World Premiere of Go M.A.D.! eco-musical

The pupils of Archbishop of York’s Junior School in York had a Global Awareness Week last week. I wrote them an eco-musical for the occasion, called Go M.A.D.! (Make A Difference). It’s about how we can all help prevent climate change by reducing our carbon footprint.
email me for eco-musical details

I spent Wednesday teaching the musical to Year 6 (Miss Minnit’s class and Ms Woolgar’s class). On Friday afternoon the children performed it as part of their Global Awareness Week Assembly.

Listen to a clip (mp3)

They received great applause from the rest of the school, and the many parents who had come along too. Congratulations to both classes and their teachers for learning and performing a whole musical in such a short time!

The Assembly also included a fashion show of outfits the children had made during the week from ‘rubbish’. Here is one of the fabulous outfits they created and modelled:

After the assembly, Denise Hall from the Energy Efficiency Advice Service in York was on hand to give everyone practical advice about how they can make their homes more energy efficient. She was giving out free energy-saving lightbulbs to people who signed up to reduce their energy usage at home, and telling them about grants that are available for loft and cavity wall insulation.

All in all the children learnt a great deal about they could help prevent climate change by reducing their carbon footprint. I take my hat off to all the pupils, teachers and parents involved in putting on such a great learning experience. And I thank Mr Green for having invited me to be part of it.

Kiera-Mae from Year 6 wrote a beautiful poem which summed up the theme of the week. Here it is:

Transport and litter
Sour and bitter
Wildlife and water
Should be saved they oughta
So let’s stop all pollution
And let’s save life extinction
If we work as a team
We’ll give the earth a clean
And stop climate change.

Anneliese Emmans Dean – info@theBigBuzz.biz - www.theBigBuzz.biz

Competition win!

‘Congratulations’ the letter read, ‘you have won 1st prize in our International Women’s Week 08 Poetry Competition with your poem “Can Can”.’

What a pleasant surprise! My poem will be on display at the Real People Theatre Show taking place in York on 8 March at 2pm and 7pm (more info.)

The theme of this competition was: ‘The Future of the Earth, after the women are freed’.

The competition judge said of my winning poem: ‘This is direct, deceptively simple, and has a lovely, uplifting message.’

Read the winning poem: Can Can

Anneliese Emmans Dean – info@theBigBuzz.biz – www.theBigBuzz.biz

Imbolc Story Walk

The poster for our Story Walk round West Bank Park said it would be suitable for ages 0 to 100+. We didn’t quite manage to hit the top end of that age-range, but nevertheless, young and not-so-young alike turned out on a ‘fresh’ February afternoon for our walk to celebrate National Storytelling Week.

We had a very inspiring walk through the park, with poems provided by me, and stories by … well, take a look below.

When we got to the ponds, Catherine (with assistance from some little helpers) told us a fascinting story from Lincolnshire about TiddyMun:

Aidan’s grandma told us 2 stories, one about a fallen oak tree …

… which inspired great curiousity amongst the children:

As did her story about the Green Man:

We also learned about the history of the park, and that it had been a plant nursery for over a hundred years:

I finished the walk off at the Story Tree, with a poem about the seasons:

And thence to hot drinks and delicious cakes in the park cafe!

Our audience was very appreciative, and suggested we put on similar walks again at other times of the year. It turns out that today is the Celtic festival of Imbolc, which is half-way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. So, it was suggested that we meet up again for story walks on other Celtic festival days. A very good idea!

In the Irish calendar, today is the first day of Spring. And by the time we left the wood, it really did look like it, with blue sky and sunshine lighting up the trees.

A big Thank You to Catherine Heinemeyer for her vision and hard work in setting up this wonderful walk. I was not the only one to have enjoyed it enormously.

And thank you to Stephen Whittaker of City of York Council for supporting the event. Let’s hope it’s the first of many such story walks in the park …

Anneliese Emmans Dean – info@theBigBuzz.biz – www.theBigBuzz.biz