BoDaN x Beaminster scouts part 2
For our second session with the scouts we created a storybook with beautiful illustrations by Emily Stewart.
BoDaN x Beaminster Scouts
We are thrilled to be collaborating with Beaminster scouts to obtain their creative writing badges. The first session we created Haiku’s and they came up with some crackers.
The Scheming of Mr Chicken
It was great to be back doing Storymaking Workshops again this week. We had a wonderful time with Seatown and Cogden class at Powerstock school creating their fantastic story about a beautiful Doe called Leah and her run ins with Mr Chicken Who-Likes-Cheese (the evil wizard), and the karate-kicking bunny called Cheeks!
Volunteer of the month
“As soon I heard about it, I thought, this is for me,” Raja explains. “I had been developing skills as an amateur storyteller, which was interrupted by COVID, and I missed the storytelling community. The Bank offered a way of getting back into something I loved doing.”
It’s a Marshmallow (and spaghetti) World
We had a wonderful time during our last two Food Glorious Food! workshops at Salway Ash school; pupils ages 7-11 worked incredibly hard to bring together their own food stories to complement the recipes they’d brought in.
Brace for descent…
We had a fantastic launch event to herald publication day of Spiralling: A Slow Descent into Madness, the anthology of eerie fiction penned by Year 9 students from Sir John Colfox School.
Powerful prose & prawn skills
The second week of our Food, Glorious Food! project with Salway Ash Primary School was a busy mix of sharing experiences and writing. The youngsters brought in recipes and talked about why they were an important part of their lives.
Primary Care
Our primary school storymaking workshops are one of BODAN’s flagship fun creative writing sessions, in which a class of children in Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11) become published authors in a single morning, with a fully illustrated book given to each participant.
Salway Ash shows impeccable taste
Our exciting new project at Salway Ash Primary School is underway. Food Glorious Food! is a celebration of what we love to eat, and an exploration of the stories behind those favourite foods and experiences.
Autumn Bounty at BODAN
In France, September is known as La Rentrée. A new academic year begins, the family holiday season is over, and everyone is getting organised.
It’s a Wrap!
The final report from our short blog series on the inaugural summer holiday creative writing club…
In the Zen Zone
The penultimate in our short blog series reporting from our summer holiday creative writing club…
Day 3: There was an aura of serenity about the place as our young writers entered to music from a Japanese garden and an oasis of calm, for our Japanese Literary Garden Day.
A Glorious Glossary of Food
The second in our short series of summer holiday club posts…
Day 2: We had a food-themed day and it was another jam-packed session for the young writers (pun fully intended!).
Holiday Club kicks off with Craft, Comics & Cyclops
What an August at BODAN! In between preparing for big autumn projects and book launches, we ran our first Summer Holiday Creative Writing Club at the WI Hall in Bridport.
What Happens Next…
Regulars to this blog will know that our Primary Storymaking workshops have been a massive success story since they began in November 2021. We visit a Key Stage 2 class or year group, we help them to write a story collaboratively up to a cliffhanger moment, and we set them off to write their own endings in a writing journal.
Hazmat Reckoning for Rusty
Marshwood Primary school’s Lamberts class had last dibs on TBODAN storymaking workshops for this academic year, and they had a tough act to follow after Pilsdon Class’s buzzing effort.
VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH
Amberley has tirelessly supported our first academic year of school workshops and been integral to the unique small group writing mentoring we bring to all sessions. Frankly, some kind of recognition was long overdue, so it was good to revisit Amberley’s path to our volunteer network.
Pilsdon Pen Creates a Buzz
Our last two primary storymaking workshops of this academic year were spent at Marshwood School. Our morning with Pilsdon Pen class was just one aspect of a fortnight of creative and active enrichment for the 10-11 year-olds, all laid on by this delightful school.
Big Issues for the Big Write
We were asked to get involved with Woodroffe School’s Big Write, an annual event for the whole of Year 8 - 150+ pupils. We went straight for the serious stuff and asked Clive Stafford-Smith, founder and director of human rights law charity 3DC, to kick off the day with a talk to the entire cohort.
Fire vs Water
Appropriately titled Fire vs Water, Bridport Primary School’s other Year 5 storymaking session involved developing the elements as character, with Ember the firefox and Ocean the water fox having fallen out many years prior.