>February Events / Art & Theatre / Business Editorials / Events in Norfolk and Suffolk March 10, 2021
Norfolk authors launch
The Flying Shop of Imagination: Adventures in Creative Writing
an inspiring new book for teachers and parents
NORWICH, 23 February 2021 – The Flying Shop of Imagination: Adventures in Creative Writing, by Norwich writer Belona Greenwood and Sheringham artist Kate Munro, launched during lockdown.
Drawing on years of experience, Greenwood and Munro have produced an exhilarating collection of creative activities and exercises that use dramatic challenges and playful exercises to inspire children’s writing. The book is aimed at teachers and head teachers, teacher-trainers, home educators and parents. There are activities for Key Stages 1 through 4, and for each activity the appropriate Key Stages are clearly marked.
“The activities have all been designed to give children not only the freedom to imagine,” says Greenwood, “but also the tools and motivation to take the next step – to go from imagining to creating.”
The book’s six sections group the activities by type, enabling teachers, home educators and parents to plan ahead easily and to address diverse learning goals. Every creative activity can be used to explore curriculum themes and achieve schools’ explicit educational goals, and many of the activities will work equally well to free up adult writers’ creativity.
“Delivering these activities in schools is wonderful,” says Munro. “Children quickly engage with this way of exploring and learning, and you can see their curiosity and confidence grow, along with their desire to try things out. Feedback from teachers backs this up – the kids are both energised and engaged by creative work like this.”
The book’s focus on imagination and creativity has huge potential benefits. As educationalist Sir Ken Robinson said in 2016, “If you have a more dynamic approach to teaching and learning, if you promote links between disciplines, if you set creative questions for kids to explore, if you engage their curiosity, if you nurture their imaginations – they become more fully involved and excited about learning and their achievement levels go up.” The Flying Shop of Imagination enables teachers and parents to harness this spirit of achievement through creativity, to dispel children’s inhibitions, to boost their learning, and to equip them to explore the world in new ways.
Praise for The Flying Shop of Imagination: Adventures in Creative Writing
“Absolutely beautiful and full of lovely ideas. I’m going to tell other teacher folk they need it too.”
Elanor Nicholls, teacher
“There should be at least one copy of The Flying Shop of Imagination in every school, if not every classroom … this inspiring book soars above the humdrum.”
Frances Whewell, grandmother
“Brilliant! There’s some useful stuff there to unblock adult writing energies too, I think. Really looking forward to using this.”
Cate McKay-Haynes, writer and home-educator
“Ingenious and creative activities to engage and energise children’s minds. Reading this has made me put pen to paper for the first time this year.”
Fiona Roberts, cultural project manager
“There are some great ideas in the book designed to stimulate children’s imaginations. These could be used as one-off activities or integrated into a writing unit, for example on characterisation. The suggested activities do not require an endless supply of expensive resources, but instead use everyday objects and natural resources as a starting point for creative thinking. I look forward to dipping into this book for inspiration on how to stimulate the imaginations of the children I teach.”
Vicki Wild, teacher, Browick Road Primary School
“An inspirational insight into creative activities for young people. As a theatre practitioner working with young people, I’ve found Flying Shop to be an invaluable resource in planning exciting, engaging and accessible drama activities for children from 4 to 16 years old … [and] many of the activities translate very effectively in the digital space.”
Darren France, Upshoot Theatre Company
“Lovely. Lively, useful and nicely presented. I like it so much I’d like to order another copy as a present.”
Stefan Escreet, director, actor, radio producer, and artistic director of Ragged Edge Productions
About the authors
Belona Greenwood is a former journalist, a prize-winning writer, working scriptwriter, an editor and a mentor. Her work in schools and in the community focuses on creative writing as a means of exploration, understanding and self-expression, and as a doorway to new opportunities. She is a director of Script6, a regional script development company. In 20I8, she and Words and Women co-organiser Lynne Bryan, were awarded a Norfolk Arts Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Arts.’
Kate Munro is a sculptor, maker and workshop leader, whose portfolio includes public art works
in snow and ice, glass, wood and steel. Her education and community projects centre on the importance of creativity for exploration, promoting confidence, and learning about the world we
live in.
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Further information
For all enquiries – regarding interview requests, review copies of The Flying Shop of Imagination, high-resolution images – please contact Singular Publishing.
Singular Publishing
2 Kinver Close
Norwich NR4 7QZ
UK
+44 (0)7760 372266
