Storywalk for Ethiopian Active Citizens

I had the great pleasure of hosting a storywalk around West Town for a group from Ethiopia. Such warm hearted and lively people. It was a joy!

Visit Sarah's Facebook photo album Exeter & Ethiopia - Active Citizens Antics for more fantastic images!

Grafting Layers

Following on this thinking of layers comes these visual layers. Seasonal plants, identified and mapped across the farm and linked to their use and place within the life of the farm environment, History stories based on what has happened on the farm and the grafted stories from other places and times placed into the place that is West Town. I am playing with these layers with GIMP photo-editing software.

Grafting and Growing Stories on your Patch

A lot of work I do is based out at West Town Farm. The stories I use and tell are collected and gathered from all over. Their themes and images link to the farm. How far does the story itself become from this farm? So the apple tree that Isabella slumbers under is this tree here in the orchard and the hill that Hugh climbs to find the silver cattle is that hill across the valley. The branches of the story become grafted onto the root stock of the land.

Now this takes on another strand when the body of stories is added to with the events of the farm. The tale of Steve meeting the badger thief stealing the straw, the story of Tom painting the cow murals, the grubbing up and re planting of orchards are all part of the oral history of the farm. Our patch is growing tales, linked to place linked to time, drawn from tradition and history. These can be told either around the fire or in the barn or even better along the tracks and pathways. Story walks!

brief pause whilst I tell some stories

This is getting interesting. A whole set of stories around the fire in the Henge at West Town. Some grafted and some farm history but all beginning to connect.

As I write and edit this I am reminded of Wright and Sites Mis-Guides where a guide "... is no ordinary guide book. It is guided by the practice of mytho-geography, which places the fictional, fanciful, fragile and personal on equal terms with 'factual', municipal history."

Reflections @ Oddfellows

Well stories for grown ups in a pub!! Reflections poetry magazine have started a weekly gig in Exeter and my old friend Steve asked me to tell a story or two. It has taken a long time but I have stepped out of the farm (still had my wellie boot son though!) surrounded by families and children and into another world. So is it so very different? Spoken words in a shared space and the reaction of the listeners to guide you through so no not really. Got me thinking though about the stories that will work and the ways that they change. Start of a challenge to extend the stories more.

Winter Woods

This is a new project being developed for this winter. It will link explorations of woodland on the farm with tree planting, fire lighting and storytelling. Sessions might continue into dusk with shadow puppets. This post will be updated with more information as the session planning develops.

Check out some of the background notes in this mind map below.

Woodcraft Camp

I had an interesting invitation to tell some stories at a Woodcraft Folk Camp up at Embercombe. The Camp was run by the 16-21 year old in very organised way with a cycle powered mobile phone charger, shower and outdoor cinema!! The atmosphere was very relaxed. A lot of my recent work has been with very young children so the chance to work with an older group was a bit of a challenge! Great audience though and lovely cycle ride home under a midnight full moon. The way in which language and delivery changes with the audience is intriguing. With this audience the story telling shifted through different modes moving from within the tale to commentary on the tale (and audience!) and back. Read more about stretching stories for different audiences here.

Orchard Stories

Pumpkin Soup

A new session at West Town Farm, Ide created wih organicARTS!

1000 Clay Cows

This is an exciting new project linking clay dug from the farm, cows, storytelling and sculpture. It is being carried out in partnership with organicARTS and West Town Farm.

We are looking to create a field of 1000 clay cows for Devon Open Studios in September. Any similarity to Gormley's Field for the British Isles is purely intentional!!  Along with ceramic artist Lucy Rockliffe I am working on a mix of cow related storytelling from different cultures along with observation of real cows at the farm, digging up of clay from the meadow and creation of clay cow sculptures to take part in the Field of Cows.

This is connected to some earlier storytelling done last year. A clay session with Year Ones from Newtown Primary can be seen here.

These images come from a session with St David's Primary. I love the engagement between field, cows and calves, observant children and clay. This is true fieldwork!

Clay and Cows!

Interesting project starting at the farm creating 1000 cows for Devon Open Studios in September. It should be quite a sight! Of course any connection to Gormley's A Field for the British Isles is purely deliberate.

I am looking at a mix of cow folk tales and myths from around the world, along with digging up clay from the fields, observing cows closely and modelling cow forms. The pictures come from a session with Newtown Primary's Year 1s. Such a good sense of concentration! They were a pleasure to work with.

Badger Tales!

