Author Visit and Pop Up Workshops at Singapore American International School

It's been a great privilege to be a visiting author and artist at several International Schools over the years. I love travelling and I love working with children, so it's a great combination for me. This year I was invited to be visiting author and illustrator at the Singapore American School by Kirsten Harvey from the Elementary Art Department at this great school. It was quite a challenge! 1600 children from all over the planet, all eager to express their creative skills with Mr Paul. And that was just the Elementary School!
What great kids and what a testament to a school that really values the power of creativity and art at the core of the curriculum. The curiosity and pure joy of learning that such an approach inculcates is so blindingly obvious that it makes me wonder, yet again, what our UK politicians and their pursuit of rote learning and grammar are thinking. Or not thinking.
The moment I walked into the first of four colourful and fun art rooms I knew I was in for a treat. The elementary art teachers, Kirsten Harvey, Suzanne Heathorn, Erin Caskey, Erica Adkinson and Kelly McFadzen have created such vibrant and interesting spaces that it wasn't just the children who were excited about their art classes. Class sizes were great at just 22 but in order to see all the 1600 children, I sometimes had classes of 44. Large numbers don't really faze me, as I often have to deal with much larger numbers in the UK but even with 12 working days at the school, I had to do shorter 45 minute workshops to see all of the children in the school.
These children were great though, with art, design and creativity as a core part of their school lives, they were full of fun and the joy of curiosity and artistic expression. They were ready to go!
Here's a lovely video made by Kelly of just some of the children I worked with over the course of 18 days in Singapore.

As usual it was immediately apparent that this school treasures it's librarians. It's always a joy to visit schools that are able to give their children the best start by not only providing top libraries but also passionate and skilled librarians. It doesn't have to be a well funded international school, any school that has a good library but more importantly good librarians at the core of the children's learning, immediately stands out. To walk the school corridors with a librarian being besieged by children asking about and clearly loving their latest books and eager for the next is such a pleasure. UK education authorities please take note.
My main contact with the Singapore American School library service was Kate Brundage, who helped to make my visit such a success. I think there's been a major run on the pop up books in their libraries since I left!
Years of school visits have prompted me to design a very simple pop up mechanism to teach to the children. I've created a pop up which utilises a curved fold which has now delighted tens of thousands of children. Curved folds always surprise and delight, as their action is somewhat unpredictable and can easily be customised by each child to create something completely unique. Not one single pop up monster will ever be the same and no matter what age, the children will be giggling and marvelling at the ingenuity of their inventions. It's simple so that reception or kindergarten children can easily achieve something special, whilst older children and adults find plenty of scope to create something more sophisticated.
It's a delight to guide and watch the children and to see the looks of surprise and pride makes everything worthwhile for me. Watching the children imagine the backstory and world of their creatures is a similar thrill. Even the most reluctant of storytellers seems to effortlessly build the story of their creature and to then watch the children interact with each other is such fun and very rewarding. No two workshops are ever the same.
What was particularly interesting was to see how the children, having been given extra time by their art teacher to develop their ideas, really took their creations to the next level. There is always one child who will go even further, to create something that will have me gasping in surprise and it is not always the obvious or recognised 'gifted and talented' child. Very often it will be the shyest child, or the one who may have attention or other issues. This is perhaps the best part of my job. being able to spot a startling talent, a child with a really unusual grasp of 3D and paper folding.
As ever I encourage the children to seek inspiration and ideas in unusual places, perhaps a discarded shape, a curl of paper, or the contents of the scrap paper bin. That's where I find my inspiration, it's great for coming up with new ideas and breaking creative blocks. It is truly amazing what can be created with one sheet of A4 card, a pair of scissors and a few centimetres of sellotape!

Read more after the break...

BugStore - Pop Up Paper Bugs in Yeovil

BugStore! What a fantastic idea for your town's children's or literary festival!

I've just spent the last three weeks working on an amazing art installation with the children of four primary schools in Yeovil, Somerset. Together we created hundreds of colourful Pop Up Paper Bugs filling an empty shop unit in a prime site at the entrance to Yeovil's Quedam Centre. 
Pauline Burr of South Somerset District Council's Art department, came up with this genius idea and what fun it's proved to be! It's a brilliant way to engage with the wider community, to show the outreach work that goes on behind the scenes at a literary festival and a wonderful way to promote and publicise your festival. The reaction of children, teachers, shoppers and council was a pure delight.

Pauline knew all about my popular Pop Up Monster and Dinosaur Workshops for kids and thought that I could come up with a simple pop up bug design to share with the children of Yeovil. It didn't take long to come up with a design which would be simple enough for even the youngest and least experienced hands to create something special and unique to them, something they could be proud of.

Using another thousand or so sheets of my favourite Rothmill Assorted coloured card, I set out to see what the children of Yeovil could come up with. I was not disappointed!

Read more after the fold...

Pop Up Workshop Sherborne Literary Festival

I was delighted to give a Monster Pop Up Workshop for children as part of the Sherborne Literary Festival. For a start, the venue was only 50 metres from our front door!
It's great to see Sherborne creating a Literary Festival such as this and a real pleasure to support it. The strong line up included such literary luminaries as James Wong, Helen Yemm, Gyles Brandreth, Victoria Glendinning, Ann Widdecombe, Helen Rappaport and Rachel Joyce. A host of events had been organised around the town, including outreach events in local schools and libraries.
There was a quite a buzz in the town and the staff of Winstone's Books of Sherborne, including my wonderful wife Helen, were busy fulfilling the bookselling needs of the various events.

I had a great group of eager children, their parents and grandparents for the event.  Ably aided by my wife Helen, 5 yr old veteran pop up creator Tabitha, great friends and neighbours Jenny and Annie we set to. Armed with copious amounts of my favourite Rothmill coloured card, sellotape and scissors, we made pop up monsters, dinosaurs and one or two rabbits! The children were really creative and inventive and it was a great pleasure to see so many Mums, Dads and Grandparents getting stuck in too.

I'm always struck by how much fun the 'grown-ups' have at my workshops, I really should give them specifically for an older audience. It seems we need to be given 'permission' to play as we get older, which is in many ways a sad thing. So to see so many Mums and Dads creating their own pop up paper monsters filled my heart with joy and they were clearly loving it!

I gave the children a brief tour of my pop up books and showed them lots of my ideas, roughs and importantly my mistakes, before showing them how to make a very simple pop up monster face. They then took my simple idea and flew with it, adding their own unique touches and ideas.

I've had some lovely feedback from the event and, as is so often the case, the magic of creating pop up monsters had even the wriggliest child sitting down and concentrating, whilst they brought their own special character to life. One little lad who simply cannot sit still for more than 20 minutes, sat happily focussed for over an hour. That's very rewarding to be part of.

There is something about the magic of creating a three dimensional creature out of our most common two dimensional material. A few simple folds and cuts, some sellotape and a racing imagination, very soon it's smiles all round and a wonderful hum of concentration. I make a point of spending individual time with every child, it's fascinating to see what they create and incredible to hear the stories that they tell me about their pop up beasties. Even the most reluctant of storytellers has created the backstory for their characters without even thinking that that's what they're doing.
It works it's magic time after time and never ceases to amaze me.
Try it for yourself!

You can find simple pop up card templates to download and lots of ideas on my Pop Up Paper Blog.

Many thanks to John Gaye and Helen Stickland for these great photos.
If you would like a Pop Up or Drawing Workshop at your school, library or festival, please visit the Author Event and Pop Up Workshop page on my website or email me here..