Providing a creative children’s outreach programme

Magic moments of ‘Pop - Ups’ and story telling

Magic One Trust Sri Lanka Jaffna programme with Jeeva Raghunath

Magic One Trust Sri Lanka Jaffna children’s outreach session with Robert Crowther

Magic One Trust Sri Lanka Jaffna children’s outreach session with Jeeva Raghunath

The HSBC Galle Literary Festival 2012 joined hands with Magic, Sri Lanka’s No 1 dairy ice cream brand and One Trust, the philanthropic arm of Cargills (Ceylon) PLC to provide an outreach programme which reached children in the Southern and Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka this year. Great fun was had by school children and their teachers!

Jaffna teacher training and children’s school programme

The 2012 festival culminated in a two day outreach programme in Jaffna, initiated by Shyam Selvadurai and made possible by Magic and One Trust Sri Lanka. The outreach programme focused on two main topics: ‘The art of story telling’ and ‘The wonders of interactive books’ through workshops conducted by the two internationally renowned authors, Jeeva Raghunath and Robert Crowther, acclaimed masters in the above areas.

The schools day was held at the Jaffna College with selected schools from the region. Robert Crowther and Jeeva Raghunath spent the day with 150 children who participated in the unique journey into Raghunath’s imaginary world of stories and Crowther’s creative world of pop-up books. The gasps of awe and wonder when Robert Crowther opened his first book to reveal ‘Pop-Up’ showed the children’s unfamiliarity with the genre of pop-up and their excitement at discovering it. A flurry of activity followed, as students, scissors and cards in hand, made their own pop-ups, guided with patience and care by Crowther. Heralding from Chennai, Jeeva Raghunath conducted her workshop in Tamil and English, drawing the students into the story through call and response and through assigning them to produce various sound effects. The laughter, singing and hip swaying by every member of her audience was proof indeed that the students and teachers benefited enormously from her visit.

The two authors also conducted four workshops in Jaffna, spread over two days for 100 teachers from schools in Jaffna, Islands, Thenmarachchi, Vadamarachchi, Valikamam, Kilinochchi and Thunukkai.

The workshops covered the two main areas of storytelling and pop-up: Jeeva Raghunath used her expert skills to show teachers how they might revive what is now a lost art of storytelling in the North. Robert Crowther conducted a paper engineering workshop where he passed on some techniques on the art of pop-up and showed the important role interactive books play in the development of a child’s learning. This teacher training programme is the first of a series of workshops to follow in the coming year.

Schools’ Day, Galle and Fort children’s programme

There were 200 Galle school children from 11 schools and 70 Galle Fort children, from grades 6 to 11, gathered at the Halle de Galle and Maritime Museum last month for a wonderfully entertaining and educational experience. The first events in the Galle Literary Festival 2012 programme provoked curiosity and provided an inspiring opportunity for schoolchildren to have an international literary festival come to their region. The sessions provided them with an understanding of basic art forms, social values and culture through creative work.

This special programme included a presentation by inspirational photographer Beat Presser and by Jeeva Raghunath who brought her own mixture of energy and enthusiasm to the morning with her story telling. Her range of vocals, accents and mimicry brought magic and laughter to the students and their interaction was spontaneous and rewarding. Robert Crowther’s ‘Pop-Up’ Workshop introduced children and teachers to paper engineering and the mechanics of ‘Pop-Up’ books. Also included in the programme was a special performance by ‘Mind Adventures’, a forum theatre group who encouraged children to join them on stage in a lively discussion on tricky parenting. The morning terminated with a delicious magic surprise. A refreshing Magic choc ice!

Magic children’s programme

The ever popular children’s programme which ran during the weekend of the festival sold out all its sessions, some of them on the first day the box office opened. This year’s programme offered children aged five to 14 years a chance to encounter many creative worlds - poetry, storytelling, puppeteering, writing, yoga, drama, photography, paper engineering, chess and magic ice cream. They were also introduced to ‘The Magic of Reality’ by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward. The imaginary world of puppetry by Sulochana Dissanayake was enjoyed by the younger age groups and the older age groups were enamored by UK Olympic poet Lemn Sissay and his world of poetry.

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