See below for images from my working visit to the Isle of Lewis and Harris …
Just back from a wonderful two weeks travelling round the Isle of Lewis visiting schools scattered over the island, in Stornoway, Bernera, Uig, Tarbert, Ness and Back, with a dinosaur (as you do) which the seven children of Bernera school named Cherry Bob. As all seven children there had colds and coughs, they drew germs and made foldy Germ Books.
Cherry Bob is one of the many dinosaurs which feature in my sixth Draw It! book, published on September 10th by Bloomsbury Childrens Books.
Making maps was the main theme of the workshops. Stornoway’s brilliant arts centre, an Lanntair, is encouraging children to come up with ideas about their school journeys. The project’s called School Run, and I was there to encourage them to think about it in a bit of a different way. And their ideas and drawings were fantastic! I showed them slide shows of lots of different ways you could make maps – including a cloth map of the Antarctic, which they hopped over in penguin mode – and supplied them with a basic SK Tunnelling System, which they adapted to all sorts of amazing adventures with dialogue and plots. Cherry Bob managed to be involved too.
They travelled by flamingo, buffalo and zip wire for example, or discovered secret entrances to tunnelling systems in their wardrobes, linking their individual tunnels to their neighbours’ with hugely inventive strategies. Some children picked characters out of my Hat of Surprise to take on journeys of exploration using comic strips – what wonders!
