St Mary's Practice Parade

The Rambling Isles have begun their travels to the Hallowed Shallows (AKA Manchester Children's Book Festival) donning all things nautical for the Seawigs Parade.

St Mary's CE Primary School brought their creations to the Powerhouse Library today to find out more about Oliver and the Seawigs and take part in a 'rehersal' parade in preparation for the Festival Family Fun Day on Saturday 28th June.

The Year 5 pupils from St Mary's have been working with MCBF volunteers for the past couple of weeks on their Seawigs, and are all very excited for the upcoming Seawigs Parade on the Family Fun Day.

On 28th June, the pupils will be marching behind author and illustrator of Oliver and the Seawigs, Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre, donning their creations for all the festival to see.

Join us on 28th June at the Geoffrey Manton Building at Manchester Metropolitan University for the Festival Family Fun Day. You can even bring your own Seawigs creations, or make Seawigs and Sea Monkeys with the MCBF team on the day. Find out more here.

Seawigs Parade at Manchester Children's Hospital

On Friday 27th June the Manchester Children's Hospital School will be hosting their very own Seawigs Parade to celebrate Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre's children's book Oliver and the Seawigs. 

Children at the hospital school will be donning Seawigs they have crafted themselves as part of the lead up to Manchester Children's Book Festival.

Tracy Gallier, Assistant Head Teacher of the school, is very excited about the day, and told us: "We started the preliminary work based around the book, and the response we had was phenomenal! The impact it's had on the staff and the children is indescribable - everybody here is on such a high! We've seen it all here; creativity, discussion, experimenting, socialising and lots of laughter!"

Another teacher commented on Philip and Sarah's book, adding, "I don't know what it is, but something with this hits a nerve with everyone who reads it."

Crafting Seawigs with St Mary's C.E. Primary School

As the festival draws even closer, class 5M of St Mary’s CE Primary School are working away on their Seawigs for the Parade at the Festival Family Fun Day.

The amount of materials the children were presented with would overwhelm anyone, but they got stuck in straight away, sharing all the crafts and helping one another fix all the parts together. They filled plastic fish with coloured sand, made trees and food from paper, stuck jewellery and even sunglasses on the wigs to channel the sea theme. 

Our MCBF volunteers were on hand to help with any glitter or glue related emergencies, and provided recycled cardboard and plastic to add to the mountain of materials. As always, the class were a delight and so creative - we were very impressed by all of their ideas. Many of the pupils went as far to make necklaces and chains to match their wigs! 

Next week the children will be visiting the Powerhouse Library to practice the parade, finish their wigs and to have a reading from Oliver and the Seawigs book itself.

Crafting Seawigs with St Mary's C.E. Primary School

MMU Volunteers at St Mary's C.E. Primary School

Preparation for the Family Fun Day on June 28th has commenced! The stars of the Seawig Parade, from St Mary’s C.E. Primary School, have started to create their Seawigs for the big day. Debra Conroy from Community and Cultural Services at Manchester City Council will lead the creative sessions along with the extremely talented Ann Lam and Manchester Metropolitan University volunteers Colette, Rachel and Rosie. 

On Friday 6th June, class 5M designed their Seawigs with colourful pictures and labels shown in the picture below. There were so many fantastic ideas, from diamonds and treasure, to goggles and seaweed hair. The children will be using decorations provided by Manchester City Council and recycled materials to bring their drawings to life. The classroom was a hive of activity, we can’t wait to see how sun hats and starfish will look on the blue and green curly wigs the children will model in the parade at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Class 5M will also be writing book reviews on Oliver and the Sea Monkeys as part of their homework assignments. You will be able to read many of the reviews here – so be sure to keep an eye out for more of St Mary’s wonderful work!