Welcome to

Helicopter Stories

Here you will find both our Online Learning programmes and our Helicopter Stories blogs.

We are delighted to introduce Helicopter Stories On Demand. This brand new training course consists of a series of videos, presented by Trisha Lee, taking you through the entire Helicopter Stories process and the ethos behind it.

Alongside this, in Online Learning, we have The Poetry Basket, consisting of thirty-six poems, created to support speech and language development in a fun and creative way.

About Helicopter Stories:

Helicopter Stories is based on the Storytelling and Story Acting curriculum of renowned Early Years practitioner Vivian Gussin Paley. Vivian was patron to MakeBelieve Arts until her death in July 2019. MakeBelieve Arts is a small education charity and we have been pioneering her work in the UK since 2002.

During a Helicopter Stories session, children dictate their stories to an adult scribe. Later that same day, the whole class gather around a taped out stage and the stories are acted out. The approach is suitable for children aged 2 to 7 years old.

In 2015 Trisha Lee published Princesses, Dragons and Helicopter Stories (available to buy in our online shop), to support teachers and practitioners to incorporate the approach on a regular basis. The book includes a forward by Vivian Gussin Paley.

This Helicopter Stories site has been created to share our thoughts and ideas about the approach and to respond to questions we have been asked during training sessions.

You can get in touch with us here, or email us at info@helicopterstories.co.uk We can also be reached on 01249 714 607.

Helicopter Stories

Blogs

The Poetry Basket

ZOOM

There has been a lot of negative things written about using video conferencing as a teaching tool in education, (particularly regarding Zoom). I have also

April 28, 2020 2 Comments

For Parents

Helicopter at Home

With many schools and nurseries closed, or remaining open for only a small section of their community, we’ve had several requests for information about our

April 19, 2020 6 Comments

The Poetry Basket

One of the Lucky Ones:

One of the Lucky Ones: Poetry for Children with Additional Needs Guest Blog: Nadine Jones The children that stand out are the children not given the

February 13, 2020 No Comments

Now Available

Helicopter Stories On Demand

The most comprehensive training MakeBelieve Arts has ever offered.

Helicopter Stories On Demand gives you a year of online access to 15 videos presented by Trisha Lee. The course goes into detail about the four stages of Helicopter Stories and how to introduce it in your setting. Additional units will be added from October to December 2020, on Grammar, Writing and the Importance of Story in children’s lives. The course is packed full of anecdotes, video footage of children engaging in Helicopter Stories and is rooted in sound educational philosophy.

Cost: £360 per individual school or setting.

If you are a small setting you can apply to info@makebelievearts.co.uk for a 50% discount.

To find out more…