Monster-Making & Illustration with Catherine
Our Final Family Art Voyage
Welcome to the Porridge & Play Online blog, where we share the stories of all the adventures
we’ve had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom! Get in touch to find out how to join.
Did you know that you can make a monster out of just about anything?
A bottle cap can make a teeny tiny monster!
A wooden spoon can make a super cool medium size monster!
A cushion or a mop can make a brilliant really huge monster!!
For our final week we we were joined by the brilliant Catherine Lindow, an illustrator and librarian who led a workshop on all things MONSTERS!!!
Well… it looks like we have come to the end of this block of Story Play City & Family Art Voyage! And what an adventure it has been! A completely brilliant 9 WEEKS of playing, creativity, stories and fun!
We worked FAST and ROUGH in this workshop, leaping around to find our objects as soon as we heard the MONSTER FOOTSTEPS STOMP!!! So instead of dressing up ourselves, Catherine taught us how to dress up our objects, and turn them into wonderful monsters!!
Princess used a rubber and some tissue! Temi & Fuad stuck pencils into potatoes! Amir made a snake monster out of foam and tape! Iona made a tiny monster using a piece of pasta!
When all three monsters had been created, Catherine asked us to imagine what our monsters’ personalities were like..? And what would happen if our monsters met…?
Some of our monsters…
What we used to make our monsters!
‘i used a bottle cap and sticky tape and it’s name is ROAR!’
‘This is a snake I made it out of foam and tape and I used a brown pen.’
‘I made a monster out of tissue and a rubber!’
‘Mason is a scary monster because he likes to eat everything, he also likes to dance!!’ – Fareedah
‘Her name is starlight because she likes birds that’s called a starling!’ – Faridah
‘My monster is called Mrs Frilly Head and she bakes potatoes in her tummy!’ – Iona
‘This is my monster, if anyone looks inside its body they freeze!!’ – Tammy
Then we heard the story of Fiire’s monsters meeting for the very first time…
‘So here they meet at the restaurant called Monster Dinner Plate. So in the first place they are like ‘who are you and something?’ Because the little one came to meet his brothers and sisters so they all sat down together in a restaurant and they had blueberries with strawberry cake! But the strawberries are all mushed up with cherries on top! They ordered food and stuff like that then after that they went to a a forrest to go hunting and go and see if they can find anyone to play with. So yeah that’s what happened when they meet! THE END!’ – Fiire
A Monster story!
‘One day there was a monster but the monster was very small and he went to school but he got bullied, so he drank milk so that he can get tall! He drank the milk and even more milk and became the biggest and strongest monster in the school!’
Seeing all our monsters made from our imaginations from just about anything was amazing!
Thank you Catherine, we now know we can make a monster friend anytime with just our imaginations!!
(The Monster-Making & Illustration Family Art Voyage was delivered by guest artist Catherine Lindow who is an illustrator and Librarian, with Actor-Pedagogues Iona and Andre)
So monsters, like people, can come in all shapes and sizes with lots of different personalities and ideas! How fantastic! Thank you Catherine!
We have LOVED playing with you all in this block and we can’t wait to see you in a couple of months. In the meantime, keep playing, making and exploring, we always love to hear from you! Iona and Andre xxx
This was the last week of the term, Storyplay City will be back in February!
Family Art Voyage
Family Art Voyage was created in consultation with children & parents at Big Porridge & Play Online and Storyplay City.
In Autumn 2021, 7 artists are taking us on 6 Art Voyages:
Week 1 – Dancing and Drumming with Adie & Thomas (week from 29th September)
Week 2 – Musical Theatre with Caitlin (week from 6th October)
BREAK WEEK (October Holiday)
Week 3 – Model Set-building with Ali (week from 20th October)
Week 4 – Caffeine Painting with Jaz (week from 27th October)
BREAK WEEK (COP26)
Week 5 – Rap & Poetry with Hamish (week from 10th November)
Week 6 – Illustration with Catherine (week from 17th November)
Family Art Voyage is funded by Awards for All (The National Lottery Community Fund).