“Hmmm,” sang the students in unison, as Nicki reached the final page of her debut picure book, “Take a Look in the Nook.” The alpacas in her story were humming the farm to sleep but the students were wide awake.
Nicki Fisher and I were leading a workshop with Year 1s and 2s at Vinehall School as an author-editor relay team.
I will admit to some pre-workshop jitters: Would the children laugh? Would they care about whether Ollie alpaca finds a shelter of his own or whether he invites the other alpacas to join him? Most of all, would the children be willing to hum along?
I shouldn’t have fretted.
For children, picture books are a full participation sport. The more humming, cheering and wiggling, the better.
They were keen to spot the visual gags and were tickled by the “Chickens love Ollie” banner.
When Nicki showed photographs of her farm, the children excitedly matched the storybook animals to their real life counterparts.
And of course, the ultimate form of participation is to write a story of your own.
After a quieting “hum,” we talked about how alpacas’ unique behaviors featured in the story – their pack identity, curiosity, as well as their tuneful communication style. We brainstormed about other animal behaviors and the students set about writing stories to incorporate these.
There was a dog, “who needs to learn to wag his tail to make friends with the other dogs,” along with a flamingo struggling to maintain the upright, and a decidedly confused snake.
Afterwards, the students huddled around, pressing us to read their newly minted tales. I admired their freedom from self consciousness — contrasting sharply with my own perennial hesitation to give a story its first airing.
Their open attitudes reminded me that humans are story-sharing beings to our core. So if you tell a story you care about with wholehearted enthusiasm, your listeners will reward you with stories of their own.
Thank you and Nicki for such a lovely workshop. it was brilliantly presented, and the children got so much out of it. You should both be very proud — the children don’t always sit like that!
Nicki Whittaker, Head of Pre-Prep, Vinehall School
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