Multistory Loan Pack Puppets Guide

Before introducing your group to the puppets it is important that, as the adult leading the activity, you have created your own customised puppet with an identity to lead stories and activities and to show the children what the puppets look like once completed. If the children see you are happy to play with the puppets this will encourage them to participate also.

Make up your puppet however you want, choose its facial features and hair, dress it up and decide on which accessories you would like it to have. Give your puppet a name and decide what its characteristics are. It’s important that you like your puppet and connect with it. If you enjoy playing with the puppet the children will enjoy seeing you use it.

Tips on how to use a puppet

Eye contact is very important when using puppets. The children will engage much more with a character that seems as though it is focused on them. Eye contact between puppet and child is also a great way to put across different feelings and emotions. For example if a puppet glances from one child to another it will give the impression that the puppet knows what it is talking about. A double take can be used to express surprise and quick glances back and forth can convey concern. If you want the puppet to seem as though it is embarrassed or upset slow glances back to you and away again work well. Deliberately avoiding eye contact between the puppet and the children can also be a useful device, if you ask the puppet something using its name and it looks at the ceiling or away, it is obvious that it’s trying to ignore you. Head movements can be really useful to express feelings too. For example, lowering the puppet’s head expresses sadness and slow movements show that your puppet is down in the dumps or sleepy. If your puppet is being stubborn hold its head up straight. By holding the puppet’s head to one side this will express anger or confusion. Always use a puppet you feel comfortable with, remember to relax and enjoy yourself and the children are sure to enjoy the activity too.

You and Your Puppet

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Puppets

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Getting Started


Enough ‘blank’ puppets for the children to have one between two• Puppet features (eyes and noses)• Hair for the puppets• Clothing for the puppets• Accessories• Stands for the puppets (stands consist of a pole and a board which slot together)•

Start the activity with all of the children sitting on the floor in a circle. Introduce your new friend to the children and ask if they know what it is. This can lead into a brief discussion about what puppets are. Do the children know any other types of puppet (finger, glove, sock, marionette etc)? Do you have any puppets in school/nursery that they have seen before? Ask one of the children to come up and pull your puppet’s nose. If they pull hard enough the nose comes off! See if someone else would like to do the same with the eyes and then show them that the hair is detachable too. Explain that the puppets are very special and that they will all get the chance to customise their own puppet working with one of their friends.

Next, split the children into pairs. The Time to Talk artists have found that the puppets activity works well when children work together. This helps the children to interact with one another and increases their turn taking and sharing skills as well as encouraging them to compromise.

Using the Puppets with the Children

Step 1 Each puppet comes with its own stand. The stand is in two parts, a board and a pole. Give each pair a board and pole and encourage them to work as a team to slot the two components together. Explain that the stand is the puppet’s own special seat. Without the stand, the puppet would just flop onto the floor. You can demonstrate this with your puppet.

Step 2Next, introduce the ‘blank’ puppets to the class. A blank puppet will not have its eyes or nose attached and will not have any clothes or accessories. Ask the children what is missing from the puppet’s face. This will encourage the group to think about their own features and relate it to the puppet. Ask the children about the similarities and differences they can see between the blank puppets – some puppets are fluffy (we shall refer to them as ‘monster’ puppets throughout this document), some are smooth, and they all vary in colour.

Step 3Distribute the puppets - there should be one per pair. Now the children can choose features for their puppet from the board of eyes and noses which you have been provided with in the pack. You could try asking the children why they have made particular choices or ask them which colour nose they have chosen. Explain to the group that the eyes and nose attach to the hook and loop fasteners found on the face of the puppets. Encourage them to find the little rough patches by feeling their puppet’s face.

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Step 4 Now ask the children to choose hair for their puppet. If the children have a monster puppet, they have the option of choosing ears instead of hair. They may also like to give the monster horns which are attached to headbands, although these also fit onto the smooth puppets.

Step 5The children can now dress and accessorise their puppet. Encourage the children to think about what their puppet is wearing. Are they going somewhere hot or cold? Why do they need a hat/bag/umbrella? Why are they wearing a tiara? Ask each pair to choose a name for their puppet. If they struggle, suggest prompts such as the name of a favourite character, a family member, or even something silly like ‘banana’. Often the silly suggestion enables them to expand their thinking and then finally choose a name. Any name is acceptable, even if they choose ‘Princess Potatohead’! Get them to think about what their puppet likes doing. Encourage the group to return to the circle and share their puppet’s names and hobbies with one another.


EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Work as part of a group or class, • taking turns fairly, understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously.

Communication, Language and LiteracyInteract with others, negotiating • plans and activities and taking turns in conversation.

The children work in pairs for this activity and will need to listen, share, negotiate and take turns.

Dress and undress independently. •

The children will dress their puppets during this activity. This will help to increase the group’s skills in using different fasteners such as hook and loop, snap fasteners, buttons, zips and buckles.

Sustain attentive listening, • responding to what they have heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.

This activity requires the children to listen to the adult leading the activity and to understand and follow the instructions given.

Use talk to organise, sequence and • clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events.

Creative DevelopmentExplore colour, shape, form and • space in two or three dimensions.

The ‘blank’ puppet bodies come in a range different colours. This activity provides the activity leader with plenty of opportunities to engage the children in conversations about colour (some puppets are different shades of the same colour which can be an interesting idea to explore with the children), texture (some of the puppets are made out of fleecy fabric whilst others are produced using fluffier fabrics) and shape (eyes and noses). This could also lead on to describing size e.g. “Are your puppet’s eyes bigger or smaller than the ones on my puppet? Do they look the same?”

Express and communicate their • ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range materials.”

Handy TipsYou may like to make a sticker for each puppet with its name written on it and also the names of the children that have been working on the puppet. You can then ask the children to stick the label on their puppet’s t-shirt or dress. This can be a useful reminder if you will be working with the puppets over several sessions, both of the puppet’s name and of which children were working with it.

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The puppets which the children have created (dressed and • with hair and features)Stands for the puppets (stands consist of a pole and a • board)Rods for the puppets (two rods for each puppet)•

This activity will encourage the children to move the puppets and learn how to make them ‘talk’. Occasionally young children can be a little wary about putting their hand inside a puppet. It is important to explain to them that there is nothing inside the puppet, just an empty hole for your hand to go in. You can demonstrate how this works, and ask willing volunteers to have a go to help show the class there is nothing to fear.

Ask the children to practice making a beak shape with their hand. They should be encouraged to think about the shape that their own mouth makes when they say a simple word such as ‘hello’. Ask the children to open and close their hand so it moves in the same way as their mouth. You can liken this movement to a quacking duck as this often helps the children understand what shape they need to make and how it correlates to the sounds they are making.

Next, using your puppet, show the children how you can continue making the beak shape whilst your hand is inside the puppet, and how this then makes the puppet’s head and mouth move. Remember to open and close the mouth in time with the syllables of the words your puppet is saying. Following this, encourage them to have a go. Build on this activity by allowing the children to move around the room with their puppets so that they can ‘talk’ to the puppets that the other children have made. You could give the children some ideas of the sorts of questions that they can ask the puppets; How are they? Have they been having a nice day? What’s their name? Do they have any brothers and sisters? What is the puppet’s favourite colour? Once the children have had the opportunity to talk to the other puppets, ask them to return to the circle so that you can all discuss what they’ve discovered about their friends’ creations.

In the loan pack you will also find some rods for operating the puppet’s arms. Using your puppet show the children how to slip the stretchy loop over the puppet’s hands. Then in their pairs ask the children to attach the rods to their puppet. Now you can experiment making the puppet’s arms move. Can the children make their puppet wave? How would the puppet comb its hair or brush its teeth? Can the children make their puppet yawn? Can they make their puppet dance?


EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentWork as part of a group or class, taking turns fairly, • understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously.

Communication, Language and LiteracyInteract with others, negotiating plans and activities and • taking turns in conversation.


Creative DevelopmentUse their imagination in imaginative and role-play • and stories.


During this activity the children will experiment with making their puppet move and ‘talk’, this will help to develop the children’s motor skills.

Animating the Puppets

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Puppet Show

For this activity you will need

The puppets which the children have created • (dressed and with hair and features)Stands for the puppets (stands consist of a pole and a • board)Rods for the puppets (two rods for each puppet)•

Once the children feel comfortable operating the puppets, ask them to make up a story using their puppet. Split the group in half. One group can form the audience and sit and watch whilst the other half of the group performs their own special puppet show for their classmates.

This offers a good opportunity to discuss with the children how they think an audience should behave. At the end of the performance it’s nice to ask the audience to choose elements of the story that they particularly liked. This will increase the confidence of the performers and ensure that all of the children feel as though their contribution is valid. You can then swap the groups over to allow the children to experience both roles.


EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentWork as part of a group or class, taking turns fairly, • understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously.

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldHandle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials • safely and with increasing control.

During this activity the children will experiment with making their puppet move and ‘talk’, this will help to develop the children’s motor skills.

Creative DevelopmentUse their imagination in imaginative and role-play • and storiesExpress and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentBe confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in • a familiar group

This activity will help to increase the children’s presentation skills and may help to increase their confidence.

Maintain attention, concentrate, and sit quietly when • appropriate. Work as part of a group or class, taking turns fairly, • understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously.

Communication, Language and LiteracyListen with enjoyment and respond to stories... and make • up their own stories. Speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control and • show awareness of the listener.Use language to imagine and recreate roles and • experiences.Enjoy listening to and using spoken language, and readily • turn it to their play and learning.Interact with others, negotiating plans and activities and • taking turns in conversation.


Add On Activities

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The puppets which the children have created (dressed and • with hair and features)Stands for the puppets (stands consist of a pole and a • board)Rods for the puppets (two rods for each puppet)• A digital camera• Paper, crayons and pencils•

Try taking a photograph of each child and their puppet. The child could take this photograph home and talk about their puppet with their family. You could also make a wall display of the photographs for your classroom. The children could be encouraged to draw a picture of their new friend and, perhaps they could be helped to write a story about an adventure their puppet went on to accompany the illustration.


EYFS Learning Goals

Creative DevelopmentUse their imagination in imaginative and role-play • and storiesExpress and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials

Communication, Language and LiteracyListen with enjoyment and respond to stories... and make • up their own stories

This activity provides the children with the opportunity to make up their own story when presented with a stimulus, in this case a prop.

Use language to imagine and recreate roles and • experiences.


