We are delighted to launch our latest Out to Play resource pack, ‘Nature Stories for Children’ in Spring 2024. The pack contains an abundance of interactive storytelling ideas to support educators, parents / carers and anyone with an interest in nature themed stories to deliver them imaginatively. It is full of stories, ideas and inspiration to develop storytelling and ‘Out to Play’ journeys across schools, nurseries, community settings, the home and more.
The resource pack was created by our Creative Engagement Lead, Saffron Gillies, who said:
“It’s been my pleasure over the past three years to deliver the Out to Play project in schools and nurseries across Glasgow, and storytelling has been one of my favourite elements of the work. I was incredibly excited to create this resource pack, adding to Eco Drama’s existing range of resources which offer a wealth of ideas, tips, and lesson plans for practitioners to try out. Storytelling is a powerful way to engage audiences of all ages by drawing upon our imaginations, emotions, and senses. Through the sharing of nature themed stories and folklore listeners can encounter new ideas, cultures, biomes, and belief systems – prompting them to think on their relationship with the natural world today, and how they can care for and engage with the Earth. I am incredibly grateful to the team at Eco Drama, the staff and pupils at Craigton Primary School, designer Valerie Reid, filmmaker Mike Rea, and our funders for their support.
Stories represent a form of intangible cultural heritage, and the best way to preserve them is to tell them – so I hope users will enjoy telling these stories.”
The Resource Pack is available to order on our website: Out to Play Resource Packs – Eco Drama
The Nature Stories pack draws on the experiences of Saffron in the delivery of 5 week Out to Play Residencies with Craigton Primary School in 2024. Pupils and teachers from Craigton Primary School told us:
“Hearing stories makes me feel peace and calm ’cause it opens up your imagination. And then it also helps you in your writing in life, it helps me with my spelling and my reading.”
P5 pupil
“It was amazing to find nature in a very concrete environment and the children were able to really bring their imagination into somewhere that is not particularly green but still has the nature and the outdoor-ness to it.”
Hannah McCaig, Class Teacher
“It brings to the forefront a lot of the things that are on the news, so it allows the children to make real life links. It also gives them strategies and ideas on what they can do to help improve sustainability for the longer term.”
George McGrath, Class Teacher
The 4 minute mini documentary below tells the story of the Nature Stories for Children Resource Pack, filmed by Mike Rea.
To read reports on the benefits and impact of the Out to Play project to date, please visit the Evaluation page.
With thanks to Glasgow City Council’s Community and Place Fund and Scottish Communities Climate Action Network for supporting this work. The Out to Play project and Eco Drama are gratefully supported by many other funders.
