Once Upon A Blog

Project: Once upon a Blog

Company: MakeBelieve Arts

‘Once upon a blog...’ is an exciting and innovative cross phase storytelling project engaging primary school pupils across Southwark with drama, storytelling and digital technology. Over the space of 5 days, 150 children from Year 1 – Year 6 will work together creating a story like no other. We begin in Year 1; they set the scene and introduce us to the story world. Then every day we will visit a different school with each successive year group taking up the story baton; adding characters, places and happenings and we see the story grow.

Each class is given a set of story ingredients and they breathe life into these through drama, movement, speech and sound. Their ideas - pictures, sound bites, video and text – are brought together on the ‘Once upon a blog...’ website. All the children will be able to follow the progress of the story throughout the week.

MakeBelieve Arts will work with one class in a different school each day. At the beginning of the project we will be in KS1 and then work our way up through the school finishing on the last day in Year 5/6. In the morning the pupils will work with our creative practitioner exploring drama and storytelling. Introduced to their story ingredients they will have the opportunity to play with and shape these. The afternoon workshop will focus on recording their stories to be uploaded onto the blog in the form of pictures, sound bites, video and text. This will form our living and growing digital storybook. The school will be provided with the link to the blog so pupils can track the story and contribute their thoughts to the progress that is made each day. The blog enables our digital storybook to expand its reach and can connect the pupils involved securely with other children in Southwark and beyond. The culmination of the project, taking place either in one of the 5 schools, will bring together all of the pupils involved in creating the story. The blog, kept live and up to date throughout the week, will form a record of the project that pupils can revisit together as co creators of their epic tale.

Where: In-school

Duration: 1.5hrs before morning break, 1hr between break and lunch, 45mins before end of the day

Number of participants: Up to 30 children in each class

Dates: w/c 21 November (sharing morning of Wednesday 30 November at one of the schools)

Project available to five primary schools (Yr 1 class / Yr 2 class / Yr 3/4 class / Yr 5 class / Yr 6 class)

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