Welcome to MakeBelieve Arts
Putting story at the heart of the Early Years
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
To visit our Helicopter Stories website and find out about our innovative work
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At MakeBelieve Arts we believe in the power of story to develop cognitive abilities, improve literacy, explore emotional functions and engage children with learning. Working with EYFS and KS1 practitioners, we are building towards a storytelling curriculum, through which all children can thrive and grow. We believe that this creativity should continue throughout education, with pupils receiving and delivering storytelling as part of their everyday learning.
Our programmes:
Helicopter Stories, the flagship of MakeBelieve Arts’ work, is a holistic approach to Early Years and Foundation Stage education, where children make up stories, adults scribe them, and then the class acts them out. This enables children to discover the world around them in their own, very personal way. This approach is suitable for children aged 2 to 7.
The Curiosity Conference is our annual Key Stage 2 primary school event where pupils from schools across the country gather to share their creative ideas and curious questions – it’s a conference by children, for children. During the presentations by the pupils themselves, the children’s stories are illustrated in real time by a professional artist, and each year they are joined by a well-known face, such as Sally Gardner in 2017.
Online Training:
Helicopter Stories On Demand, is one year of on demand professional development, giving access to everything you need to know on how to deliver Helicopter Stories with your children. The course is presented by Trisha Lee in bite size videos accompanied by downloadable materials and simple tasks to help you absorb the approach, plus additional reading suggestions. The course includes Units on Grammar, Emergent Writing, Violence and Weapon Play in Children’s Dictated Stories, The Power of Story, EAL and SEN. Trisha Lee is an experienced trainer. In this course she goes far deeper in sharing her experiences and thoughts on the power of Helicopter Stories, than she has ever been able to during a full day of training.
The Story Basket, The Story Basket contains 15 audio-only fairy tales and folktales, accompanied by music and sound to bring these magical stories to life. The collection is designed to be listened to throughout the academic year with five stories and accompanying resources selected for each of the three terms. It includes a host of activities, thoughts for discussion and resource ideas suitable for children aged 3 to 7. This truly is an enchanting compilation that will enthral audiences both young and old.
The Poetry Basket, The Poetry Basket includes 36 lesser-known children’s rhymes from anonymous authors and follows the seasons of the year. Suitable for Teachers, Early Year Practitioners, Parents and Carers of children aged 3 to 6. It is Lifetime access to videos demonstrating poems and actions across the seasons. It also comes with three downloadable poetry booklets ensuring you have the words to hand when you introduce the rhymes to your children.
Creating a language rich environment for children in the Early years and Foundation Stages..
“Stories have the power to affect us physically. They make us weep, they make us laugh and they make us think. There is evidence to show that our brains are hardwired to make sense of the world through story. Storytelling is a fundamentally human thing to do.”
We work with children aged 2 to 11 years old, primarily with early years (EYFS) and nursery practitioners, as well as primary school teachers, childminders and parents.
Our patrons: Vivian Gussin Paley (deceased) and Michael Rosen
Find out more about our work below...
HELICOPTER STORIES ONLINE TRAINING CURIOSITY CONFERENCE THE STORY BASKET
