Earlyarts

An Earlyarts Professional Development Day for the East Midlands area

run by The Spark Children’s Arts Festival and Curve

Monday 6th June 2011

At Curve, Orton Square, Leicester, LE1 1SB (directions)

PRINT THE PROGRAMME HERE

Theme: Storymaking in Early Years: techniques for helping children to tell stories and techniques for using their stories for extended learning

For: Early Years professionals, child carers, teachers, children’s centre staff, creative practitioners, artists

Aims:

• To understand how telling stories can help children develop their imagination, language, listening skills and social skills

• To develop confidence in a range of simple techniques for generating and recording stories

• To explore how children’s stories can become the basis for further activities, including performance

10am Earlyarts Welcome – including key events coming up nationally and locally

10.30 Earlyarts Speed Networking – with focus on storybuilding in early years, sharing of experience, aspirations for development, local knowledge

11.00 Outline of Suitcase full of Stories project – Sarah Argent’s approach*

12.30 - Lunch at Depot; optional tour of the Cultural Quarter, please bring your own lunch or money for the cafe

1.30 Two Practical Workshops, each one hour long, attendees will experience both:

Workshop 1 Games/techniques for generating stories aiming to break down barriers and build confidence*

Workshop 2 Extending learning – how can we use the children’s stories for further activity?*

3.30 Refreshments, reflections on the day and learning journeys

Places are £60, reduced fees are available through Earlyarts Membership,

Please visit www.earlyarts.co.uk to find out more

Click on the booking tab above to book your place

* Workshop 1 – This workshop will introduce and share a variety of strategies for encouraging children to tell stories, and explore the different contexts and settings where these can be applied

* Workshop 2 – For acting out in the setting/pretend play/provocations for learning/using as basis for performance. This workshop will explore different approaches to extending storymaking - for example into dramatic play activities, provocations for learning, or as the basis for performance.

Sarah Argent

Sarah Argent is a freelance director specialising in Theatre for the Very Young. She has pioneered Theatr Iolo’s theatre for nurseries and this work has been seen throughout England, Scotland and Wales and in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland and Korea.

Inspired by both the Storytelling/Storyacting theories of Chicago Early Years Educator, Vivian Gussin Paley, the ‘Suitcase Full of Stories’ project entailed Sarah working in nurseries in South Wales encouraging children to create and act out their own stories inspired by a suitcase full of unusual objects. These stories were recorded verbatim, laminated and presented back to the children as tangible objects of which they could be immensely proud.

The stories formed the basis of a professional theatre production which toured to early years settings. The project also improved children’s speaking and listening skills, increased their confidence and self-esteem and improved relationships and communication.