‘Rotten’ Brownies!

The Brownies of Osbaldwick wowed the residents of Dunnington last week with their performance of ‘Compost! The (mini-)Musical‘, and got themselves in the local newspaper as a result! Take a look:

Read the article (pdf)

Thank you to all the talented performers (and the grown-ups who backed them up) for coming out on a cold October night to spread the musical word about the wonders of composting. You gave the audience a real treat!

Catherine Bamford from York Rotters was on hand before and after the performance to give expert advice about composting and compost bins:

Catherine from York Rotters dispensing composting advice in Dunnington

Thank you to Catherine, and to Ginnie Shaw from City of York Council, who made sure we all arrived at the right place at the right time!

Captain Compost (aka Catherine Bamford) from York Rotters and I will be teaching Compost! The (mini-)Musical to more Brownie and Cub packs around the York area next year.

If you’d like to teach Compost! The (mini-)Musical to your group, check out the Compost! The (mini-)Musical Teaching Pack with Resource CD, which contains everything you need to put on a great performance!

For more information, email me

Preparing for the Dunnington compost performance

Anneliese Emmans Dean – info@theBigBuzz.biz
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Compost! at Kew

Want to know more about compost? Then The Arboretum Trust, Kew at Castle Howard, near York, is the place to be. Tomorrow, Saturday 8 August, at 4pm, when their Discovery Lecture is entitled ‘Captivating Compost!’

Want to know more about compost and Compost! The (mini-)Musical? Then The Arboretum Trust, Kew at Castle Howard is also the place to be. For the foreseeable future.

How come? Well, the Education Development Officer there, Dr Katherine Forsey, invited me to put together a display for their Visitor Centre. Which you can see below. Along with Katherine and me.

My Compost! display at Kew at Castle Howard

The shop in the Visitor Centre now stocks my Compost! The (mini-)Musical Teaching Pack, so you can have a look at it there, and buy your copy.

If you’ve never been to Kew at Castle Howard, you’ve been missing a real treat. The arboretum there covers 150 acres, and includes a glorious lake and rolling countryside. A very inspiring place to be. I thoroughly recommend it – and their Discovery Lectures, which are open to all. (Indeed, I presented their first ever Discovery Lecture, which was a moth night, jointly put on with Dr Dave Chesmore of the University of York. Find out more about our Moth Nights.)

Oh, and if you’re a teacher, check out their excellent programme of training in a wide range of curriculum-linked outdoor activities, and their schools visits, all run by Katherine Forsey (education@kewatch.co.uk).

The Trust has a fantastic outdoor classroom (see below), and a great range of education options.

In the outdoor classroom at The Arboretum Trust, Kew at Castle Howard

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Musical superstars at Sutton Bank

Well, I don’t think many of the people who braved the elements today to come to Sutton Bank Visitor Centre in the glorious North York Moors were expecting to become world musical superstars today. But that’s exactly what happened!

Radio York’s own Jonathan Cowap was at the ‘My Awesome Planet’ event being held at Sutton Bank, where I was teaching ‘Compost! The (mini-)Musical‘ to any of the visitors who fancied taking part.

The children, mums, dads and grandmas who volunteered learned the complete musical in a mere 30 minutes. And then they performed it!

Their audience consisted not only of visitors to Sutton Bank, but also, thanks to the presence of Radio York, the whole of the rest of the world …

‘Even Africa?’ asked one participant. Yes, thanks to the internet, even people in Africa could hear these wonderful performers!

‘They look like they’re having a fantastic time!’ said Jonathan Cowap.

Thank you to everyone at the Visitor Centre for welcoming us so warmly. And to Jonathan Cowap from Radio York for coming and listening to us. To Sally Ann Smith for organising the My Awesome Planet event. And most of all to the fantastically talented performers.

Think global! Compost local! Now!

At the 'My Awesome Planet' event at Sutton Bank, North York Moors

Fancy putting on Compost! The (mini-)Musical yourself? Find out more about the Compost! The (mini-)Musical Teaching Pack with Resource CD here.

Return to theBigBuzz website

Teaching Pack published for ‘Compost! The (mini-)Musical’

To mark Compost Awareness Week next week, I am launching the long-awaited Teaching Pack for ‘Compost! The (mini-)Musical‘, my fun BigBuzz eco-musical, which can be easily learned and performed -  indoors or out – by children and adults alike.

Find out more

Listen to an excerpt

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Read feedback

Find out more

Order your copy

Order your copy

Find out more about Compost! performances

York Brownies go green!

Brownies in their Compostable Crowns

You can find out more about Compost! The (mini-)Musical, and my other BigBuzz eco-musicals at my website: http://www.thebigbuzz.biz/eco-musicals.html

Helmsley Green Day

The sun shone on Helmsley in North Yorkshire yesterday for the Helmsley Green Day, held at Helmsley Walled Garden. Well, it shone nearly all the day. It started raining just as we were about to finish learning Compost! The (mini-)Musical, so we retired to the Beer Tent, and performed to an enthusiastic crowd of drinkers there.

