Ideas

Sometimes using our senses to remind us how amazing our nature places are, can help to whisk us away there in our imaginations, and realise that there is more to be found.

Try this and discover what else emerges for you.

Find somewhere to rest. You could sit or lie…

Imagine yourself in your Fantastic Place in nature.

What can you see?

Think of the space, the shapes and colours. What’s moving? How is it moving? What’s still?

What can you hear?

Think of sounds that are close-by and far away. Do you recognise them, or are they new sounds? What or who is making them. How strong or soft are they? What are they telling you?

What can you smell?

Can you separate the different aromas? Can you tell where they’re coming from? Which ones are strong or delicate? Choose your favourite.

What can you taste?

Sometimes we can get a taste of what we smell. Where can you sense it in your mouth or on your tongue? What does it make you think of?

What can you touch?

Imagine that you can touch the things that are around you. Maybe you reach out with a part of your body, or that something in nature might come to you and rest itself or move on your skin. How does it feel? What temperature is it? Is it rough, smooth, sharp, wet…? Or something else?

How do you feel?

How do all of these things make you feel? You might feel lots of different things. Your Fantastic Place might make you feel happy or surprised, calm or excited, safe or unsure.

Think about how you can share all the different things that you can sense from your Fantastic Place.

You could…

• Make a sound recording of you describing what you can sense all around you. Choose some photos or draw or mark make and add your recording to these in a slideshow
• Make a collage of photos for each sense and make it into a book or a gallery with the words in it or underneath
• Write a song about your senses and record it. You can share the lyrics too.

…or something else

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When you’ve completed your Creation, choose a map and plot your Fantastic Place.

Fill out the information about your Creation and then send us your Creation via the link to WeTransfer.

We can’t wait so see it!

The imprint team and Storyteller Lisa Schneidau spent a day together in the woods at Burnham Beeches Nature Reserve. Lisa told us some nature inspired stories and encouraged us to weave some on our own and together.

Here are some ideas inspired by our time with Lisa and by our own imaginations. Have a go yourself, making your own nature stories and enjoy how fantastic they can become…

In My Fantastic Place…

Describing what’s in your Fantastic Place is a great way to start creating your story. Think about how much you can set the scene by describing what’s there and what’s happening.

Is your Fantastic Place in the sea, underground, or maybe high in the clouds…?

What can you see there? Are there people, animals…? What are they doing? What’s growing there? What else is there?

Think about the time of day…is it dawn, in the middle of the night, or perhaps it’s lunchtime…?

Think about the detail; the colours, or the bright and darker parts of your Fantastic Place. What’s in the corners or hiding?

Here’s an example…

“My Fantastic Place is called “Time Tunnel”.

In “Time Tunnel” there is a hill that reaches high into the clouds. A trail of dandelions and buttercups spirals around it. At the bottom is a mole with a red nose and big pink hands. The mole is lying down with its little back legs reaching up towards the sky. Its claws are thick with rich brown earth.

Beside the mole is a bramble bush with long sharp thorns. Growing from the end of its slithering branches are snakes with swirling eyes the colour of blackberries.

If you look more closely you can see little holes under the leaves of each dandelion. A bright red light shines from one of them…”

You could….

• Draw your Fantastic Place and record your voice describing the different parts of it.
• Gather some objects to make a collage and record your voice describing the different parts of it.
• Draw your Fantastic Place using the words to create the picture.
• Describe your Fantastic Place with words and your body, and film it.
• Tell the story of one of the characters in your Fantastic Place. Is it a person, an animal, or perhaps something that’s growing there?
• Create a Fantastic Place with others, where each of you describes something in the story. Could you create a giant picture together too?

…or something else…

When you’ve completed your Creation, choose a map and plot your Fantastic Place.

Fill out the information about your Creation and then send us your Creation via the link to WeTransfer.

We can’t wait so see it!

The imprint team spent a day at Burnham Beeches Nature Reserve with the brilliant Storyteller Lisa Schneidau. She told us some stories connected with different aspects of nature – and guided us into making our own.

Here are some ideas inspired by our time with Lisa and by our own imaginations. Have a go yourself, making your own nature stories and enjoy how fantastic they can become…

You may think…

Have lots of fun with this one! You can explore this on your own or with others.

Collect some natural objects that you find on a journey through nature. If you don’t have the objects themselves, you can use photos of them.

*Choose an object…

It may be one that you notice first, or that is unusual to you or might remind you of something else.

*Look at it and be ready to give a brief description of what it is. For example, “…a long wet stick with a leaf growing out of it.”

*Think about what the object could be instead. What does it look like or remind you of? What amazing things could it do or enable to happen? What’s its new story?

Now it’s time to tell your story.

*Beginning with describing what it might look like or be to others, tell your story of your object, letting your imagination lead you.

For example…

“You may think that this is a long wet stick with a leaf growing out of it, but in fact it is……..”

You can tell the whole story of your object….where it came from….the journey of how it came to be where it is now….its special characteristics, qualities and abilities….

Let your imagination take you to where it wants to go, and enjoy discovering what happens.

You could…

Imagine yourself as the object and tell your story. 

Take a video or sound recording of your story.

Write or draw your story or different parts of it.

