Chickerell Baby Iron Teeth visit

One of our annual highlights, eagerly anticipated by staff and pupils alike, was the visit by Bill and Jill from The Multi-Story Theatre Company. As usual, these talented folk managed to create an air of mystery from the start - who were the two people setting out gardening tools and what were they doing in our school hall?
	Baby Iron Teeth is a piece of story-telling theatre which has been adapted from an old Russian folktale. A young prince is born but to the great sadness of his parents he doesn't seem able to speak. In their disappointment they pray for another child - and when she born not only can she speak but arrives with a complete set of iron teeth and starts to eat everything and everyone in her path. Luckily, her older brother manages to escape and helped by two ancient crones, a couple of giants and the playful Daughter of the Sun manages to save the world. In discovering that one good turn deserves another, the prince finds not only his voice but friendship with people very different to himself.
After the production KS1 launched themselves into retelling the story. They drew pictures of their favourite characters using their imaginations. Next week Year 1 will be sequencing and writing a sentence. Year 2 will have a week of mime and drama discovering how actions can tell a story without words.
I spoke to several children the day after the event and all loved the physical element of the storytelling, the multi-role playing, the use of chanting and the rhythm and rhyme.
In their own words: Andrew from Year 1 liked it "When they were being idiots."
Ben from Year 3 said "I thought it was really good. I liked it when Baby Iron Teeth jumped on the see-saw and Ivan flew into the clouds. I liked the gymnastics."

Jack in Year 4 "I liked all of it actually. I liked the beginning because it was funny."

Year 5/6 had an afternoon working with Bill and Jill focusing on topic work they'd done on Macbeth.

Hayley from Year 6 explained. "Each class worked separately. We split into groups and chose a scene that we thought important to the play. We had to turn it into a 5 minute advertisement, pose when asked and then put the shots together as if it was a cinema preview." Talking about the mornings production she said "It was very good. I really enjoyed it. I especially liked the gymnastic moves with the Daughter of The Sun."