The puppets which the children have created (dressed and • with hair and features)Stands for the puppets (stands consist of a pole and a • board)A selection of props (one per puppet) - see below for • details of suggested props

Before the children come in to the room (ideally after a break or first thing in the day) have all of their puppets set out on their stands on tables. Give each of the puppets a ‘prop’. Leftover accessories from the resource pack could be utilised or you can use everyday objects from your setting. Suggested props include a magic wand, a basket, plastic food items, an umbrella, some plastic money or a rolling pin – any object which might ignite curiosity and intrigue. Ask the children what their puppet has brought along with them. Where do they think their puppet got it? What are they going to do with it? Encourage the children to think of a story to explain how their puppet got its prop.


EYFS Learning Goals

Creative DevelopmentUse their imagination in imaginative and role-play and • stories.Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials.

Communication, Language and LiteracyListen with enjoyment and respond to stories... and make • up their own stories. Use language to imagine and recreate roles and • experiences.

This activity provides the children with the opportunity to make up their own story when presented with a stimulus, in this case a prop.

Wall Display Props

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The puppets which the children have created (dressed and • with hair and features)An area in the room to convert into your puppet theatre • with space for the audience to sitArt materials such as cardboard boxes, paper, crayons, • sticky tape etc.

Why not make a puppet theatre with the children? This could be made out of cardboard boxes or paper. The theatre could be set up in a corner of the room and you could allow the children to use this area during free play, or during more of a structured puppet show activity.

This could also be combined with some of the space-changing suggestions in the Transform section of the guide which can be found on page 44.


EYFS Learning Goals

Creative DevelopmentUse their imagination in imaginative and role-play and • storiesExpress and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feeling • by using a widening range of materials

Communication, Language and LiteracyUse language to imagine and recreate roles and • experiences.

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentSelect and use activities and resources independently. •

If the puppet theatre is left up the children can select to use the puppets during free play. This could provide a good opportunity to carry out observations on the children.


Examples of different puppets such as marionettes, finger • puppets, shadow puppets, glove puppets etcArt materials such as felt, child friendly scissors, glue, • envelopes, crayons, paper bags, ribbon, yoghurt pots, lollipop sticks, sticky tape etc.

Look at different types of puppets with the group. They could make their own puppets out of a selection of different materials. Simple hand puppets can be made from paper bags or envelopes, marionettes can be produced using yoghurt pots, string and sticks or straws. You could try cutting shapes out from pieces of felt and gluing them together before allowing the children to decorate them using feathers, glitter, scraps of fabric etc. to make finger puppets. Socks, gloves and wooden spoons can be customised to make characters too. Using an overhead projector to shine onto a wall you could encourage the children to experiment with shadow puppets. They can make simple shapes using their hands or shapes can be cut out of paper.


EYFS Learning Goals

Creative DevelopmentUse their imagination in imaginative and role-play and • storiesExpress and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materialsUse their imagination in art and design, music, dance, • imaginative and role-play and stories


Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentSelect and use resources independently.•

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldBuild and construct with a wide range of objects, selecting • appropriate resources and adapting their work where necessary.Select the tools and techniques they need to shape, • assemble and join materials they are using.


Handy TipEach time you explore a new topic with your class the children could be provided with a few new props related to the topic to experiment with using their puppets.

Handy TipAt Multistory we buy a range of recycled items, paper and card from a facility called SCARF in Wolverhampton. As the materials stocked by SCARF are donated by industry they are much cheaper, it is a great place to pick up unusual bits and bobs and they even have special craft packs with materials for making puppets. Details of SCARF can be found in the “Recommended Suppliers” section of this guide on page 77.

Puppet Theatre Exploring Different Puppets

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Your puppet (the demonstration puppet, dressed and with • features and hair attached)

At story time try using your puppet to enhance the dramatic effect of the book you’re reading with the children. Sit down with the puppet on your knee and make the puppet react at certain points in the story. You could also have a prop box full of items relating to the story which you can get out and explore using the puppet. The children could be encouraged to explain to the puppet what the story was about and what the props represent. You could also use your puppet as a weekly ‘visitor’ to the classroom. The puppet can tell the children all about what it has done since they last met. The puppet can be used to introduce a whole range of topics and activities to your class and could even bring things in for the children to see.

Skills gained from this activity –

EYFS Learning Goals Communication, Language and Literacy

Listen with enjoyment and respond to stories.• Enjoy listening to and using spoken language, and readily • turn it to their play and learning.Sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have • heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentMaintain attention, concentrate, and sit quietly when • appropriate.


The puppets which the children have created • (dressed and with hair and features)Your puppet (dressed and with features and hair attached)• Clues or props (further details provided below)• A photograph of the puppets on an adventure (further • details below)

Pretend that the puppets have been on an adventure between sessions. This is a great way to get the children using vocabulary that they wouldn’t ordinarily use, teaching them new words and getting them to interact as a group, as well as igniting their imaginations.

Once the children have finished playing with the puppets at the end of a session tell them the puppets will be going on a special adventure. Put the puppets away somewhere that the children can’t see them and get them thinking about where the puppets might have been before the next session. The location could be familiar: the doctor’s surgery, the park, the zoo; or the location could be exotic: the beach, the moon, the jungle, the desert.

We have found that it is fun to provide the children with clues to help them guess where the puppets have been. The clues could be very simple such as pictures of things that the puppets might have seen where they went on their adventure. Pictures could be drawn, cut out of magazines, found on the internet or you could even use clip art images. Cut the images out, laminate them and then cut them out again. This means that the clues are durable enough to be handled by the children. Put the clues into an envelope or small bag and children can be selected one at a time to come up and choose a picture, show it to the rest of the group and then try to guess what it is. Once all of the clues have been chosen ask the children if they can think of where all of the different things might be seen.

If you would like to expand on this idea you could swap pictorial clues for props. If the puppets went to a hot country you could use an empty bottle of sun lotion or some sun glasses, if they went to the jungle why not put some small plastic animals in the envelope or bag? Sound effects work well too: Talking Tins (details of where to source these are in the “Recommended Suppliers” section) are small, child-friendly recording devices. They can record short bursts of sound which can be played back time and time again. Children often love pressing the button and listening to the sound. Talking Tins could be used to record real, live sounds such as splashing water or seagulls or you could use the tins to record snippets of speech. They also also allow you to record over previous recordings, so you don’t need to worry if you make a mistake.

Story Time Puppet Adventures

Handy TipIf you feel a little bit shy about ‘talking’ as your puppet, try making the puppet whisper in your ear instead. You could tell the children that the puppet is too shy to talk, or that it has lost its voice. You can get the puppet to whisper to you and as you won’t be focusing on making the puppet talk you can concentrate on movement instead. When you feel ready to make your puppet speak aloud don’t worry about your lips moving – the children will be looking at the puppet’s mouth and not yours.

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An additional element to this activity which has proved particularly popular with the children is a “Puppet Postcard.” At Multistory we superimposed a photograph of the puppets over different background images such as the jungle or outer space. The children loved looking for their puppet and pointing it out. If you prefer a low-tech approach you could always photograph the puppets and then cut out their pictures and stick them onto an image which you have found on the internet or photocopied from a children’s picture book. On the enclosed disc there are illustrated backgrounds from the Unfinished Stories activity which are the same backgrounds we have successfully used in the puppets activities. These can be printed off and a photograph of the puppets can then be stuck on to them. These backgrounds could also be printed on to acetate and projected or displayed on an interactive whiteboard. The children can then play with the puppets and pretend that they are still on their adventure. This can lead to discussions about what it is like and what they can “see”.


EYFS Learning Goals

Communication, Language and LiteracyListen with enjoyment and respond to stories.• Enjoy listening to and using spoken language, and readily • turn it to their play and learning.Sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have • heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.Use language to imagine and recreate roles and • experiences.

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentMaintain attention, concentrate, and sit quietly when • appropriate.

Saying Goodbye to the PuppetsIt can be emotional for the children to have to say goodbye to the puppets as they have established their identities and see them very much as a friend. It’s important that the children get to say goodbye to the puppets whist they are still clothed and have their facial features attached rather then in their original “blank” form. We advise you to dismantle the puppets on your own when the children won’t see what you are doing.

A suggestion for one final activity with the puppets before they are returned is to get the children to help plan a trip for them. The destination can coincide with current topics and themes, e.g. during Black History Month you may want to explore themes of the Caribbean or India with the group and make this their destination. These countries can then be explored through planning a trip for the puppets. What will the puppets need to pack for their visit? Or perhaps the puppets are moving up from nursery to school. What would they need to take with them? When the group have prepared the puppets for their trip encourage the children to say goodbye and explain that once the puppets have been on their adventure they will have to go and visit some other children and won’t be able to come back.

We hope that this guide provides you with some interesting ideas to try out with puppets. Remember that most of these activities can be used with any puppets not just the specially designed puppets in the Multistory loan pack. Puppets are a fun way to explore any topic and can also be used in conjunction with the activity ideas from the Storytelling section of this guide. Aside from developing language and communication skills the use of the puppets also provides plenty of opportunities to explore working as a team and sharing as well as developing the children’s gross and fine motor skills.

Handy TipThe adventure could tie in to the topic which you are exploring in class. If you are looking at “People Who Help Us” perhaps the puppets could visit the police station; if you’re looking at animals in class then they could go to the farm or the jungle.

Handy TipIt is sometimes helpful for the children to make a small version of their puppet to keep so that they have something to remember their big puppet by. A company called Baker Ross sell plain, canvas hand puppets which can be decorated with fabric crayons or paints. Please see the “Recommended Suppliers” section on page 77 for further details. Another idea is to send the children a postcard from their puppets whilst they are on their final adventure telling them what it is like there. Using the same techniques as in “Puppet Adventures” make a picture of the puppets on their trip and write a message or draw some pictures of things that the puppets have enjoyed doing whilst they’ve been away on the back.

Final thought

44

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TRANSFORMBespoke Creative Movement From Sandwell Children’s Fund you can access loan packs of light boxes and light box resources for use with your group. Throughout this section of the resource guide we will explain how best to utilise this resource with your group to develop a range of emotional, social and learning skills as well as offering further guidance on how to incorporate a child led, exploratory approach to your setting based on our experience throughout the Time to Talk programme. Throughout this guide we have also evidenced how this way of working links to specific EYFS criteria to help you to understand the importance of implementing it within your practice.


Mini Me’s template (PDF)•

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One of the options offered within the Time to Talk creative strand was “Transform” – a series of temporary structures consisting of a large square tent, two smaller dome tents, connecting tunnels, and interchangeable interior elements including lights, backdrops and miscellaneous play materials. “Transform” was inspired by a blossoming interest in exploring the Reggio Emilia approach, as well as being informed by both the artist’s previous experiences and the collaborative experiences of other artists working on the programme. Because the structure leant its self well to exploring light and dark, we acquired a variety of related resources to use inside and outside the structure along this theme. The light boxes are a resource used within Transform as part of this approach and their success resulted in the creation of the loan resource, particularly in response to the needs of staff we had encountered.