Make a Fantastic Story Place that your nature object lives in. Is it real or Out of this World?

…or something else…

Who else could join you on this Fantastic Story Exploration?

Here are two examples from the imprint team…

This story was started by Matt and developed by Anne.

You may think this is just a short stick with some lichen growing out the end of it, but in fact it is one of the brushes that Michaelangelo used to paint the Sistine Chapel. He would travel deep into this woodland early in the morning just as the light was beginning to shine through the gaps between the topmost branches of the trees. This was the time to look for the best lichen. He would calmly follow the deer that would take him to the brightest and lightest lichen, because he knew that it made the strongest and most delicate brushes. These lichen brushes enabled him to create some of the biggest and most detailed paintings that began low to the ground and stretched up high, almost as high as the tallest trees, reaching for the sky…

What  might be the next part of the lichen brush’s story?

This story was started by Anne. Carry on its adventure and discovery what happens.

You may think this is just a piece of bark from a beech tree, but it is in fact the birth certificate of the first tree that grew in this woodland. It’s not easy to read the exact date when it began to grow, but this is what was happening around it when the first shoots appeared…

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When you’ve completed your Creation, choose a map and plot your Fantastic Place.

Fill out the information about your Creation and then send us your Creation via the link to WeTransfer.

We can’t wait so see it!

This idea focusses on using our different senses to describe a Fantastic Place in nature. Here you can explore a theme using your different senses to get some ideas to write a poem

These are the different senses you can explore: sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch. You can also think about the emotions that you feel when you’re in your Fantastic Place.

Here are some nature related examples to get your imagination going…

Explore, using spider diagrams or mind maps (or you could call them senses maps!).

• Choose a nature theme or idea about your Fantastic Place to explore
• Grab 6 pieces of paper, and some pens

Write the theme in the centre of one piece of paper and the following senses phrases in the middle of another five…

• Place the senses pages in a circle around your nature theme
• Let’s start with ‘Smells like…’. Fill the page with your ideas of what your nature theme might smell like. If you’ve chosen the theme of ‘On Top of the World’ think about all the smells that make you think about being on top of the world.
• Decide which sense you want to explore next and fill the page with your ideas about that sense. 
• Keep going until you’ve filled all the pages. You might go back to some of the senses phrases and write some more.

On the sixth piece of paper write a poem from some of the words and phrases you’ve explored.

Go through all your ideas for each of the senses and circle, mark or underline the ones that jump out at you.

Take a new piece of paper and write your theme at the top. Now, write your poem! 

• Use the circled words to write each of the lines of your poem. You can change the words a bit so that they fit better for you.
• Include Looks like…, Smells like…, Sounds like…, Tastes like…, Feels like… at the beginning of the different lines if you’d like to.
• Practise saying the lines as you’re writing them and that’ll give you an idea of how it feels to say them, and what the rhythm of your poem is like.

You can also think about the emotions you feel when you’re in your Fantastic Place and add another line at the end of your open with these words to finish it off!

You could decorate your poem with drawings and patterns, use cuttings from pictures and magazines, or find some objects that remind you of your Fantastic Place and arrange them around your words.

You could complete your Creation by…

…adding some movement and making it into a dance, playing with the rhythm and make it into a song, recording yourself reciting your poem, making a documentary film and telling us about how you’ve created your Senses Poem, take some photos of your pages and your written poem in it’s final form.

When you’ve completed your Creation, choose a map and plot your Fantastic Place. Fill out the information about your Creation and then send us your Creation via the link to WeTransfer.

We can’t wait to see it!

Gather some objects that you can see around you or find some that are special to you and remind you of a Fantastic Place in nature.

Start to arrange them in the space in front of you.

Look at the textures, the sizes, the shapes… How can they fit on top of, around, inside, alongside each other? Does it feel flat or multi-dimensional? Are any balancing or leaning against each other? Which ones are close together or far away from the others?

Get up close! Look at your arrangement from different angles. Can you see gaps or spaces? How far through can you see?

Have a good look at this world you’ve created.

Imagine that this world is outside, in nature. Where is it?

Now imagine that you’ve shrunk to the size of an explorer ready to get to have an adventure through this world. Where will you start your adventure?

Start telling your story to yourself…

• How are you going to navigate this world?
• What time of day is it?
• Are you looking for something or someone…? Or hiding from them…?
• How much time do you have? Are you rushing or moving slowly through your world?
• What do you need to look out for?
• What might you discover?

Take yourself through your journey and your story a few times so that you can choose the version that works for you.

Tell your story by writing it down or speaking it and recording it.

Take some photos of your journey. How close do you need to get? What angles tell different parts of your story best?

You could complete your Creation by…

• arranging your photos onto a gallery and taking a photo of your story if you’ve written it down
• making a stop motion film and recording your story over the top
• making a collage with your photos and arrange the words around them
• choosing key words from your story for each photo and showing it underneath

…or something else…

You could take photos as you are creating your world, showing the journey develop and your world grow. Could you change the lighting so that there are silhouettes and shadows, or to show a bright day?

When you’ve completed your Creation, choose a map and plot your Fantastic Place.

Fill out the information about your Creation and then send us your Creation via the link to WeTransfer.

We can’t wait so see it!