If you are planning a trip to Newcastle or perhaps you live in Newcastle like me, Seven Stories have organised different events for this festive period.
Seven Stories is a national centre for children’s books based in the North East of England. My girls and I have been many times and there are some visits I’ve previously shared here on the blog including meeting Katie Abbey and attending a Yoga Babies workshop.
Seven Stories got in touch recently to tell us all about the festive shows they have organised and invited us along to a performance of our choice.
They currently have two shows running. Peas Vs Penguins: Fight for the Festive Freezer is aimed at school aged children and families. This is an hour long performance and is running in the weekends from 24th November until the 23rd December.
Mini Peas Vs Mini Penguins: A Tiny Festive Adventure is a session targeted at preschoolers. Both sessions are inspired by inspired by the books Supertato: Evil Pea Rules by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, All the Way Home by Debi Gliori and Evil Emperor Penguin by Laura Ellen Anderson.
My youngest daughter, as some of you will know, is 2 years old now and she’s never been to a performance but I was intrigued by this one so this is the event we chose to attend. We find the Supertato books colourful and fun so it was great to be attending a performance inspired by familiar reads.
The session was led and performed by one individual who is part of the Story Catcher team at Seven Stories. He made a friendly penguin who was jolly, energetic and all the children were truly engaged. He explained to the children that he was good friends with a pea and needed the children’s help as not everyone agreed with the friendship.
Throughout the entire performance Penguin was super interactive with its young audience and it was lovely to see so many children happy to join in (my daughter was a little shy at this stage).
The session also included festive activities for young children to try which was a great way of splitting up the sessions. There were three activities available to play and although I think these activities could have been more imaginative my daughter certainly enjoyed giving them all a good go.
The session concluded with a live storytelling of a wintery read which my daughter enjoyed listening to while cosy in Dadda’s lap.
My daughter had a great time meeting a penguin, completing activities and having a story read aloud to her. It’s great to see a performance especially planned for the younger audience in mind.
Thank you so much to Seven Stories for our complimentary tickets in exchange for a review.
Mini Peas Vs Mini Penguins: A Tiny Festive Adventure is running from now until the 23rd December. You can find more information over on the Seven Stories website.