The Story tent

I have just finished creating a dedicated space for story telling at Catalyst. We have been telling stories for a few years - Herby the hedgehog goes recycling, Freddie the Frog - a life story and Bertie the Bear explores light and dark. Stories for the very young with a science feel. We made our own stories and big books and used props to make it come alive.
Now however we have moved on to myths and legends about science facts - story telling for an older age group.
The first story - hot off the press - explores world myths about rainbows, from the Greek Goddess Iris through the Aborigine Rainbow serpent to the Hawaiian rainbow maiden. then we link in how a rainbow is formed and the spectrum and finish with our wonderful rainbow glasses that split white light up into a myriad of rainbows - quite a trip really!

The idea of the story tent is to create a space removed from the science centre that is peaceful and quiet and creates an atmosphere of wonder. Our room certainly does that!

Arnold School from Blackpool were the first ones to try it out yesterday. The year 4 group said it was awesome - quite a compliment I think.

It does look a bit like a tarts boudoir with all the swathes of material and coloured lights but it is a super place to tell legends and I think year 4 might be making some of their own up back at school.
Now I am off to research the myths about the sun, stars, moon and planets.........