The two key elements we decided to take from the Reggio approach were “the hundred languages of children” and the role of the “atelier”, (basically a workshop/studio space specifically for children). As Time to Talk was focused on increasing the literacy and language skills of early years children, this first element was key, and we felt strongly that in visiting various early years settings we would have the perfect opportunity to explore creating a temporary “atelier” space in the schools and nurseries that we visited.

Understanding ‘The hundred languages of children’

Listening is seen as an active verb, not a passive one. Listening gives meaning to the message, and value to the person who is giving it. Thornton & Brunton: 2005

Reggio texts often refer to “the hundred languages of children” (or sometimes “the hundred languages of expression”) and the challenges faced when endeavoring to truly listen to what children are saying. This refers not simply to communication through speech, but to gestures, mood, body language, facial expressions, their decision-making and experimentation, interpreting their mark-making and creative play, as well as to many other subtle, often-overlooked, forms of communication. Whilst the rest of the Time to Talk programme focused on children’s verbal language skills, we felt there was a clear need to look at these other forms of communication within the diverse ability levels and language skills across Sandwell children. Our aim was to create situations where the children wanted to and felt able to communicate something, in whatever way they chose, and in those situations ensure we were able to focus, listen and engage, and then respond in return in order to create a dialogue.

Creating an exploratory ‘risk-taking’ environment, including a range of materials and equipment, to allow for alternative means of communication is the beginning of transforming how you engage with the children. This does not require expensive bulky equipment, as we will explain later in this document.

The Atelier

The atelier, located off the piazza, is a place of experimentation and discovery. Thornton & Brunton: 2005

Reggio encourages a child-led approach to learning, with children and practitioners working together over a prolonged period of time on a subject selected by the children. Whilst this was not something we were able to fully embrace because of the limited period of time we had with the children, we attempted to make both the experience as open and non-prescriptive as possible, and the physical environment as open and intriguing as we possibly could. In your setting you can create a neutral space that the children make decisions about, enabling it to change, transform and evolve as their ideas do when they explore a subject. This could be a theme from the foundation stage, or a theme that has arisen out of the exploration of another subject you’ve been focusing on.

We never dictated what the children should be doing during sessions, aside from an open invitation to explore the space, and a request that they share anything interesting that they find. This allowed us and the practitioners to both observe the children, and engage them on their terms, by being invited by the children to share in the creative choices they made and the creative journeys they underwent.

Introduction

Reggio and its influence on Transform

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TentsTo create a neutral space within the very visually stimulating nursery/school environments we created a network of large and small tents that connected via tunnels. In the first session we use a basic set up of just the tents with very little stimulus in order to offer no preconceptions about the space. This provided a new environment to be explored and for the children to make their marks upon it, making decisions about what type of structure it was, where it was, what happens there and who lives inside.

How you can recreate this?

Our tent system was custom built to be sturdy enough to withstand continual upheaval and relocation from setting to setting. You could easily and inexpensively recreate this element of blank space through the purchase of a tent from Ikea (or an outdoor shop such as Millets or Go Outdoors), or alternatively by making a DIY ‘dark area’ using blackout fabric or other dark heavyweight fabric draped over furniture, or stapled to the walls.

Example activityMaterials:

sheets • chairs • weights (stones, or other heavy objects) • different coloured fabrics • different textured fabrics • pegs / clips / stick-on Velcro•

Prompt

ActivityEncourage children to select materials to have in their space through demonstration (making a ‘tent’ or shelter through draping and weighting sheets down) and independent experimentation (holding different fabrics up, selecting them based on qualities such as weight, density, colour, texture etc.).This can be expanded by having additional materials on hand, such as mirrors or other visual stimuli which can then be experienced inside the space and outside the space looking at qualities of light and dark and how this impacts upon reflections

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentBe confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in • a familiar group. Select and use activities and resources independently.•

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldInvestigate objects and materials by using all of their • senses as appropriate.Find out about their environment, and talk about those • features they like and dislike.

Physical DevelopmentShow awareness of space, of themselves and of others. • Move with confidence, imagination and in safety.

MirrorsThrough the use of a 360o mirrored setup the children were able to observe themselves and their peers in new and unexpected ways. It gave us the opportunity to explore copying and mirroring of actions and posture, with the child observing us, their reflection, and the reflection of us all at once.

How you can recreate thisMirrors are a worthy investment for any early years space because of the range of possible outcomes and uses they offer. In our suppliers section at the end of this guide (page 77) we have recommended places to source child-friendly mirrors in a variety of sizes and shapes, however if you are planning on wall-mounting some mirrors you could investigate Ikea for some cheap wavy mirrors, or many other home furnishings stores should stock them.


flat mirrors of varying shapes and sizes• concave and convex mirrors of varying sizes•

Prompt

Activity Spend time looking in mirrors and examining the differences between flat mirrors and bendy mirrors and how it makes our reflections appear. This could lead on to discussions about identity, pattern, reflections and shadows.

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentSelect and use activities and resources independently. • Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in • a familiar group.

Communication, Language and LiteracyInteract with others, negotiating plans and activities and • taking turns in conversation. Use language to imagine and recreate roles and • experiences.

Problem Solving, Reasoning and NumeracyUse everyday words to describe position.•

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldInvestigate objects and materials by using all of their • senses as appropriate. Find out about their environment, and talk about those • features they like and dislike.

Physical DevelopmentMove with confidence, imagination and in safety. • Show awareness of space, of themselves and of others.•

Creative DevelopmentRespond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, • touch and feel.

What we used

“What can we do with this space?”

“What can you see?

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Presenting the opportunity to draw in new places and new ways creates openness for new interactions to occur. We covered the entire floor of the large tent space with paper, we allowed children to draw whatever they liked without the boundaries of a paper’s edge or dimensions to worry about. This meant that children would draw on top of other drawings, drawings would be walked across, and children could collaborate on the creation of different images. If invited we would join in the drawing, and this has on occasion lead to an exchange of lines and mark making which has been entirely spontaneous, non-verbal, and completely directed by the child. After the exchange reached a natural conclusion, the child gleefully beckoned other children to come and witness and celebrate the finished image, demonstrating pride, satisfaction, and a desire to verbalise their experience. Both of these experiences have proven particularly effective with ESOL children who appear to relish the opportunity to engage in non-verbal forms of communication, and the level playing field it provides them with.

How you can recreate this?Large paper can be purchased from a range of locations – Ikea sell large rolls in their children’s section; B&Q sell reasonably cheap rolls of lining paper which can be used as drawing paper; and places such as Scarf often have large rolls of card and paper for a reasonable price. If your budget is tight, you could even tape A3 sheets together to create one massive area to draw on.

Consider where the drawing surface will be placed, whilst being created. Will it cover the floor? Will it cover a whole wall? Could you tape paper down over all of the tables so children can push the tables together once the drawings are finished to create a new mosaic made from their individual images? Consider new materials to draw on/with – old fabric (t-shirts, pillowcases, sheets, curtains etc.) tacked together to make a canvas; using cheap fluorescent marker pens to draw under a UV light - these can be purchased from educational suppliers as listed at the end of this document (page 77); utilise alternative paper sources such as old maps, newspapers and magazines to act as a collage/canvas on which to paint and draw.

You will need to give children the opportunity to simply draw – have a corner set aside as a designated ‘creative area’ where they can draw, leave and then return to for more drawing even hours, days or weeks later. Ask questions about what they have drawn and why. Draw alongside their drawing. Copy their mark making. Without talking, mirror their actions and join in their drawings to see how they respond and to see what they will draw or say next. Explore the space with pens as much as they do, and be open to learning with them.


Large paper covering floor • many fluorescent marker pens in a tub in the centre of • the paper portable UV light/torch•

Prompt

“Can you draw a monster?”

Activity Invite children to experiment with different fluorescent colours in creating their monsters. Involve yourself in the activity, and ask if you can contribute to their drawings. Ask questions about the creatures – what do they like? Where do they live? How big are they? What do they eat? Who are they friends with? Look at colours and shapes. Introduce UV lamp. Ask children to observe the way their drawings ‘shine’ and come to life. Ask if the colours look different. Have their monsters changed? Do they now want to add anything to the monsters drawn by their friends? Can they draw the smallest monster? Can they draw the biggest monster? Which is the youngest monster? Which is the oldest?

EYFS Learning Goals Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in • a familiar group. Select and use activities and resources independently.•

Communication, Language and LiteracyInteract with others, negotiating plans and activities and • taking turns in conversation.Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, • feelings and events.

Problem Solving, Reasoning and NumeracyTalk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns. • Use language such as ‘circle’ or ‘bigger’ to describe the • shape and size of solids and flat shapes. Use everyday words to describe position.•

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldLook closely at similarities, differences, patterns and • change.

Physical DevelopmentShow awareness of space, of themselves and of others.•

Creative DevelopmentExplore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or • three dimensions. Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, • imaginative and role-play and stories.

Changing how we draw

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Light boxes are used to provide a new way to look at materials and create collage pictures using tissue paper, light filters, transparent coloured shapes and a variety of bric-a-brac to explore colours through layering, grouping etc. This free collage space enables a dialogue to occur between children and their peers as they share the space and their pictures develop through reacting to each others ideas. Through the use of OHPs we use the same materials as on the light boxes to project the items on a large scale onto a wall. They are positioned at child height to allow them the option of experimenting with collage items. It enables the children to explore size and scale as well as their own shadows. As part of this we print drawings of theirs and their photos on a small scale onto acetate for them to see themselves projected big.

How you can recreate this?We have provided light boxes as a loan resource which you can use. If you wanted to invest in one or more light boxes for your setting, we have listed suppliers at the end of this guide (page 77). It is likely you will already have an OHP in your setting, however if you don’t these can be easily sourced from stationery suppliers such as Staples. In addition to these pieces of equipment, you will also need to accrue a stock of materials to be used with them. We suggest sourcing a range of materials with varying opacity and textures. Tissue paper works well on light boxes, but not on OHPs. You can photocopy images onto acetate and project them much larger on the OHP. Specialist lighting companies have sample books of ‘gel colours’ for customers wanting to select what colour lighting they want, and once cut up these work well on both the light boxes and OHPs. A variety of collage materials are fun to play with on both light boxes and OHPs although they will only project a shadow on the OHP (lollipop sticks, rivets, springs, bubble wrap etc). Scarf and Play Resource Centre are both amazing places to source unusual materials. We have also provided transparent coloured shapes suitable for use with both light boxes and OHPs in the loan packs.


photographs of the children on acetate • transparent coloured shapes • collage materials • OHP & screen or wall to project onto•

Prompt

“Where are you?”

