Story Telling with Jackie Singer (2014-10-20)

We played Octopus and Dead Ants whilst people arrived.

We held our News Circle: Ayoub has a new bike; Yasmine's mum has a new car; Dylan is ten in a week; Joe is going to Norfolk; Ivo was hit by a wooden brick at school; Raffa introduced himself; Theo has made up a new language; John walked with Theo and others from Thornhill; Jackie brought us a story; Jay is going to Hill End on the 19th of November; Luke found a snail and named it Pale Snail; Chimena saw her favourite birds, long tailed tits, in her garden; Emily (and Flo) walked through Warneford Meadow and saw a jay, not a 'big chaffinch'; Rayan saw a dead bird that had probably been killed by a cat; Oliver played ice hockey yesterday; Rana is very tired; Natty vaporised his teacher; Polly's neighbour had a party; Morrigan is going to France; Daniel went to Florence Park and played tennis; Isis made a witches mask; Lena is eight in a week and four days; Matilda hurt her shin; Tim dug a hibernation hole in the greenhouse for his tortoise.

Jackie started the session by getting the group to synchronise, clapping and calling in time and then varying the volume.

Jackie told the whole story of Anansi and the Wedding Invitation, acting it out as she told it.

A couple were planning their wedding, but decided not to invite Anansi as he and his children ate too much.

In order to prepare the food the bride's family had to cook rice and so needed water from the river. The youngest daughter was sent to fetch water but when she dipped her calabash in the water music started to play and she could not help but dance. She danced until she could no longer stand and lay down. The next daughter was sent but the same thing happened. The big aunt went to see what had happened, but the magic music started to play when she filled the calabash and she too could not stop herself from dancing.

When the bride groom arrived there was no food ready, so everyone went to the river, where they found those who had already gone and they too started to dance.

The bridegroom realised what was going on and shouted out "Anansi show yourself!", Anansi did, saying that as he was not to be invited to the party then he had brought the party to him. Everyone apologised to Ananasi and went back to cook the wedding breakfast.

Jackie then had us divide into groups to play the daughters, Anansi, the River and the wedding guests.

Jackie playing the big aunt.

The spider musicians.

Return to the cooking fire.

We held our Closing Circle.

Leaders: Emily, Rana, Tim
Helpers: Jackie, Raffa
Elfins: 20
Woodchips: 2

Autumn Collages (2014-10-13)

We played a game of Octopus as people arrived.

We held our News Circle: Isis had a hurt finger; Matilda, still a little pale from Chicken Pox, had found a crystal; Lena had done colouring in at school; Izzy is preparing for her Piano Prep Test; Polly had visited with her grand parents; Morrigan had had tube pasta in tomato sauce, and liked it; Jay went to Dance on Saturday; Milly thought the clocks had changed so was late for school; John went to Dan's birthday party; Imo bumped her knee; Debbie was an hour late for work due to thinking the clocks had changed; Natty saved his show and tell until the end; Joe went to two friends house; Emily has bought an Over Locker from Lidl; Rana is looking forwards to restarting arabic classes with Rayan; Rayan did pd dipping at a nature reserve; Yasmine is moving to a bigger house; Ayoub went to a friend's birthday party; Theo has new super hero cards; Rafiq found some old cards he had lost; Daniel went to a party; Dylan is winning in Karate; Oliver went to the JR; Kique has new kittens from Rafiq; Ivo watched a Garfield movie at his cousin's house; Tim went to the dentist.

Then Natty showed us his new sister.

We got out the materials and made collages, using stamp cutters to make shapes from paper as it was too wet to collect real leaves.

And put them on the table for display.

Polly's tooth came out, with quite a bit of bleeding.

All the pictures were displayed and we held our Closing Circle.

Leaders: Debbie, Emily, Rana, Tim
Elfins: 22

Wildlife in our Gardens (2014-10-06)

Whilst Tim got the adults to check our registration forms Emily, Debbie and Rana led some games of Dead Ants

and Octopus.

We held our News Circle: Daniel went to three parties; Oliver showed us his giant Hex Bug that he got for his birthday; Kique went to a zoo and saw the most poisonous spider in the world; Lena spent the weekend with Izzy and went to the Story Museum; Izzy had some Norwegian visitors; Emily spent a lot of time tidying for her visitors; Morrigan did cooking today; Imo's mum's birthday is today; Polly couldn't remember what she had done on Saturday; Debbie has started her Christmas shopping; Milly went to a friends farm and lost their dog but used walky talkies to find it; Natty had a serious conversation with Imo about devils; Rafiq needs more gold coins to buy flying boots; Dylan has a birthday soon; Joe asked us "What is your favourite coloured number of the alphabet?" to which the answer is "Potato"; Luke found four earthworms; Ximena went to Boundary Brook Nature Reserve and saw an owl; Rana fell over at an Eid celebration; Rayan went to an Eid party on Saturday and a Farm on Sunday; Jay watched Kung Foo Panda (so did Tim); Theo has reached a new level in Minion Rush; John went to Theo's house a few days ago; DJ Matt Rush showed his books at Ivo's School; Isis's karate teacher has had a new baby boy; Tim has shared Memrise with his daughters.

We decided to play some games before the main activity. Most of our games are rather hectic, which not everyone enjoys, so we decided to play a most structured game: Duck, Duck, Goose.

We then made bird feeders from popcorn, peanuts, apples and suet balls.

We held a circle and sangHappy Birthday to Oliver and our Closing Song.

Leaders: Emily, Tim, Debbie, Rana
Elfins: 20

All Photos.