A chance conversation with a teacher about a farm visit led to this project! Set in the red earth of the old railway cutting at West Town a mix of storytelling, drama, word play and environmental explorations and artworks will lead groups into the nocturnal world of Brock the Badger. Gill. the teacher, mentioned that her 7 year olds were writing about nocturnal creatures as part of their Literacy SATs. I wondered whether any other schools would like to explore Badger Tales as more sessions make it easier to justify a longer preparation time. The result was a series of sessions with over 200 children exploring the nocturnal world of the badger.

What the teachers said ....

Thank you so much for today. Everyone really enjoyed it. I have learnt so much about the badger. Your enthusiasm and excellent story telling skills make it a joy to listen to you! Ruth Briscoe St Davids Primary

Badger Tales and Mind Maps

Click here to view the latest version of the map

This is a mind map based on Badger Tales. I have used MindMeister to create the map and generate the image file. If you would like to edit the map with your own badger facts then follow these simple steps

visit www.mindmeister.com and sign up for a free account

email me at kevin@enthusiasticeducation.org and introduce yourself

I will add you as someone with shared access

Log in and add your ideas!!

Easy!! If you would like to embed the map on your own website, maybe a school site to support writing and research, then email me for the code.

I am trialling the use of MindMeister as it seems to be very straightforward and easy to use. The process of sharing and editing mindmaps has a lot of potential and I would be very interested in your feedback.

Full Pot!

Take one very large stew pot, a collection of vegetable stories and an enthusiastic Priory Primary School, mix them all up and finish up with soup for 170, a retelling of stories and four rather beautiful banners.
This was an interesting brief from DAISI to link the SEAL theme of "Good to be me" with healthy cooking and storytelling over two days of workshops. I had a thoroughly good time. We explored how a school is made up of individuals who all have their own special qualities in the same way that a soup is made up of vegetables all with their own stories and properties.
I was impressed with the way Year 1 and 2 chopped, grated, scrubbed and peeled enough veg for the whole school, the Year 6 rap version of the story of Antoine Parmentier, the speaking and singing carrots of Year 6, the retelling of the "Old Woman and the Pumpkin" by Year 3 and 4 and foundation class' enacting of the "Tortoise the Hare and the Squash Field. So much sharing, creativity and teamwork. Fantastic. I hope to post the lyrics of the two songs soon.
I am intrigued by the way that food and stories can be linked, cooking and telling, sustaining body and mind. I feel I need to get researching and collecting snippets of story and fact to add into the recipe. It can be tricky finding the right stories to enhance and draw out a theme without being too contrived. There is a real lot of learning to do!

Badger Tales!

A chance conversation with a teacher about a farm visit led to this project! Set in the red earth of the old railway cutting at West Town a mix of storytelling, drama, word play and environmental explorations and artworks will lead groups into the nocturnal world of Brock the Badger. Gill. the teacher, mentioned that her 7 year olds were writing about nocturnal creatures as part of their Literacy SATs. I am wondering whether any other schools would like to explore Badger Tales. More sessions make it easier to justify a longer preparation time.Time to go calling again!

Stories at a Seed Swap!

There are sometimes when an event just clicks and the Exeter Seed Swap was one of those times. Held at St Sidwell's Community Centre. Why was that? The event certainly wasn't packed with people and the weather was full of drizzle and damp however there was a quality of conversation and interaction that made it come alive. I was there with the Love Local Food stall and to tell some seedy stories ;) There was a real mix of ages demonstrating that a good story works regardless and the telling was interspersed with questions and discussions. Thanks to Zion for the organising and the image on the left. I am looking forward to planting my turnips and cabbage! Next step wormery ...

Flying Start, Carrots and the Love Local Food Van!

Love Local Food is developing its outreach work with children's groups exploring vegetables, healthy eating and farms through cooking, creating and stories. I am working with Jo on a series of sessions in partnership with the Flying Start Children's Centre visiting lots of groups across Central Exeter. Today we braved the snow and ice and dropped in on the St Davids Church Toddler Group. Great fun! It was so good to work with very young children's attention and interest. Piling up carrots, washing and chopping them, printing, soup making (very welcome on a cold day!) and a little story about the colours of carrots. I am looking forward to seeing this project develop. This is a rather nice image from Wikipedia just in case you thought that all carrots were orange!