Activity Encourage children to use the photographs of themselves on the OHPs along with collage materials to create shapes which could represent their home or a favourite place such as the park, the zoo etc. This will enable them to experiment with materials in a new way, with the additional benefit of seeing their work in a different way through the projected outcomes. As practitioners, you will have the opportunity to observe their work from afar whilst seeing in detail the choices they make. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions and engage the children in dialogue about their own work, and the thoughts of their peers about the work they have created.

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentBe confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in • a familiar group. Respond to significant experiences, showing a range of • feelings when appropriate. Select and use activities and resources independently.•

Communication, Language and LiteracyInteract with others, negotiating plans and activities and • taking turns in conversation.Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, • feelings and events.

Problem Solving, Reasoning and NumeracyUse language such as ‘greater’, ‘smaller’, ‘heavier’ or • ‘lighter’ to compare quantities. Talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns. • Use language such as ‘circle’ or ‘bigger’ to describe the • shape and size of solids and flat shapes. Use everyday words to describe position.•

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldInvestigate objects and materials by using all of their • senses as appropriate. Look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change.•

Physical DevelopmentUse a range of small and large equipment. • Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials • safely and with increasing control

Creative DevelopmentExpress and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments. Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or • three dimensions. Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, • imaginative and role-play and stories.

Light boxes and Over Head Projectors

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An element we experimented with in Transform was working with a theme. Because of the limited time we had with the children, we only dedicated one session out of the three to the theme, and the theme we chose was ‘under the sea’. To create this theme, we used a painted ocean back drop, nets, moveable sea creatures and other materials. In your settings you would be able to engage all of the children to create their own scene setting back drop to provide greater interest, ownership of the space and theme for continued exploration.

How you can recreate this?Creating a themed backdrop is an activity in itself that could be done with the children. By using an old bed sheet, you could either dye it first to get an all over shade, or work straight onto the sheet as it is. You could create simple stencils with the children based on whatever scene they want to create. We worked with ‘under the sea’ but other ideas include the jungle, outer space, the desert, on the farm – the options are endless. We recommend looking at what props are easily available from places such as Ikea – we bought plastic curtains and fishing nets for our ‘under the sea’ environment from Ikea. Our other themed materials were sourced from SCARF (See page 77). Your props do not need to be expensive, and if you are able to source non-prescriptive items you could use the same props with different backgrounds – e.g. a large cardboard box could be a spaceship when working on one theme, but it could easily become a cave or a television when working on another theme.


backdrop • themed props • large cardboard box • paints, pens and other drawing/colouring materials•

Prompt

“What is this?”

Activity Using whatever theme your existing backdrop is, provide the children with a large cardboard box and explore what this box could be – allowing them to produce ideas, and eventually agree on one to transform the box into. This could mean that if you have a space backdrop, they decide the box is a space ship or maybe an alien. If you have a jungle backdrop, they might decide the box is a cave. Once they have decided, then encourage the children either to work together on the one box, allocating tasks evenly, or give each child a box of their own. Boxes can be found for free at supermarkets near the checkouts. This can then be used to develop stories by the children or for use later in the day by yourselves to tell stories to the children using our story telling techniques.

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentRespond to significant experiences, showing a range of • feelings when appropriate.


Problem Solving, Reasoning and NumeracyUse language such as ‘circle’ or ‘bigger’ to describe the • shape and size of solids and flat shapes. Use everyday words to describe position.•

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldLook closely at similarities, differences, patterns and • change. Find out about their environment, and talk about those • features they like and dislike.

Creative DevelopmentRespond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, • touch and feel. Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments.

Themed Activity

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As our tents are made from blackout fabric they provide a very dark space for the children to explore. To help the children overcome any fear of the dark each child is given a torch and a fluorescent jacket so that they look bright and always have a light source with them. This empowers the children to have control over their own light source that they can turn off when they feel comfortable with the dark space as well as explore what other sources provide light and whether the light gets bigger, smaller, and brighter depending on its proximity to objects.

How you can recreate this?Torches are a valuable and affordable tool to have within your setting, and we would recommend that you try to have as many as you can budget for with the ideal situation being one torch per child. This is to allow each child to control their own experience of using the torches and controlling their own light source, as well as offering opportunities for them to use their light beam to interact with the light beams coming from other children’s torches. If you wanted to purchase torches for your setting, we can recommend the torches sold by the Early Learning Centre as they’re suitable for young children and are fairly robust. We also sourced child-sized fluorescent jackets in Ikea, and have found these to be particularly effective under UV light as the colours glow brightly.


torches, enough for one per child•

Prompt

“What can you see?”

Activity Make the room as dark as possible – if need be, tape dense card or paper over windows to help create a darkened space. Explore with the children what shape their torchlight makes, and how they can make the shape bigger and smaller by moving their torch closer and further away from the floor/wall/ceiling.

Ask the children to point the torches on their toes, on their elbows, on a friend’s head etc. Explore drawing shapes in light using their torches. Explore copying – if they point their torch somewhere, point your torch there too. If they shine their torch on your foot, shine your torch on their foot. Try shining torches through objects – objects with holes, semi transparent objects, fabric. Use tin foil with holes poked in it and wrap it around the torch. Ask the children what it looks like, what it makes them think of. Bring mirrors into the dark space to explore how they look when the torchlight is close to them and further away. You can also affix transparent sweetie wrappers onto the end of the torches using an elastic band so the children can create different coloured lights and see themselves with bright colours shining on their faces.

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentRespond to significant experiences, showing a range of • feelings when appropriate.Select and use activities and resources independently.

Problem Solving, Reasoning and NumeracyUse language such as ‘circle’ or ‘bigger’ to describe the • shape and size of solids and flat shapes.Use everyday words to describe position.•

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldInvestigate objects and materials by using all of their • senses as appropriate. Ask questions about why things happen and how • things work.Find out about their environment, and talk about those • features they like and dislike.

Physical DevelopmentMove with confidence, imagination and in safety.• Show awareness of space, of themselves and of others.• Use a range of small and large equipment.•

Creative DevelopmentExpress and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments.

Torches

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We had a range of interactive light sources which the children could control and manipulate both colours and light intensity, as well as developing their problem solving skills as they interact with them. These light sources included colour mixing rope lights, UV light sources to create a glow environment, a dog kennel light which had slides of colour gels for the children to change, DMX lights for colour mixing through corresponding buttons, lumi boards for light writing with LED torches, and fibre optic curtains and carpets which colour change when pressure is applied. All of these options provided different atmospheres and environments for the children to be in control of, manipulate and explore, sparking different responses and stories from them.

How you can recreate this?Much of this type of equipment is expensive and tailor-made for our Transform environment. This does not mean, however, that you should feel unable to recreate this type of experience in your setting. Ikea sells a wide range of interesting and innovative lighting solutions including a spotlight with interchangeable lenses that will project the silhouette of a moose or a house, or can change the colour it projects. Their stock changes regularly, so it’s well worth a trip to see what they have on offer. Alternatively if you want to use some of your budget on a longer-term purchase that you feel will enhance your setting, then the educational suppliers we have listed at the end of thus guide (page 77) stock interesting and varied light sources along with suggested activities. Because the activities will need to be tailored around what your light source is, and what functions it has, we haven’t suggested activities here but hope that there is plenty of inspiration throughout this guide for what you might do with them. We have still included EYFS learning goals we feel can be achieved through the use of interesting lightsources – please see below.

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentRespond to significant experiences, showing a range of • feelings when appropriate. Select and use activities and resources independently.•

Problem Solving, Reasoning and NumeracyUse language such as ‘circle’ or ‘bigger’ to describe the • shape and size of solids and flat shapes. Use everyday words to describe position.•

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldInvestigate objects and materials by using all of their • senses as appropriate. Ask questions about why things happen and how things • work. Find out about their environment, and talk about those • features they like and dislike.

Physical DevelopmentShow awareness of space, of themselves and of others. • Use a range of small and large equipment.•

Creative DevelopmentExpress and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments.

Light Sources

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In all of the setups, we provided abstract materials to both aid the children in their explorations and to allow them the potential to create their own understanding and interpretations of their environment. These materials were inexpensive, easily replaceable items: fabric off cuts in a variety of textures; squishy fluorescent toys which can be found in pound shops and other discount stores; fluorescent marker pens; large sheets of paper; and a collection of what we describe as ‘collage’ materials which consist of springs, plastic off cuts, old keys, tissue paper, feathers, multi coloured acetate, bubble wrap, ribbon, bottle tops. Often, they would ask, “What’s THAT?” and we would then ask them, “I don’t know! What do you think it is?” which would then lead on to all sorts of imaginative interpretations. Fabric would be the obvious princess veil / Batman cape, but it could also be a fluffy quilt, a saggy balloon, a piece of treasure, a scary ghost, a silky rope or many other things. The fluorescent toys were already bizarre looking, and depending on what set up we provided they might be a sea monster, a wiggly worm, a sizzling pancake, a piece of juicy pie, a weird hat, a slimy alien, or a flat frisbee.

How you can recreate this? Collect as many different abstract materials as you can. Try to collect groups of items – so a box of springs, a bag of old keys, a tub of various bottle tops. These items are sourced inexpensively from places like SCARF (See page 77). Many fabric shops have off cuts/end of roll samples which they sell off cheaply. You don’t need large pieces of fabric, just a variety of interesting pieces. Try to keep your materials in one place, and give consideration to how they are stored/displayed. Instead of pouring all the materials into one heap, try placing similar coloured items next to one another or create patterns with the objects and observe the children’s reactions and responses to your display.


box of abstract materials/textures • blanket or sheet to cover box • space • paper • drawing materials•

Prompt

“What can you feel?”

Activity Ask children to close their eyes and feel what is in the box. Encourage them to use their imagination to describe what they can feel – cold, hard, soft, warm, smooth, spiky, rough etc. Ask them to imagine what it might be – is it alive? Is it a toy? Is it friendly? What is it used for? Who does it belong to? After all children have participated, distribute contents of box. Encourage them to now examine the object(s) with other senses – sight and smell (you could include things such as cinnamon sticks or other strong smelling natural materials). Revisit initial questions. Ask children to imagine what their item might be, and to make marks to represent that in whatever way they choose.

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentBe confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in • a familiar group. Select and use activities and resources independently.•

Communication, Language and LiteracyInteract with others, negotiating plans and activities and • taking turns in conversation.Use language to imagine and recreate roles and • experiences. Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, • feelings and events.

