What's in store for the new year?

More creative writing/art journaling - because it's exciting ...

More writing collaborations - because it's satisfying...

New art projects for all our young artists. (Happy Penguin Collage above, for a Christmas mood - thanks to Deep Space Sparkle for the lesson).

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!

Kids from different age groups playing together at the end of class - long may it continue!

Two more 2014 Art Projects

Nothing like bringing in the new year with some COLOUR.  Here are two art club projects from last year's files: Van Gogh inspired sunflowers and tracings of sugar skull patterns for Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) in honour of loved ones passed away.

Both ideas came from Patty at Deep Space Sparkle-a wonderful website for teachers and parents of creative kids.

London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) Exam newbies

The long-awaited LAMDA exams came and went, and in the words of one of the learners - 'I'm so happy I don't have to practise and practise anymore!' Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable experience for all including some of our new candidates pictured above during one of our practice sessions.  They bravely took the introductory drama exams in their stride.  These exams serve to familiarise kids with the structure of LAMDA exams to come - reciting a short poem and then chatting about a favourite picture or book with the examiner who comes from the UK. This year, most kids were entered for the Speaking Verse and Prose exams and next year we will be exploring topics for Speaking in Public.

Teens and juniors working together

We are very lucky to have three teens - Carmen, Yusoff and Joanna - assisting with our Junior Drama and Art classes at the moment.  In Drama, I'm introducing story writing along with the usual activities, and with three 'scribes' who also act as a sympathetic audience, the stories are coming along nicely.  Our younger students don't have too many problems with illustrating their stories but sadly get bogged down by the technicalities of putting pen to paper - a huge blow to creativity, in my opinion. So the answer?  Storytelling collaborations between my creative writing/arty teens and the younger drama students. Look out for our first efforts on the studio walls and in their story journals.

Silencing the Inner Critic: Art Journaling with Kids

A few months ago I shared some art journaling ideas with our art club members.  Art journaling is a process of exploring words, colours and images all on the same page.  Our art students took to it enthusiastically and here are the wide and varied pages which came from their own prompts, using recycled materials and paint.

I was convinced that the benefits of art journaling could be extended to my creative writing class students as well and we spent some time producing pages of colourful art journal pages. The process of working in this way can be very liberating for exam-oriented children who are seeking to free their creative spirit. Art journaling has given my students opportunities to play in a non-judgemental and positive environment ...

In the lesson that followed this picture above, the kids had no problem choosing appropriate words to accompany their colourful images which absorbed all their attention for a whole hour at a time during the production process.

Then finally, when I judged that my teens were ready and calm to face some story writing, they each produced a short story that went with these wanted posters** (an earlier abandoned project due to struggling with story ideas).  The words of the stories are on the paper that was used to collage the background of the posters. It took a while to get to this stage, but I am very happy that each child here had a chance to experience creating a new and exciting story in their very own way, through art journaling.
**an idea taken from 'Gunslingers and Outlaws' by Patty Palmer on Deep Space Sparkle

Teens Creative Writing

One light and one, more serious moment in the teens' creative writing class when Dr Antoon dropped by to offer himself as an appreciative audience to the students' ideas for story plots.  We collected plots for a Minecraft fantasy, two adventures and a science fiction drama. Not bad for 90 minutes' sharing although our teens had worked very hard in the weeks before to generate lots of ideas.

 Hard work it is, and brave work - to be able to face down a huge, blank, white expanse of paper with a spindly pencil and a Saturday morning brain and come up with an idea that works!  Carmen does it with a smile.