Story Arts & Illustration
Even before they can spell (conventionally, that is) girls’ minds are bursting with stories and pictures and ideas. This class gives them a chance to bring it out of their minds and into books and story pieces.
In this class, girls learn the “who, where, what and how” of storytelling through specific projects structured to help them learn about different elements of stories. First, girls create character trees to tell us about all the people, animals and aliens that inhabit their stories. Next, they map their story settings in large format (some of their favorite books probably include fabulous maps and scenery pages).
After learning about basic story structure (with helpful visual aids like the one pictured below) the girls dive into writing and illustrating their stories in hard-cover books – the perfect blank slate for their amazing ideas! They design the front and back covers and also have fun drafting their own “About the Author,” “Table of Contents,” and other imaginative sections.
There is no specific skill-set or experience required! Each girl, of any age, can create a story in her own style. In addition to the large maps and finished books, favorite fun side projects include ‘animated’ flip-books, pop-up pages, puppets and character dolls.
