School Visits

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It can be inspiring for the children to meet a real author/illustrator and see that they are ordinary people who do something exciting !

For me, it’s wonderful to see at first hand, the positive impact picture books can have and hear children’s own enthusiastic and fantastic ideas.

During a school visit, I can read from my books, do live drawing, bring wish trees with leaves for children to draw their own wishes on, turn whole classes of children into Hugh Shampoo as they make their own messy hair out of paper, string, pipe cleaners and worms…talk about the process of making books using my own working drawings, talk about the importance of ideas and editing and imagination, and turn the children into illustrators themselves…as well as a bit of noisy storytelling participation !

The children are encouraged to have a good rummage through my sketchbooks to see the messy drawings that happen before the final printed page.

I have age appropriate activities from nursery up to year 6 and am very happy to work with schools to fit their needs. I have also worked with years 7 and 8 …picture books don’t have to be given up once you reach secondary school !

I can also facilitate short art courses for teachers, to gain confidence in using a range of materials and media in the classroom; building a vocabulary and developing new ways of looking, to explore and support the curriculum.

If you would like me to visit your school or would like more details, please get in touch via the contact page.

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Rowanfield Infant School, Cheltenham
Our children loved Karen's visit as she actually used to attend our school! It was brilliant for them to meet a real life children's author and illustrator who had once been just like them and really helped inspire them to aspire to different possibilities for their own lives. We all love Julia Donaldson so the children enjoyed looking at Karen's illustrations and hearing her talk in assembly about her job. Karen shared her picture books with the children and they had great fun with the follow up activities - the Year Two's especially enjoyed making crazy hair like 'Hugh Shampoo'!
William Tyndale School, London
The children were extremely excited to work with Karen and loved making hats that were inspired by her story 'Hugh Shampoo'.
Karen was great with the children- we've been lucky enough to have her visit us several times! Meeting a real life illustrator has been so powerful in getting the children excited about how books are created. Karen combines story telling with art which gets those creative minds buzzing! Thank you for your brilliant workshops!
clickandprint
Freddie wish
Hugh haird do
Freddie wish 2
Hugh hair do 2
who said colouring
spot the difference