Roll Up, Roll Up, for the Amazing, Burping Headteacher!

I had rather of a day of experimentation when I was out and about on Tuesday. 

First up: I took a couple of the Derwent Inktense pencils and a waterbrush with me on the train to Wilmslow, for a change, to try new techniques. In the top sketch, I tried to be less tight and concentrate more on mark-making.


The man below clocked me drawing him immediately:

I didn't show him the sketch, since I wasn't sure he approved, but I showed the brother and sister in the notes. The little girl got out some colouring pencils of her own, so I dug out one of my bookmarks for them: another of those nice little experiences with strangers. 

I did  a few things differently when I got to St Anne's Primary School too. It was a pretty small school, so I decided it might be fun to work with everyone together in the hall. Apart from my PowerPoints, I don't do this, as the children at the back are too far away, but at St Anne's it worked really well. I read Class Two at the Zoo then we sang a song where the children pretend to be anacondas gobbling each another up.

At the end of the song, I always ask if there is anyone who can help me with the last verse, by doing some really foul burping. Normally it's one of the boys, occasionally a girl, but never before has it been the Head! I have to say, she was magnificent, playing her part with aplomb (if through embarrassed giggles).

I spent the bulk of the day with Y4, talking about my work, then getting them designing characters. After lunch I helped them build illustrations around their characters. 

Then we tried something new again: children volunteered to stand up and spin stories around their illustrations. I used to think children would be too self conscious, but actually they are all desperate to be chosen.

One new idea came from Mrs Thomas: when it came to writing things down, we used post-it notes instead of regular paper. This broke it into manageable pieces, but also meant we could juggle about different aspects of the stories.

We finished off with the whole school in the hall again, but with some parents as well this time. I read Stinky! so I could have the fun of getting the whole school to be flies.


After some book-signing, Mrs Thomas whipped me back to the station. Everything was fine, until I got to Stockport... 

It's always a problem when I change at Stockport - there are definitely imps on the line in those parts. First the train was late, then we had a frantic, last minute platform change. At least it wasn't cold. 

The funny thing was, to pass time while waiting on the platform, I checked my phone and... there was an email from the man I had drawn that morning! He couldn't have been upset with me after all, as he'd spied out my name from the bookmark I'd given the children, then gone to the trouble of looking me up, all so he could ask to see the picture I'd drawn of him! How nice.