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Hello! Welcome to Story Club. Story Club is for anyone who loves stories! Using the power of our imagination, we take ourselves on wild adventures and travel the world! This week we are celebrating animals and safaris. We’ve been inventing our own creatures and imagining how to turn our homes into safari adventures.
Next week is the last issue of Story Club in its current format. So as ever we’d love to hear your amazing stories or see pictures of your work. However, mostly, we want you to have fun and get creative! Happy Holidays, Bounce Theatre
W RIT E Invent an animal! This week’s Story Club is all about taking a Safari. A Safari is an expedition that people go on to see animals in their natural habitat. Most Safaris take place in Africa, where you can see animals like Giraffes, Rhinos, Zebras and many more! Imagine that you are creating your own Safari with your own invented animals! What incredible things can your animals do?
Step One: Answer the questions below to help you make up your new animals: ○ What’s their habitat? - For example, do they live in the Lake in your local park, on the roof of a skyscraper, or meters deep under the sea. ○ What do they eat? - For example, rubbish, fire, clouds, sand, cheese and onion flavoured crisps! ○ What is their behaviour? - Is your animal a laidback creature or does it get angry easily? Is it playful or often tired and slow moving? ○ Do they live alone or in groups? - Is your animal one of many like an ant or does it live by itself?
○ How do they move? - For example your animal could fly, slide, swim or walk. Does it move quickly or slowly? ○ What’s their relationship with other animals? - Is your animal friendly or does it tend to keep to itself? Does it get on particularly well with one other type of animal, for example, badgers? ○ What do they like doing? - Does your animal have some funny hobbies, for example, chewing people’s doormats and turning over rubbish bins? What do they do in their spare time? ○ Give your animal an exciting name! - Your animal’s name might be inspired by the things it does or what it looks like. ○
Draw what it looks like.
Get ready to write Imagine you are writing a description in a book about nature for someone who has never even seen your animal before. Or you could write a script and present your own nature documentary like the BBC’s Blue Planet. Think about where your Safari takes place. It could take place in another country or it could be in your local area with your new invented animals! What exciting words and phrases can you use to describe your animal to your reader? Think about how your animal looks, sounds and smells and how you can get that across to your audience! Here’s an example to get you get started:
Sharon’s South London Safari Sunrise over Norwood Park. On the top of the hill, a silhouette of an animal roaming the paths. This is the Trasheousarus. Native to South London, the Trasheousaurus was first sighted here in Victorian times, where it ate the rubbish from factories and workhouses. A distant and much smaller relative of the dinosaur, nowadays, we see this remarkable beast in park lakes, where it often enjoys regular swims and also wandering around
neighbourhood streets, munching on empty crisp packets and chewing plastic bottles. Over time, the Trasheousaurus’ teeth have in turn adapted, becoming a shade of pink, sharpening up and growing into shapes like small pyramids, ready to break down even the most hardy household waste. The early Trasheousaurus was as petite as a badger, whereas now its larger relation is the size of a Shetland Pony. Notice the distinct swirling markings on the Trasheousarus’ purple fur and it’s, not one, but two tails, wagging excitedly. And of course, what’s most exhilarating about this particular animal is that the Trasheousarus’ coat glows a different colour at nighttime, depending on the weather. In Winter, this breed of the Trasheousaurus often turns a shade of Fanta orange, complementary to an Autumn leaf. In Spring, it’s yellow, much like the colour of a banana milkshake. In Summer, the Trasheousarus absorbs extreme heat and has been known to even breathe out fire. Of course, another distinctive feature of the Trasheousaurus is it’s bouncing movement, which can reach speeds of up to 15 miles per hour. Let’s listen out for the sounds of the Trasheosaurus. You might confuse them with a little bit of
high to low. Most famously in 2017, music icon Beyonce, recorded a track with a young Trasheousaurus from Hounslow, which became a worldwide number 1 hit. In spite of these talents, the Trasheosaurus is generally a solitary creature. It sleeps for most of the day using its incredible climbing skills to find resting places on the roofs of houses and even occasionally, on top of buildings like the Shard, as we saw in 2018,
when Hank the Trasheousaurus was spotted snoozing on top of the 95th floor. Nighttime is when the Trasheousaurus comes alive, for a spot of garbage hunting or a swim in one of South London’s sewers. You can imagine that the Trasheousaurus often smells rather putrid. But what it lacks in scent, it makes up for in personality, as we see through its energetic play with other animals such as moles, hedgehogs and bats.
PLAY This week, you are going to plan a Safari Holiday in a day. Safaris are carefully planned to make sure you see the wildlife when they are at their most active. So, let’s get planning! Things to do: 1. Set up a campsite - indoors or outdoors. 2. Pack snacks and put them in your campsite. 3. Gather up your Safari creations. These can be art that you’ve made. Or, they might be toys that you have. 4. Decide where are they going to live? Hide them around your house and outdoors. Where are they most suited to living? 5. Make a map of your safari. 6. Make a note of the living things in and around your house in their natural habitat. Is there a time of time when you always hear bird song? Add these places to your map. 7. Have some rest in your campsite. You can invite other people to come on your safari journey with you. Plan what you are going to tell them about the safari. You could use your story from the other page for inspiration. My holiday went like this: Morning I had breakfast in my campsite, which was in the garden. Then I drew some pictures of the animals on my safari. My family joined me. We tip-toed
behind the trees. I introduced them to the South London Tigers. They like to live in the grass and chase pigeons and birds. No one wanted to get caught be the tiger, so we travelled back into the kitchen. Here we spotted a Monkey who lived by the fridge. They like to jump when the fridge opened for food so you have to be careful! Lunchtime Everyone was tired after the morning safari, so we returned to camp. We bought out sandwiches and had a lovely lunch in the sunshine. My dad had a cheeky nap. I read a book; I told my mum to put her feet up. She said she liked a bit of a rest and the quiet, even though dad snored! Afternoon We went upstairs to the bathroom. Here we found a crocodile, swimming in the bath! My mum was scared so we left quickly! Then we went into my bedroom. Here the bedasaurus was fast asleep on my bed! Luckily, he was a friendly creature so we could watch him snore, sounded a bit like my dad. As we came downstairs, we found a door-bird. This was a tiny bird who sat by the front door, over the door-bell to keep everyone safe. Mum said she liked it, and it gets to stay Tea Time We decided to have tea in the campsite too. We had chip butties (sandwiches) which was pretty ace. Everyone loved the safari.
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CREATIVE CHALLENGES This week, our challenges are inspired by animals and safaris
t you 1. Collect objects tha away might normally throw onkey. m and turn them into a
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2. Find green and brown things in your house and build a jungle that you can sit in. 3. Draw around your hand. Can you turn it in into a Zebra?
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4. Play jungle charades. Write down as many names of animals in the jungle as you can think of on small squares. Fold them up. Put them in a hat. Pick them and see if you can act them out for people to guess.
5. Write a 10 word sto ry about visiting a jungle .
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6. Be an elephant once a day. Stand firm on both feet. Put your arms up in the air over your head. Join your hands together. Swing down from your hips as you let yourself drop over. Your hands will be nearly touching the floor. This is your trunk to flip flop around!
7. Gather some friends and play monkey tag. The person who is “it� has to act like a monkey.
Don’t forget to send us your stories and pictures so we can see your wonderful work! email: lauren@bouncetheatre.com Whatsapp: 07980210705 We read out all the stories & show the pictures online every Friday to celebrate StoryClub