Visitors to the Green Day learned my eco-musical from scratch in 30 minutes

The performers had started learning my eco-musical just 30 minutes beforehand. They were the second Compost Crew I had trained that afternoon. The first Crew had learned the musical and performed it outdoors earlier that afternoon. (And one of them came back to join in this second performance!)

The Walled Garden is a beautiful garden in a beautiful location. Helmsley Castle looked down on us as we sang and drummed through our musical.

Helmsley Walled Garden

There was lots going on at the Green Day, including story-telling from Nettlefoot Kate, and shoe-selling from my friend Terry, who runs Roosters .

Storytelling from Nettlefoot Kate at Helmsley Green Day, 16 August 2008.

Congratulations to all those who came along and learned Compost! in such a short time, and then performed it with such gusto! It was great to see grandparents learning and performing with their grandchildren, and parents with their children, and some brave children all by themselves! Much fun was had by all.

Relaxing after our second Compost! performance, Helmsley Green Day, 16 August 2008

And thank you to one of our talented younger performers, Elizabeth, who gave me a beautiful papier mache flower she had made at one of the stalls earlier that day. I was very touched.

Thank you too to all the people who made Helmsley Green Day happen, particularly Monica Gripaios.

Schools Out Compost Crew

Congratulations to the West Bank Park Compost Crew, who arrived at the park in York on Wednesday morning as a disparate group of 6 to 9-year-olds, and by Thursday lunchtime had become transformed into a fully trained Compost Crew, performing my ‘Compost! The (mini-)Musical‘ with great gusto to crowds of onlookers! Oh, and they also became media superstars, with The Press on hand to take their photo, which appeared in today’s paper.

The photos below show how that transformation took place, over the course of two mornings, all outdoors in the park.

I am indebted to The Green Man (aka Stephen Whittaker from City of York Council, Parks and Open Spaces), Dr Rotter (aka Catherine Bamford from York Rotters) and The Bog Lady (aka Catherine Heinemeyer – with Bog Baby and Compost Crew Mascot Conor in tow - from the Friends of West Bank Park) for bringing their expertise and enthusiasm along and helping me to train our Compost Crew. I’m also very grateful to Gail from WRAP, for ensuring we had the right compost bins in the right place at the right time!

Two of the compost bins the children decorated and used in their musical have gone into immediate service, one in the park café and one in Pine Trees, just next to the park. So, the children have already made a big difference to making the world a cleaner, greener place. What a great thing to have achieved in their school holiday! Well done Compost Crew!

To find out more – and order your Compost! The (mini-)Musical Teaching Pack – click here

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BBC Radio York ‘Compost!’ interview

To mark Compost Awareness Week 2008, Dougie Weake from BBC Radio York came and interviewed me and Mrs Finn’s Year 4 Class at Archbishop of York’s Junior School yesterday. (Find out more.) Our ’Compost Awareness Week’ interview was aired on Radio York today – followed by an interview with Charlie Dimmock.

Listen to our Radio York interview

Find out more about ‘Compost! The (mini-)Musical’

email me for more info.

Compost Awareness Week – 08

Mrs Finn’s Year 4 class at Archbishop of York’s Junior School are having a busy National Compost Awareness week this year. On Saturday, as part of York Fiesta, they performed my musical ‘Compost! The (mini-)musical’ in bright sunshine in York town centre, to a crowd of enthusiastic onlookers.

York Rotters were on hand with a stand to advise people about how to start composting, or to improve their composting further. Before the performance, Rotter John Cossham (the man in the white t-shirt in the photo above) came and gave the children a pep talk, which included balancing one of their drum beaters on his nose! (John also masquerades as juggler Professor Fiddlesticks.)

Then today, Dougie Weake of Radio York turned up at Archbishop of York’s Junior School to record the children singing some of the musical, and to interview some of us:

We’re all looking forward to hearing the piece on Radio York tomorrow!

 Listen to the Radio York interview

Composting congratulations!

Congratulations to Mrs Finn’s class at Archbishop of York’s CE Junior School, who gave the world premiere of the primary school version of Compost: the (mini-)Musical today! I taught them the musical last Tuesday, and they have spent the week practising it so they could perform it in front of the whole school in assembly today.

Their performance was greeted with great applause from all the pupils and staff. And rightly so, as they did fantastically well. And not only did they entertain the rest of the school, but they educated them too. After the show, Mrs Finn asked the pupils in the audience key questions about what you can and can’t put in a compost bin. And the pupils came up with all the right answers! So, Mrs Finn’s class are very good teachers!

Her pupils are going to perform the musical again – with an extra song I’ve just written – at their Harvest Festival celebrations coming up soon. So then parents will have the chance to be entertained and to find out all about composting too.

Read Compost! Thank You letters from pupils

Thanks to Dr Wannop, Archbishop of York’s school has a composting scheme in action, so pupils who are members of Gardening Club were able to go and see composting in action that very day.