Problem Solving, Reasoning and NumeracyUse language such as ‘greater’, ‘smaller’, ‘heavier’ or • ‘lighter’ to compare quantities. Talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns. • Use language such as ‘circle’ or ‘bigger’ to describe the • shape and size of solids and flat shapes. Use everyday words to describe position.•

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldInvestigate objects and materials by using all of their • senses as appropriate. Look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and • change. Ask questions about why things happen and how things • work.

Physical DevelopmentUse a range of small and large equipment. • Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials • safely and with increasing control

Creative DevelopmentRespond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, • touch and feel. Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments. Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or • three dimensions. Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, • imaginative and role-play and stories.

Materials

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We made decisions about what key items to bring, and what possible prompts we would offer the children, but once the workshop began our approach was to question and be open to their ideas, instructions and decisions. In this respect, not only were the children going on a learning journey each week, but we were also open to learning from them in return.

Teachers are viewed as enthusiastic learners and researchers and not as imparters of received knowledge. Thornton & Brunton: 2005

We engaged the children in as many non-verbal forms of communication as possible. For these exchanges to occur required us, in our roles as facilitators of the engagement to observe first and interact second.

We brought specific tools to assist us for example:a good quality digital camera which also had the ability to • film;MP3 recorder which was small enough to fit in a pocket • and remain discreet.

You can always use the applications on your mobile phones as cheaper alternative to take photos and record audio.

With these two pieces of equipment, we found we were able to capture both the usual requisite documentation and evidence of each workshop, but also more than that. We caught the atmosphere within the workshops; we took rapid successive shots which clearly demonstrated learning taking place; we captured children’s voices as they chattered about imaginary monsters lurking around the corner; we recorded conversations where the children discussed abstract concepts such as what different colours taste or smell like; and we even captured images which allowed us, as facilitators, to learn new ways of working and develop new ideas. In placing such an emphasis on the ‘documentation’ of the workshops, we discovered it allowed us to experience them in an entirely different way.

Whilst working with children, it is so easy to be swept away by the momentum of their energy and to miss important, beautiful, amazing things: the look of surprise and curiosity when a timid child draws with the fluorescent pens under a UV light for the first time, and then so overwhelmed they share this with you; the determined concentration of a child when trying to make just the red light come on, knowing that it’s possible and trying so hard to figure it out; the serene calm of a normally boisterous child ordering the colours on a light box. It’s easy to get bogged down in the paperwork, take the time to reflect with your colleagues about how well something worked and how different children responded and how you can develop the children’s interests further. Through taking the time to stand back, observe, and photograph you build up a body of evidence to support their FSA and Wellcomm assessments that can be filled in post activity with the children.

We realise it would not be possible or practical for most settings to acquire a set of custom built tents and expensive stage lights in order to reproduce the Transform setup, but what we have learnt through delivering these workshops is that the actual essence of Transform is not about expensive equipment and is instead about:

igniting children’s imaginations • empowering them as decision makers and storytellers • offering them non-prescriptive tools to be creative • being unafraid to offer a starting point without knowing • where you may end up joining the children in their inquisitive explorations • finding ways of capturing the learning that takes place – • through photography, sound recording, video, note taking, collecting their drawings etc. being willing to learn from the children as much as they • learn from you listening to the children, not just to their voices•

Inexpensive equipment and materialsWhilst expensive equipment is not necessary, we believe that exciting imaginative non-prescriptive resources are. These are some of the places where you can easily and inexpensively acquire these resources:

Ikea They often have inexpensive child-friendly furniture, lights and even tents which you could use to convert a corner of your classroom into your own “atelier”. We purchased multi-coloured plastic ribbon curtains which we cut to a variety of lengths and hung inside the tent; long spools of paper which could be cut and overlapped to cover the floor or walls; brightly coloured tubs suitable for storing craft/collage materials and some lamps which project fun shapes/patterns depending on which lens you place in front of the bulb. They also have a wealth of slightly damaged stock in their ‘bargain corner’ where we found a highly-textured rug greatly reduced because the packaging was missing. The rug then became another element used amongst the mirror setup.

Listen, Engage and Respond Transforming your practice

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Poundland / 99p Store These shops often stock the squidgy jelly toys we use inside the tents. They are abstract enough that the children have to imagine what they are or could be, and often they are made in fluorescent colours which makes them UV reactive. Other useful items include glow sticks, craft materials and flashing/glowing toys.

The market Fabric stalls will often sell scraps of fabrics that are off-cuts for a cheaper price. As you’ll only want small samples, these are a great resource for stocking up on fancy textured material.

SCARF (The Schools and Community Arts Resource Facility) SCARF specialises in recycled materials from local businesses, so you will find strange off cuts of plastic or rubber and odd corks and lengths of string alongside empty vodka shot tubes and spools of coloured vinyl off cuts. You can never guarantee what they will have in stock, but they’ll always have a lot of things you’d never even imagined. Please note that you need to be a member to make purchases, and they have limited opening times so please contact them in advance of your visit.

Additional equipment and resourcesOnce you’ve stocked up on miscellaneous recycled craft materials, you may feel you want to allocate some of your budget towards a specific piece of equipment which is a longer term investment. We originally only had tents and lights, but decided to add to the basic setup with additional pieces of equipment which really improved the experience. We can definitely recommend the following:

UV lamp(s)• Mirrors• Light boxes• OHPs• UV fibre optic curtain• Lumi boards•

Most of these items can be purchased from specialist educational suppliers; you may even have some items, such as an OHP, already. Two key suppliers we used were Space Kraft and TFH – These are special needs resource companies where you can find a range of light sources, cheap UV torches, the lumi boards, mirrors and a range of materials that are just as beneficial as a learning resource to children without any special needs.

The addresses for key suppliers can be found at the back of the guide, page 77.

We believe that everyone has the ability to be creative, and that children are the most eager to demonstrate this. If the practitioner is willing to offer children the opportunity to make decisions and (to a certain extent) lead/facilitate the direction of exploration, they will gladly show you the way. As the ethos behind Transform was to be as non-prescriptive as we could, the following will be more of a list of prompts or suggestions to explore with the children, as opposed to lesson plans, with the aim of making you think about ways in which you could implement small suggestions within your workplace.

Materialsa) Textures: soft, hard, bendy, knobbly, slippery, fluid, natural, manmade b) Composition: creating images with materials, selection of complimentary materials, have a range of options to choose from c) Manipulation: cutting, poking holes in, threading, layering, collecting, scrunching, creasing, tearing, the sounds created through manipulation

Coloursa) Monochromatic: work with one or two colours. Don’t automatically avoid white, black or grey. b) Alternative senses/abstract questions: what does a colour smell like? What might it taste like? Is it a noisy colour? Does it have many friends?

Lighta) Dimensions: what shape is light? Is it heavy? Is it hard or soft? Can it bend? Does it go in a straight line? Can you touch it? Does it move?b) Personality: Does it have any friends? Where does it go at night? What does light do when you’re sleeping? Does it ever hide? What does it eat?

Using existing equipment

a) OHP: experiment with opaque, semi-opaque and transparent materials. Print photographs on acetate. Photocopy the children’s drawings onto acetate. Use photographs of them on acetate. Create compositions in a laminating pouch, then project on OHP once laminated.b) Talking Tins: pre-record sounds and hide. Encourage children to create their own soundscapes. Experiment with noise-making. Link sounds to colours/tastes/textures/ emotions.c) Mirrors: allow children to spend time examining their reflections. Observe changes in mood/behaviour as a result of working with mirrors. Explore changes in shape in concave/convex mirrors. Combine mirrors. Explore shadow and light using mirrors.

References / Suggested Reading

L. Thornton & P. Brunton, 2005. Understanding the Reggio Approach.

London: David Fulton Publishers C. Edwards, L. Gandini & G Forman, 1998. The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach – Advanced Reflections.

Ablex Publishing.V. Vecchi & C. Giudici, 2005. Children, Art, Artists: The expressive languages of children, the artistic language of Alberto Burri. 2nd ed. Italy: Reggio Children.

Final Thoughts

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Unfinished Stories

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Unfinished Stories


Characters A3 sheets (PDF)• Backgrounds A4 sheets (PDF)•

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Unfinished Stories was a creative activity that used bespoke storytelling resources created by Multistory for the Time to Talk programme. Each participating child received a hard backed book which they used in the sessions to create their own stories and that they took home to use with their families.

The book was designed so that it can grow with the children and their changing interests. The book contained eight line drawings, one on each page, that depicted different environments – the jungle, the desert, outer space etc there were also pages at the back of the book that were left blank, to allow the children to create their own environments – the park, their home, their back garden etc. These drawings then became the background for the children’s stories. Each of the pages had a clear piece of acetate covering them. This allowed the children to place cut out images and characters on top of the background and then sandwich them into place with the acetate.

During the workshops the children used characters we had created – such as a lion, an alien, and a pirate – to create the stories in their books. We also looked at elements of a story – deciding which characters ‘lived’ in which environment and sharing ideas with one another about what might happen in each of those places. The book acts as a storytelling tool providing visual prompts for children, practitioners and families to make up their own stories without any reliance on literacy skills.

We’ve developed the Unfinished Stories model for you to use with your group.

Resources

We have included the original source material for Unfinished Stories on the disc at the back of this guide. You will find each of the eight backgrounds on the disc, ready for you to print out and use however you wish. In addition, we have included our character sheets, and some blank characters in the shape of a girl and a boy.

Suggested Activities

Unfinished Stories was designed to be a simple and flexible storytelling tool for parents and practitioners to use with children.

The most important principle we apply within the storytelling workshops is to never tell a child they are wrong. When discussing the images, you are encouraging the children to use their imagination about the places they can see. If you correct them you risk stifling their creative thoughts, and may deter them from expressing these ideas in future.

Below you will find suggested activities; we hope you will feel inspired to expand these, and develop them into new and exciting activities to do with the children.

Background

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Environment

Print the backgrounds on pieces of card. One by one, introduce the images to the children and start conversations about where the place is, what the place is like, who might live or visit there, and what might happen there. This could lead on to discussions about holidays, adventures, weather, family, animals, and many more subjects. You may introduce these backgrounds to explore specific foundation stage themes.

Copy the backgrounds so that each child has a copy and can colour it in. Ask the children to think of new places that they have visited or can imagine, and ask them to create these new places using drawing, painting, collage or other creative techniques. We would often use the landscapes as a backdrop for 3-D model making with plasticine, developing spatial awareness, sense of scale and further enabling the children to expand the stories they were creating using small toys as characters.

Print or photocopy the backgrounds onto acetate. Project the backgrounds using an OHP, and allow the children to imagine themselves in that location. Discuss what sounds they might hear, and what it might feel like to be there. You can use the projected backgrounds as a new place to explore and incorporate some of the storytelling and nursery rhyming activities suggested in this guide.

