Tent Tales
Don't miss the TENT TALES launch on 12th Nov from
5-7pm at Tower Hamlets PDC
It is often the case that some of the most popular books in the classroom
are the simple ones written and illustrated by children themselves.
Making your own books is one of those things that is truly exciting
and satisfying. There is an intrinsic sense of purpose and achievement
in the activity, which taps into every child’s rich store
of creativity, and at the same time strongly supports the development
of their writing and drawing skills.
Tent Tales builds on the popular Story Tent project. Its purpose
is to publish a series of storybooks, written and illustrated by
children in Tower Hamlets schools. The books will then become part
of the resources that accompany the Story Tents which are available
for loan by schools through the Schools Library Service.
To begin the Tent Tales project we would like to go into schools
and run two half-day writing and art workshops. We will be targeting
Years Two, Three and Four. During the first session we will run a
writing workshop with the aim of producing individual stories based
on their own knowledge and experience. In the second session we will
continue working with the group to illustrate the stories. Each child
will be given a copy of their story in simple book form to take home.
We will provide materials, lesson plans and NLS/NC links.
In the first instance the books produced by
the schools who initially
participated in the project will be posted on the East End talking
website (www.eastendtalking.org.) in the ‘Get Creative’ section.
This will enable the children’s work to be accessible to a
wider audience. We are currently investigating funding to publish
the work the children produce as an anthology of stories for distribution
to all schools.
“In writing we struggle to find ways of saying what we want
to say and so stretch our thoughts.” Eve Bearne, Making
Progress in English, Routledge, 1998
“There is no intrinsic reason why a first, fast stab at
a piece of writing shouldn’t be the best it could be.” Anne
Fine NCLL, 2003
