Another workshop in my whirlwind mini-tour of Glen Eira! This one came about after a suggestion by Philippa from the Glen Eira Adult Learning Centre, where I was also running workshops this week. Cheltenham Community Centre run a school holiday care & an activities program, and the program co-ordinator Tammy invited me in to be part it.
It was a pretty sizeable mob of kids, so we broke the day into two separate sessions – little ones in the morning & upper primary in the afternoon.
The little ones were full of beans, very excited and certainly not shy about expressing it! I began the session with a storytelling that I often do for Prep – 2s in schools – as I tell the story, I draw the journey of the main character, and at the end of the story the drawing “magically” becomes something else once you adjust your perception slightly. It’s a lot of fun, I act out a range of character voices and sound FX, and the kids are usually engrossed in the journey. This morning’s group were hilarious – as I began the story, they kept leaping in with opinions of what they thought should happen next! Well, we had some fun with that for a bit, then they settled into it when they realised that stories are designed to unfold as they are listened to!
They loved the story, and after a break we did some cartooning – a simple version of the facial expressions / emotions format I use in the Creative Communication program. The kids threw themselves into it in a flurry of energy, and they really ran with the foundations I gave them, creating their own fantastic variations.
After lunch it was the older kids session, using the Totally Random format. They were a lively tumble of energy too, as is usually the case in holiday childcare, and we had a lot of fun with their suggestions – Rat On Skateboard, Flaming Skull, Pig, Roboslug, Mutant Hamster, Fly…..all in a day’s work!
Thanks Tammy for a great day, and thanks to the kids for their lively inspirations!