Get your new year off to a flyer with Anthony Browne's excellent The Shape Game . The perfect starting point for short, simple activities to get your class talking, discussing, drawing and working together. A  'Have You Tried?'  ideas sheet for The Shape Game can be found  here .  The Shape Game  by Anthony Browne The Shape Game is all you really need in order to understand the magic of Anthony Browne. On a family trip to the Tate Britain art gallery in London,  Anthony Browne gives us insight into his love of art and his childhood discovery of visual jokes and lends us a launch pad from which to analyse paintings, decode symbols and interpret art. In brief: Have you tried?  Ideas for talking and thinking : Interpret and discuss meaning in art and look for symbols in paintings. Ideas for writing : Collaborative written interpretations of famous artworks.  Ideas for art : Play the shape game like Anthony Browne turning doodled shapes into

Sorry to wake you from your slumber, teachers, but before you close that heavy-lidded eye, roll over and drift back into holiday dreams, take a sneaky look at this week's bulletin with wonderful ideas for teaching creative fiction. This week's resources are for the fantastic picture book Wolves by Emily Gravett.  Consider your inspiration for your first literacy unit of the year well and truly ticked off. Well done you. Now back to sleep...   A  'Have You Tried?'  ideas sheet for Wolves can be found  here .  Wolves  by Emily Gravett This magical book is a great example of how fiction and non-fiction can be combined in a text. We follow the journey of rabbit's imagination as he immerses himself in a new book about a bunny's most feared predator, the wolf. As we consider where his reading and his imaginings meet, this book is the ideal launch pad for a discussion about the very nature of imagination. This might sound a bit on the complex side fo

You’ve heard the old expression: There’s no such thing as a free creative literacy and art workshop. Right? Poppycock. Here at ARTiculate, I am passionate about art. And writing. So I put them together and SHAZAAM… I deliver the finest creative workshops in the land. Using text, drama and discussion to inspire children to write, people in Leeds are raving about the work I do. “Very inspirational and creative – lots of new ideas to improve writing and unlock children’s imaginations.” Nadia, Teacher Y4 To be in with the chance to win a FREE taster workshop for your school, all you have to do is click  here  and email me your school’s details. Look forward to hearing from you! Stefan *Leeds (W Yorks) primary schools only, sorry folks.