One of the highlights of Year 3 at ACE is our annual Lemminkeinen workshop. Matthew Bellwood, a local dramatist and storyteller, joins us to teach the children the story of Lemminkeinen – a prominent figure in Finnish mythology. The day allows the children to explore the story and characters through song, ,drama and puppet theatres.

We started the day with some warm ups and learning the two songs which tell part of the story. They were both sung to the tune of traditional Finnish folk songs, giving the children a chance to sing in a style they were not used to. Matthew then told the story of Lemminkeinen. He was so captivating and a fantastic role model for the class in how to keep an audience interested using just the power of your voice. The children were then able to retell the story through drama using some amazing costumes, props and masks.

How amazing do they look!

The final part of the day involved the children retelling the story in small groups using some puppet theatre. Each group had a section of the story to retell and were tasked with designing puppet characters and backgrounds. Those of you who were schooled in the 80s will be familiar with overhead projectors but to this class it was brand new technology. Using acetates and coloured pens they created characters and scenery and used card to make silhouettes as well. These were projected onto large screens so the rest of the class could be the audience.

With some phenomenal team work, the class retold the whole story with some imaginative puppets and scenery, capping off a wonderful day.