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentBe confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak • in a familiar group.Work as part of a group or class, taking turns and sharing • fairly, understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously.

Communication, Language and LiteracySustain attentive listening, responding to what they have • heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.Listen with enjoyment, and respond to stories, songs and • other music, rhymes and poems and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes and poems. Use language to imagine and recreate roles and • experiences.

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldFind out about, and identify, some features of living things, • objects and events they observe.Observe, find out about and identify features in the place • they live and the natural world.Find out about their environment, and talk about those • features they like and dislike.

Creative DevelopmentRespond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, • touch and feel.Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments.Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, • imaginative and role-play and stories.

Handy TipYou may want to glue or staple sheets of acetate to one side of the background so that you keep characters in place.

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Cut out the characters on the character sheets. Put all characters in a large envelope and encourage the children to take it in turns to pick one. With each character, ask the children what it is, what its name might be, where it lives and any other questions you can think of. These could be thematically linked to ideas of identity, home, family etc.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions that might seem silly – who might the monkey be friends with? Do you think the monkey likes to eat slippers? What colour pyjamas might the monkey wear? Often these types of fantastical and silly questions will keep the children engaged through intrigue and amusement, and will spark off their own imaginations to create new ideas and stories.

Encourage the children to create new characters. These could be drawn, or created by combining simple shapes through collage to create a head, body, limbs etc. Ask the children to consider who or what they’ve created – is it a person, an animal, a friend, an alien? Use similar questions as above to draw out their responses and ideas.

Using photographs of the children, they can include themselves in the stories. We asked children to colour in a blank character and then superimposed their face onto the body they had coloured. This process created characters which the children strongly identified with and became a powerful tool to engage those who were reticent to participate. It is also useful as a tool for working with ESOL children as it gives them a strong and much-needed sense of inclusion. To create their personal characters, we used Photoshop to digitally superimpose them; however a similar result can be achieved through simply placing their photo on top of their drawing and then photocopying. You can also change sizes of characters through enlarging or reducing on a photocopier.

By printing or photocopying the characters onto acetate, you can project the characters onto the walls of the classroom, or onto a curtain or backdrop. This is particularly effective when using photos of the children, as they are often fascinated and inspired by seeing themselves and their peers in new and interesting ways.

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentHave a developing awareness of their own needs, views • and feelings, and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings of others.Work as part of a group or class, taking turns and sharing • fairly, understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously.

Communication, Language and LiteracyInteract with others, negotiating plans and activities and • taking turns in conversation.Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language, • and readily turn to it in their play and learning.Sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have • heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.Use language to imagine and recreate roles and • experiences.

Creative DevelopmentExpress and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments.Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, • imaginative and role-play and stories.

Characters Handy TipYou can use the story bag and ‘us’ puppets activities, detailed in the Storytelling section of this guide, as part of the Unfinished Stories model to help develop the children’s storytelling techniques and to use different tools of engagement to suit a range of learning styles you may have within your group.

Unfinished Stories

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Select a number of backgrounds and have those on display. As a group ask the children to pick one character each, and then decide which background it belongs on. Once they have all chosen, you can then ask them to decide whether the characters on each background are friends with each other, and what they are doing.

Ask each of the children to move one character from the background it is already on to a different background. This could either be the character they originally chose, or someone else’s character. Encourage discussion around what has changed, and what is now happening and what would the character need or be wearing in this different environment. This could be thematically linked to journeys, adventures, holidays etc.

Ask the children to put the backgrounds in some kind of order, and then decide what the characters will do when they are visiting each background. By capturing their ideas you can begin to string together the bare bones of a story which they have created and could then expand upon at a later date.

Using an OHP, project the backgrounds onto large paper or fabric and trace over the lines. You could then project the characters onto this makeshift backdrop, giving the children an additional environment to explore and use to make stories.

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentContinue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn.• Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in • a familiar group.Work as part of a group or class, taking turns and sharing • fairly, understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously.

Communication, Language and LiteracySustain attentive listening, responding to what they have • heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.Listen with enjoyment, and respond to stories, songs and • other music, rhymes and poems and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes and poems.Explore and experiment with sounds, words and texts.• Retell narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on • language patterns of stories.Show an understanding of the elements of stories, such • as main character, sequence of events and openings, and how information can be found in non-fiction texts to answer questions about where, who, why and how.

Knowledge and Understanding of the WorldFind out about, and identify, some features of living things, • objects and events they observe.Look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and • change. Find out about past and present events in their own lives, and in those of their families and other people they know.Observe, find out about and identify features in the place • they live and the natural world.Find out about their environment, and talk about those • features they like and dislike.

Creative DevelopmentExpress and communicate their ideas, thoughts and • feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments.Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or • three dimensions. Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, • imaginative and role-play and stories.

Unfinished Stories has been designed to be as open-ended and flexible as possible. We hope that you will find new ways to use these resources alongside the other resources provided throughout this guide, and will enjoy finding ways to integrate these resources and processes within your setting.

Stories

Final Thoughts

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Big Stories for Little People

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BIG STORIES FOR LITTLE PEOPLE

Storytelling Guide This storytelling guide is produced using contributions from the Time to Talk Storytellers (Fiona Collins and Ellen Mills) as well as The Play House Theatre in Education Company. We hope this section will give you some new ideas and techniques for making storytelling more interactive. Throughout this guide we have highlighted key EYFS goals that storytelling activities can evidence and achieve.


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A great way for children to digest and validate their learning is through direct experiences. By using interactive storytelling techniques, children not only listen to a story, they experience it. This helps them gain a deeper understanding whilst also offering them the opportunity to use their own imaginations.

Bringing to life a well known story with the children at your setting or making up a new story with them can be great fun; it’s also a way to encourage creativity and provides plenty of opportunities for sharing. Stories can be adapted so that they explore a topic that you’re looking at in class, an important issue or a particular aspect of language. By making storytelling as interactive as possible the children will be able to step into someone else’s shoes. Stories provide a context for using language in different ways, for example children could be encouraged to ask for directions, make a wish or tell a character in the story what they want.

Getting Started - choosing a story

It can feel daunting for some teachers and practitioners to make up and lead new stories with the children. By making the storytelling experience interactive, the children will contribute and direct the story with you thus relieving some of the pressure of thinking up new ideas on your own.

When you’re choosing a story make sure you select one that you like, this way it will be easier to develop your own, individual way of sharing it. As your confidence increases build up a small repertoire of stories that you feel comfortable with rather than trying to learn lots of new things at once. Be clear about what you hope to achieve from telling stories. Don’t be afraid to tell a well-known story or one that you have told before: no story is ever the same twice. Don’t try to learn the story off by heart; it’s easier to just remember the key elements and for you and the children to improvise around them, using those key elements as the basic structure. You could even use the children’s favourite books as the basis of your story, using those characters and environments and adding your own ideas to it. You can use key EYFS experiences that children need to understand as the basis of the activity, eg ‘daily routine’ including getting ready for school, or going to the doctors and what they see and experience whilst they are there.

When you’re preparing, read through the story two or three times concentrating on its shape and structure. Breaking the story down into manageable chunks will help you to get a sense of the narrative. Try to visualise the story and build up mental pictures full of sound and colour - when you’re telling the story, the children can help you do this too. Practice making and describing sounds – animal noises, splashing water, footsteps etc. – and use them in your storytelling. These will really help the story come to life and you can easily get the children to make these sounds with you by asking questions such as: ‘What sound would the wolf make?’

Getting Started - transforming your setting

Once you have chosen which story to tell, the location becomes key to the storytelling experience. If the story is set in a forest consider how you can transform your space to represent this. Encouraging the children to help you transform a room is a great way to get them thinking about the story in a different way and feeling as though they have stepped into the story. Simply rearranging the furniture and allowing the children to create their own version of a place can be very useful in helping you tell the story.

Making a Story Corner

Another effective way of transforming the space is by making a Story Corner. You could make a small Story Corner for individual children to use where they are encouraged to invite some of their favourite teddies to tell a story to, or you could make a Story Corner big enough for all of the children to sit inside and share stories together.

A Story Corner should be a cosy place where the children feel comfortable. A really easy way to transform your classroom is by using pieces of fabric. You could use sheets and blankets, sari silk or even the dance scarves that you may have received as part of a Time to Talk resource pack. The fabric can be draped over chairs and tables, or even a clothes horse, and clothes pegs can be used to fasten pieces together or to attach to furniture. A blanket or some cushions could be put inside the Story Corner for the children to sit on.

Continuation Activity

When you’ve finished exploring a story, encourage the children to draw pictures of what they have ‘seen’ and these can then be fixed to the inside of the Story Corner using clothes pegs. This will give them a sense of ownership over the space and make it seem special.

Why use stories in your setting?

Handy TipTry making a storyboard of six key points. This is a useful way of identifying the most important parts of the story and enables you to visualise what is going to happen, which in turn helps you describe the scene.

Handy TipFor other ideas on transforming your setting, look at the activities discussed within the Transform section of this guide. This will help you bring your own storytelling techniques and ideas into the free exploratory play of Transform. If there is limited room or you are restricted in how you can transform your setting, another way to set the scene for your story is through a storytelling box. If you received a storytelling basket from the Time to Talk Programme this is the perfect resource to start your collection of storytelling objects.


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Some of the significant events, places and characters from a story can be represented by an object and placed in a box or tin. There are two ways you can use a storytelling box:

Use it whilst you are telling your story as a prompt for you, 1. or for exploration and scene setting by the children before the story begins. As the story is told you can get each object out at the moment which the person or event it represents is mentioned. The objects are then returned to the box as the story continues until the lid is replaced at the end of the story. This will help listeners, especially young children, to keep their attention focused. By having a physical experience that is shared with the characters in the story, e.g. by passing objects around to be felt, worn and used whilst you tell the story, you will enhance the children’s engagement with the story itself. These props can help children to visualise the story especially if it is unfamiliar to them. The children can also re-tell the story using the story box to support them in remembering significant things as well as imagining new things.

Use this as a resource at the start of the story for your 2. scene setting and transforming the room. Get the children to sit in a circle and put the storytelling box in the middle. Tell the children the name of the story you are going to tell them and who is in the story and where the story takes place, but not what happens in the story. Invite the children in turn to take an item out of the box and show it to everyone. Ask them questions: What is it? What does it feel like? Who does it belong to? What is it used for? Where should it be placed? As the children do this for every item in the box they create the scene for the story to be told.

As well as transforming your setting to suit the story, it also works well if you can go into role. This means pretending to be someone else, but with a purpose. An example of this might be pretending to be Red Riding Hood’s mother with the intention of drawing out of the children’s ideas about what might have happened to Red Riding Hood.