a week of apples

It has been a good week for apple stories. I have been working with the story of the Appleman, an old Devon tale of two brothers and the care of a farm. A long time ago I worked on an Orchard Project involving stories, puppets and apple names and as part of that created an apple man puppet. 15 years later and that puppet was looking a little worn – well leaves tend not to last that long!! So Monday was repair the Appleman before working with a group of Nursery children who discovered the him up a tree. Tuesday was a reception class from Alphington Primary, pumpkin gathering, soup making and orchard exploring. Saturday out in Mincinglake Valley Park taking part in the Beacon Heath Growing Project's apple day. Sunday back to West Town Farm for the annual Apple and Pumpkin day. Very busy! There was the great sight of looking back on a long procession of familes walking from barn to orchard in search of … the Appleman! There is such a tradition of orchards and apples in Devon and so much that has been lost. Apple Days, in their various forms, seek to make a reconnection with tree and fruit and people. Certainly orchards are very beautiful places. West Town's is a mix of young trees planted just a few years ago still with their chicken wire rabbit guards in place, and old, crooked, lichen covered, rough barked characters well rooted in history and place. However they are working places and seeing the windfalls gathered to be pressed in the barn is a reminder of how land and people work together. Click this apple press to see the process. (Thanks James!!) The Appleman in the story looks after those who after the trees and it is the older brother, thought by all to be slow and stupid, who shows true wisdom and wins the respect and care of the trees. The message is simple but to bring it to fruition takes work and time and love.

Stretching stories!!

How can you stretch a story to suit an audience? Interesting! I had an invite to the Merry Go Round Toy Library's 10th Birthday party. No idea about the age of audience apart from that they would probably be somewhere between 1 and 70 and that the space would be shared with a great array of toys! In that environment the storyteller can't say "Time for a story let's all listen" as that would be stretching the audience too far so the story has to stretch around the space and audience. The process is like fishing, catching attention through using physical story telling, using the engaged audience to become dragons, earth-holding giants and an orchard of golden apples and using interruptions such as the wailing child and the newspaper photographer as parts of the story. The thread of the story has to weave in and out of all of this and that is what makes story telling so very interesting. The story? Well a Greek Myth of course! Heracles and the Golden Apples of the Hesperides! It turned out to be a most enjoyable session. Before that it was Viking tales at Sunbeams after school club! Adventures indeed!

Eleanor Rigby, Old Misery and tales of change

I have just had an interesting session exploring some story making with a group of 10 year olds. The class are working on songs of the Beatles and seed planting!! This rather nice video of Eleanor Rigby and a subsequent discussion of the lyrics set quite a sombre note which was picked up with the French tale of Old Misery, a cantankerous old lady who is fiercely protective of her apple tree. The children were set the challenge of creating stories which established a feeling of loneliness but then lifted and changed the mood. There were to be no "fluffy bunny" happy endings though! 15 minutes and a lot of talk later we sat down to a series of tales involving friendships broken and reforged, illness, loss, despair and hope! I am hoping to post some of the recordings up on the site. There is something very powerful when such a core theme is opened up and the video and storytelling introduction worked very nicely.

Wow! Woodcraft Folk Stories!

I had the pleasure and privilage of working with a group of Woodcraft Folk Venturers this evening. They were a group of bright and aware individuals who had expressed an interest in storytelling. We explored some introductions to telling and I wondered whether we would produce some telling of complete stories. What appeared was so much better than I had imagined. There was Sleeping Beauty told by the misunderstood Wicked Fairy, the Gingerbread House Witch remembering her death in the oven, a wolf war veteran dragging himself between the little pig's houses and Goldilocks told by a forest wolf, a cottage door, some hot porridge, a bed and a chair! The groups used a whole range of presentation techniques and developed their tales within a 5 minute deadline. It was a joy to facilitate and set me thinking about what a group of young storytellers could develop and the skills they wwould need along the way. Campfire stories, podcast stories, stories to take a visiting! There is a lot that could happen. I wonder if it will? Set me thinking about what different aspects of storytelling could be covered in such a project. Back later on that!

Preparing for a workshop!

I am working with the Woodcraft folk Venturers this Thursday on a storytelling workshop. Should be fun! It will be interesting to see where they would like to go with it. Stories around campfires might be one direction and a story blog would be another. Joy Simpson from DES gave some site feedback on posting story clips and the idea of a gallery of tales would be really good. I wonder what the Venturers will think? Joy's blog http://literacyresourcesandideas.edublogs.org/ is a real treasure trove of ideas and resources
In the course of putting the workshop session together I found this site which has some nice ideas for storymaking games.