Friday 29 January 2010

Book Safari in Bath


Yes, I abandoned John again this week and have been working away from home for 2 nights.

On Monday afternoon, straight after my life-drawing teaching at the university, I took a train to Bristol, to pay a visit to Chewton Mendip Primary School, in a little village near Bath.

They have been having a Book Safari - great eh? Fortunately, I have plenty of books featuring wild animals, so we were all set.

I began Tuesday morning with the littlies: the children in Rabbit and Hedgehog classes. We read stories about
wolves and anacondas, then they helped me to create this VERY wild looking Googly-Oogly creature, pictured here gobbling up poor Mrs Graham!


The older classes had animal names too: Y3/4 were Badgers, Y4/5 were Squirrels and Y6 were Foxes, so I began their workshops with a big flipchart drawing of their animal. Thank goodness they weren't named after anything weird that I couldn't draw (I once had real trouble when someone requested an off-the-cuff seahorse!).

We had 2 whole days to play with, so I could see each of these classes twice: once for a writing workshop, and then to illustrate the stories they had written.


We had a 'lucky-dip' to decide which animal each class would write about and what their hero's particular problem was. We had stories about crocodiles with belly ache, warthogs who wanted to learn to fly, and badgers who were consumed by jealousy!


Everyone was really enthusiastic and the children came up with some lovely ideas: one of Mrs Johnson's Badger class for instance, described their crocodile as being 'scaly like a swimming pool' - what an original thought.



A massive thank you to Mrs Huffadine for putting me up, feeding me and keeping me company in the evenings. I had a lovely view from my bedroom window - just look at this sunset from Tuesday night:


The drawings are my train sketches from the journey: a 3 hour trip to Bristol. As usual, the sketching got me into conversation: two women on their way home from an outing to see Strictly Come Dancing, were celebrating with a bottle of champers, and they insisted I have a glass (well, a cardboard ex-coffee cup). It's wonderfully up-lifting when complete strangers are so kind.


There's not room for all my train sketches here, so I'll put the overflow in the Picture Gallery if you're interested.

8 comments:

Jess said...

Bristol seems to be a theme this week! I looked at your sketches to see if I recognised anyone hehe! Thanks so much for sending me your book, I'm really looking forward to it :)

Emily said...

I had to think for a moment... seahorse... how would I draw that...
Keep you on your toes don't they!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your hard work with the children. We have had a very successful time with our story writing since your visit - monsters have come to life and taken over the school! Glad you got home safely.

The children were very excited to see themselves on your blog.

Mrs Huffadine

Jose Ramon Santana Vazquez said...

...traigo
sangre
de
la
tarde
herida
en
la
mano
y
una
vela
de
mi
corazón
para
invitarte
y
darte
este
alma
que
viene
para
compartir
contigo
tu
bello
blog
con
un
ramillete
de
oro
y
claveles
dentro...


desde mis
HORAS ROTAS
Y AULA DE PAZ


TE SIGO TU BLOG




CON saludos de la luna al
reflejarse en el mar de la
poesía...


AFECTUOSAMENTE
LYNNE CHAPMAN

DESEANDOOS UNAS FIESTAS ENTRAÑABLES OS DESEO FELIZ AÑO NUEVO 2010 Y ESPERO OS AGRADE EL POST POETIZADO DE LA CONQUISTA DE AMERICA CRISOL Y EL DE CREPUSCULO.

José
ramón...

Lynne the Pencil said...

Anyone speak Spanish?

June said...

Copy and paste it into Google Translate!
http://translate.google.com

I can't believe you were in Bristol... my home city. It looks like the school had some good quality time from your visit. Great stuff for the kids to be inspired with.

Lynne the Pencil said...

I tried Google Translate: always do, to check things are not rude spam (which sadly, they mostly are, especially if in Chinese characters). I could tell Jose's was genuine, but it was too much gobbledy-gook to read.

A flying visit only to Bristol I'm afraid - I was whisked off to Bath immediately on arrival!

Lynne the Pencil said...

I tried Google Translate: always do, to check things are not rude spam (which sadly, they mostly are, especially if in Chinese characters). I could tell Jose's was genuine, but it was too much gobbledy-gook to read.

A flying visit only to Bristol I'm afraid - I was whisked off to Bath immediately on arrival!