It can feel embarrassing at first but remember that children slip into role very easily and will accept you as long as you signal it clearly. You can use props and clothing to signal to the children that you have changed characters. Signalling means telling the children, “When I put this hat on I’ll be the king and then we will be in the story. Is everyone ready?” Do the same when you are coming out of role again or changing characters. You could even ask the children in advance what type of hat a certain character would wear, or by modelling a hat, or gloves or other accessories, ask the children for ideas about who might wear those specific things. This will enable the children to have an investment in the story before it begins and enable them to easily identify the characters.

Storytelling Box Telling a Story - Going into Role

Handy TipMulti-sensory items work very well, in particular materials that have evocative smells or rich textures can be very useful. Objects that could be used to provide a range of sound effects could also be included. Use natural objects and herbs to provide an array of smells and textures, as well as rustling sounds.

RememberIt is important to have a clear objective for going into role – why are you doing it? It is much nicer and more inclusive for children to be in the story if you are in it too!


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To help you tell a story in an interactive and inclusive way we’ve outlined two key and easy techniques you can use:

Story Island

Story Island is played in a circle. It is a way for the children to contribute their own ideas so that they can develop a shared story as a group. The story can be one that has been told or read, or can be a new story made up by the children within the circle.

The space in the middle of the circle becomes the Story Island for the story under discussion and each child in turn adds something to the story world. For example, if the first child decides they’d like a treasure chest on the island they should be encouraged to go in to the middle of the circle and show the rest of the group where they would like the treasure chest to go. The rest of the children then chant, “There was a Story Island, and on that Story Island (insert child’s name here) put (a treasure chest)”.

Once everyone has added something to Story Island each child in turn is offered a magic ticket (this could be a pretend ticket or you or the children could make one out of card or paper) to go to the island and explore it. Each child “brings back” something from the island and the rest of the group guesses what it is. The child can choose to mime the object, or describe it without naming it. The child can present something that was mentioned in the story, was added to the island by one of their friends, or something new, that they ‘noticed’ when they were on the island. This activity also works well when allowing all the children to go to the island together and return when the agreed signal is given.

Continuation Activities

To follow up this activity invite the children to draw the Story Island or make a map of it. Ask the children to draw their favourite item from the island or make it out of craft materials. As the children have chosen the items on the island, this is a great way to test their memories. See how many of the things on the island they can remember: you could get them to shout out and you make a list; they could make the list; or they could draw as many as they can remember.

Revisit the same island again the next day or week and see how many of the same things remain on the island or how it may have changed from the children’s suggestions and ask why they have made those choices.

Handy Tip When exploring the island together don’t forget to explore sounds and feelings with the children: what can they hear? Is it a happy place or scary place? Is the island somewhere hot or cold? What animals might live there?

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentWork as part of a group or class, taking turns fairly, • understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously. Sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have • heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.


Creative DevelopmentUse their imagination in imaginative and role-play and • stories. Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group.

This activity will help to increase the children’s presentation skills and may help to increase their confidence

Telling a Story - Storytelling Games

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In this interactive game the children have the opportunity to go into the story and take on the role of characters and objects. This game works well with both new and familiar stories. Whoosh! encourages the children to listen carefully to the storyteller and interact spontaneously with their peers.

Have the children sit in a large circle. Once you have begun telling the story, each time a character or key object is mentioned point at one or several children (this works well if some of the children are shy). The children who have been selected should go into the centre of the circle and pretend to be that character or key object you just described in the story. Once that section of the story is complete a word like “whoosh!” can be used to clear the space. When they hear the word “whoosh!” all of the children in the centre return to their seats and the story continues with different children having the opportunity to be chosen. The children sitting in the circle become the audience when they are not in the centre taking part.

This game is an active introduction to a story in which everyone is able to take part. It works well with groups of any size - from 8 children to much larger groups - and it is a practical and speedy method of exploring a story. For smaller groups of approximately 8 children you may need to clear the circle more frequently so that the children can act out different elements and so that everyone in the circle gets the opportunity to play many different roles. This game works well because everyone can get a turn at being a key character, e.g Little Red Riding Hood may be four different children at different times throughout the story; you don’t have to pick the same children to be the leads every time you clear the circle and start the next section. You can even ask multiple children to be Little Red Riding Hood or the Wolf at the same time, and observe the differences between their representations.

Example Whoosh! Game

Once Upon a Time there lived a little girl called Little Red Riding Hood (select a child to be Little Red Riding Hood).

Little Red Riding Hood lived with her mother (select child for this role)

in a small, stone cottage (select two to four children to be the cottage)

in the middle of the woods (select two to four children to be trees).

Little Red Riding Hood was a kind and helpful girl so when, one day, her mother told her that Granny was ill she gladly agreed to go and visit her…WHOOSH! (Everyone in the centre returns to the circle.)

Little Red Riding Hood’s mother (select child for this role)

took a big, wicker basket (select two to four children to form a circle by joining hands to be the basket)

from by the fire place and put some cake (select one child to stand in the middle of the basket’s circle),

a few apples (select a couple more children to join the cake in the basket)

and a bottle of medicine (one more child) in it.

Little Red Riding Hood got her cloak down from the peg and put it on and picked up the basket. “Little Red Riding Hood, be careful on your way to Granny’s house, stick to the path and don’t dawdle” warned mother, Little Red Riding Hood promised her mother she would be careful and set off to grandma’s …WHOOSH! (Everyone in the centre returns to the circle.)

It was a lovely sunny evening and to start with Little Red Riding Hood (select a child for this role)

did as her mother had told her and walked quickly along the path to Granny’s house. The path was surrounded by tall trees (select children for this role)

which swayed in the breeze. All of a sudden a wolf (select a child for this role)

appeared in front of Little Red Riding Hood. She was startled to start with but when the wolf started to speak he seemed friendly. “Hello little girl, where are you going?” the wolf asked kindly. Little Red Riding Hood explained that she was off to see her ill granny and that she needed to hurry as it was getting late. The wolf had a great idea “I saw some beautiful flowers over there, wouldn’t they make a lovely gift for Granny?” Little Red Riding Hood thanked the wolf for his kind suggestion before saying goodbye and setting off on her way again. After a while Little Red Riding Hood came across the pretty yellow flowers (select children for this role)

which the wolf had told her about and decided to pick a bunch for granny, “these are sure to cheer her up” Little Red Riding Hood thought happily…WHOOSH! (Everyone in the centre returns to the circle.)

Whoosh!


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Some time later Little Red Riding Hood (select a child for this role)

arrived at Granny’s cottage (select two to four children for this role).

“Come in dear” Granny (select a child for this role)

called in a rather gruff voice, “perhaps she has got a sore throat” Little Red Riding Hood thought to herself. Little Red Riding Hood lifted the latch and went into the cottage. Granny was tucked up in bed, “come here so that I can see you” granny said. Little Red Riding Hood walked over to Granny’s bed. As she got closer Little Red Riding Hood noticed that Granny looked different somehow. “What big eyes you have” Little Red Riding Hood said to Granny, “all the better to see you with.” Granny replied. Then Little Red Riding Hood noticed something else strange about the way Granny looked, “What big ears you have” she commented “all the better to hear you with” granny said. “What big teeth you have” little Red Riding Hood exclaimed noticing for the first time the big, spiky, yellow teeth in Granny’s mouth. Little Red Riding Hood was feeling a bit frightened, something wasn’t right. “All the better to eat you with” the figure lying in the bed snarled throwing back the bed clothes. Little Red Riding Hood realised with horror that it was the wolf…WHOOSH! (Everyone in the centre returns to the circle.)

Meanwhile, deep in the forest, the woodcutter (select a child for this role)

and his dog (select a child for this role)

were chopping some logs (select several children for this role)

when they heard a girl screaming. The woodcutter immediately realised something was wrong and rushed to Granny’s cottage which was nearby. When he arrived he saw that the wolf (select a child for this role)

was about to gobble up Little Red Riding Hood (select a child for this role).

Thinking quickly he grabbed his axe and with one skilful swipe chopped the wolf’s head clean off. Little Red Riding Hood was crying with relief when she heard a thumping noise. Little Red and the Woodcutter stayed silent and listened out for the noise again. Then they heard it, ‘Let me out! Let me out!’ a faint voice cried, It was coming from inside the wolf! The Woodcutter carefully cut open the Wolf’s tummy and who should pop out but Granny (select a child for this role)

who was completely unharmed. Little Red Riding Hood and Granny thanked the Woodcutter and they all sat down and ate some of the cake which she had brought along in the basket…WHOOSH! (Everyone in the centre returns to the circle.)

THE END

Continuation Activities As an add-on activity you can pick key elements out of the story for more in-depth exploration. You could encourage the children to think about what the wolf looked like and how he moved. You could even put on some music and get the children to creep around the room pretending to be the wolf. For this activity try to create the inside of Red Riding Hood’s house with table and chairs, bed, fireplace etc. You will find materials in your resource pack that you can use for this or you could get the children to draw pictures of Red’s house getting them to draw the items from the story. You can also use the other suggested activities to support the whoosh game on page 72.

EYFS Learning Goals

Personal, Social and Emotional DevelopmentWork as part of a group or class, taking turns fairly, • understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously. Sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have • heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.


Creative DevelopmentUse their imagination in imaginative and role-play • and stories.

Communication, Language and LiteracyShow an understanding of the different elements of stories, • such as main character, sequence of events and openings, and how information can be found in non-fiction texts to answer questions about where, who, why and how.

The children will take on various roles in the story as part of this game. Whoosh! can be used to help the children to gain an understanding of the structure of well known stories.

Handy TipEncourage the children to act out what you are describing in the story from actions, looks, emotions and sizes of characters and key objects. In the example story when the children are the trees they should sway and move, when the mother puts items into the wicker basket the children playing the items should be moved by the child playing the mother into the basket made by a group of children. This adds to the interactivity and their control over the story.


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Collective Role This is when the children take on the collective role in a story, meaning that any of the children can speak and answer questions as though they are the character. In this way a large group can be involved in the creation of dialogue. As the storyteller, you need to pick a point in the story where you are developing a character’s identity or deciding the course of action.

Example: Little Red Riding Hood talks with her mother about going to grandma’s house. Address different children in the group as though they are Little Red Riding Hood and try asking them questions, “What do you think that you should take to Granny’s in your basket?”, “How do you feel about walking all the way to Granny’s on your own for the first time?” etc. This adds extra depth and exploration to the story without relying on your own ideas as you hand over the story to the children.

Soundscapes To develop atmosphere in your stories, encourage children to create the sounds belonging to a place, and chorally build the atmosphere with you as conductor. They can use their voices or found materials in your settings or you could provide themed objects or instruments.

Example: Create a soundscape for the forest in the Little Red Riding Hood story. To allow the children to explore their own creativity supply them with materials to make their soundscapes in teams or pairs – this could include musical instruments but works just as well with abstract objects and materials. Once they have worked out their soundscapes each team/pair should take it in turns to perform. Ask the rest of the children to close their eyes and imagine that part of the story whilst the performers play their ‘instruments’; ask the children listening what sounds they heard and what they thought those sounds represented. You don’t need to use special materials for this activity – an empty crisp packet could be scrunched up to sound like dry leaves crackling, a whistle or recorder could become a bird call.

Puppets and Play Writing Make simple puppets/finger puppets with the children and perform a re-telling of a story. The story can include narration with children making up their own descriptions and deciding for themselves what they think the characters would say. Puppets can be made from lots of different materials many of which you probably already have in your setting; try using paper bags, envelopes, wooden spoons, gloves or socks. There is an abundance of help and advice on how to make simple puppets online. Try looking at: www.youtube.com www.craftster.org www.videojug.com

You could also make “us” puppets of you and the children. To make these, all you need is full length photographs of the children that can be cut out, laminated (this makes it more durable and wipe clean but if you don’t have a laminator then card works well too), cut out again and attached to a lolly stick using sticky tape. Each child keeps their own puppet of themselves. This idea can be further developed with the group making family puppets to represent important people in their lives. These puppets can be used for telling stories about the child’s real life or for the child to describe an imaginary adventure. Talking using the puppet of themselves may make it easier for shy children to communicate with you and enable their confidence to grow as they develop their speech and language skills.

Techniques to use in Storytelling

Handy TipYou can do this as a continuation activity from your initial storytelling or tell a part of the story each day with a corresponding activity to follow that part of the story.

Handy TipIf you already have some puppets in school or at your nursery why not make up a story about these characters with the children? Some settings send a group puppet or toy to a different child’s home each week or weekend and record their adventures in a book. Why not get the group to act out these stories in your setting using some of the techniques and devices detailed in this guide?


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Techniques to help young children shape a real life story - getting used to story structure

‘The everyday’ is always of interest to young children. Help them to tell a story about something they have done, about their family and friends, or describing something they are about to do. Use these examples as a way of asking key questions to lead the story and create a beginning, middle and end. Questions should include:

Where does the story take place? • Who is in the story? • What do they look like? • What is the weather like? • What did you see on your way? • What did you do? • How did you do it? • What happened next? •

This helps to introduce them to simple story structures they can then use with their imaginations.

Props - developing characters Props are a great way to stimulate ideas: choose three ordinary, everyday objects (for example a spoon, a ten pence piece and a book) and make up a story with the child about the person they belong to. This helps the children build up identities and characters ready for inclusion in bigger stories making them think about descriptive words to help visualise people.

Pictures - making your own story structure Photocopy pictures from a favourite book and help the child to arrange them in order to retell the story from the illustrations. This helps to test their memory and pictorial understanding of a story. Repeat this with a book the child isn’t familiar with and see what story they create. This helps you explore their understanding of ‘beginning’, ‘middle’ and ‘end’, asking questions about why they are making certain choices and what they can see in the pictures. Then share the original story with the child exploring what was different and the same about the two stories. By offering positive reinforcement about the story that they created you will boost their confidence in creating more stories.

Story Bags - making simple stories Fill a bag with small objects and as the child unpacks them make up a story about the objects or their owner. The child can pick the objects that then allows you to tell a story. As the child picks each one out you have to change the story to match. As the child becomes more confident in using stories and story structure get them to make up a story from objects in a bag as prompts.

Puppets - physical interactivity You don’t always need material puppets or props to help tell a story but a prompt is always useful. To increase the level of a child’s engagement in a story draw faces on the child’s thumbs (or your own) and make up names and a story about the two little characters. Use movement and the space around you to help with your story: moving your thumbs to denote a journey; hide your thumbs to create intrigue; move faster or slower to denote emotions and pace in the story. Nursery Rhymes - what next? There can always be more to say or explore in a story. Through using a nursery rhyme that the child knows as the start of the story, you can use this as a prompt to spark their imaginations in a familiar context. Ask questions that the nursery rhymes never give us answers to and find out more about rhyme. What does the little boy down the lane do with his bag of wool in ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’? What happened to Jack and Jill after they came down the hill? Who put Humpty Dumpty together again?

Encourage staff at your setting to view stories as intrinsic to the children’s learning rather than an add-on activity to be confined to Story Time. Stories should be fun, lively and engaging. Remember: the children will not judge you for joining in; the more involved you are the more secure the group will feel and they will see that stories are for everyone and can be enjoyed by all ages. Any topic can be explored through the use of stories, which makes them a powerful tool to be used by practitioners. Remember that imaginative play and creativity expand the children’s learning experience and will help to set them on the right path for the rest of their learning journey.

Final Thought

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Conclusion

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ConclusionFinal Thought Over the past two years Multistory and the Time to Talk Artists delivered creative activities across Sandwell, engaging 4055 children in new and creative learning experiences.

We understand that there can be lots of external factors creating barriers to initiating and delivering a creative curriculum: from perceived levels of pressure and restriction from the national curriculum, to a lack of understanding from your colleagues.

We hope that through the activities within this guide you can overcome any personal barriers around confidence, skills, and planning as it supports your learning and development of delivering creative activities with the children. The proof of the benefits of delivering a creative, child led, flexible curriculum is always visible in the children themselves. The more enjoyable the teaching experience is for you, the more learning and enjoyment the children experience, creating an environment for greater achievement.

Remember to share, celebrate, motivate and inspire imaginations.

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Recommended Suppliers

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Scarf www.scarf4art.co.uk Colliery Road, Eastfield, Wolverhampton, WV1 2QY Tel: 01902 558603 SCARF supplies schools and community groups with high quality art, craft and curricular resources that have been sourced from the waste products of local businesses, including an ever changing stock of plastic, hardwood, fabric, tiles, cardboard, foam blocks, tubs, softwood, leather, sticky tape, zips, fur fabric, feathers, ribbons, foam sheets, tubes, paper, sticky backed plastic, collage kits and lots more, suitable for creative projects for all ages.”

(Please note, membership is required to access their stock – please contact them for more details.)

We love their diverse range of stock, and the amazingly helpful staff who have lots of ideas about how to use their materials

Reflections on Learning www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk

A full range of teaching materials, classroom equipment and educational support products for Early Years and Primary School Children

We particularly like their range of light boxes and light box materials.

Sightlines Initiative www.sightlines-initiative.com Sightlines Initiative is the UK reference point for the Reggio Children Network.

We love their range of publications and reference material.

TFH UK www.specialneedstoys.com

Special Needs Toys for Autism to Alzheimers.

We enjoyed being inspired by their range of ‘Blacklight’ products

Spacekraft www.spacekraft.co.uk

Leaders in Multi Sensory Solutions and Products

We love the extensive range Spacekraft offer, along with an easy to navigate website.

Mathmos www.mathmos.com

We are inspired by Mathmos’ excellent range of affordable lighting solutions which add excitement and interest to your setting.

Ikea www.ikea.co.uk

We loved their affordable child-friendly range of lighting and other home furnishings.

Early Learning Centre www.elc.co.uk

We love their child-friendly robust torches

RNIB Royal National Institute for the Blind http://onlineshop.rnib.org.uk

They have great talking products, this is where we get the talking tins from as a great easy to use recording device for the children to use and for you to direct learning and play activities.

Talking Products www.talkingproducts.co.uk

You can also get the talking tins from here as well as fun blank talking postcards for the children to draw pictures and record sounds to match.

Baker Ross www.bakerross.co.uk

This is the stockist for plain, canvas hand-puppets which can be decorated by the children. Different styles of hand puppets are available but Multistory artists favour the non-prescriptive puppets as this enables the children to have the maximum amount of freedom when deciding what they want their creation to look like.

Berol www.berol.com

Berol sell child-friendly fabric crayons in their online shop. We have found that these crayons are perfect for decorating the blank hand-puppets and much easier for young children to use than the traditional fabric paints or fabric felt-tipped pens.

Loan Resource Pack Big Play Warehouse Out to Play Victoria ParkCorbett Street SmethwickB66 3PU

Tel: 0845 3527851Email: [email protected]

Credits

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Credits

Credits

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The Time to Talk programme as a whole resulted in improved profile scores at foundation stage across language, speaking and listening, reading and writing. The early years’ outcomes duty of Sandwell saw an increase from 40.9% in 2007 to 45.2% in 2008 of the percentage of children achieving 6+ within their communication, language and literacy development and their personal social and emotional development.

The Creative Arts strand of the Time to Talk programme was developed to focus on increased personal, social and emotional developments resulting in improvements in speaking and listening skills within children. It not only proved its success and impacts from increased funding for extra CPD opportunities through the Twilight Training but it was also further funded to create a series of resource and loan packs to ensure sustainability of creative activity within the settings. Each early years setting across Sandwell has recieved a resource pack created by Multistory including movement scarves, music, storytelling baskets. This guide enables you to use the different techniques of creative engagement that were explored within the training sessions and Time to Talk activities for you to use with your resource pack. The loan packs available from from Sandwell’s Big Play Warehouse consist of the customisable puppets with accessories used in the puppet sessions and light boxes used in Transform.

The creative activities also received additional funding for a second phase of delivery during 2008/09 to an increased number of settings across the borough. From the evaluation and documentation of the 2007/08 programme (and as demonstrated through the DCSF’s Every Child A Talker initiative1), creative professional development will remain at the core of Mutistory’s early years’ programme of work and will be developed further during the second phase of delivery. The most successful activities within the programme will continue to evolve to ensure the highest quality creative experience for the children as we continue to learn from them as much as they learn from us.

1 Designed to strengthen children’s early language development by improving the quality of language provision in early years’ settings, primarily through raising practitioners’ skills and knowledge.

For more information about the Time to Talk Creative Arts Strand Programme contact Multistory.

Multistory1st Floor, Landchard HouseVictoria StreetWest BromwichB70 8HY

Tel: 0121 525 6861Email: [email protected]: www.multistory.org.uk

Resource Guide written by: Multistory and Kieran Sheehan.

Additional content contributions from:Polar Bear aka Steven Camden, Juliet Fry from The Play House, Jennifer Smith and Fiona Collins. Photography: Muriel Bonnet and Multistory Unfinished Stories illustrations: Multistory

Graphic Design: Multistory

© Multistory. All rights reserved.None of the images and text used in this document can be reproduced in any format without the written permission of Multistory.

© Multistory. All rights reserved.None of the images and text used in this document can be reproduced in any format without the written permission of Multistory.

Documents

Time to Talk Resource Guide