Storybox Drama

Watch this space 👀
Storybox Drama will be offering some school holiday workshops as part of KidsFest! 🎉
🎟 Tickets go live 9th June

At Storybox Drama we explore the spaces between the pages...the moments that aren’t written, but are full of possibility.

Last week, in our 8–12 years class, we focused on two significant story moments in our Term 2 book The Paper Bridge.

🕊️ Story moment 1: Anya meets the Crane bird
We took turns in role as Anya and the Crane, building their conversations through improvisation - wondering what might be said in that moment.
Then, a surprise: the crane left behind a paper feather with a message written on it….

🏔️ Story Moment 2: The crossing of the bridge.
Using a Conscience Alley, the group voiced Anya’s fears, worries, and hope for what might be achieved through her bravery.

In this way the children stepped inside the world of the story and experienced what the characters might be thinking and feeling.

📷 The photos capture some of the props we used in our class:
⭐ The kirigami bridge we created together and used in our conscience alley
⭐ The white scarf that signalled when we stepped into role as the crane
⭐ The paper feather, left behind by the crane added some magic and mystery

This is at the heart of what we do at Storybox Drama - step inside the story and discover it from within.

This week, we welcomed photographer Mea Baráth into our after-school classes 📷

Capturing Process Drama isn’t easy for me as the teacher because I'm inside the story, in role, creating alongside the children. This is a key feature of the approach we use at Storybox Drama.

That’s why I’m so excited to see what Mea has captured - those real, in-the-moment glimpses of imagination and story-making.

I deeply value Mea’s artistic eye and her ability to capture real life moments as they unfold.

I can’t wait to share the photos with you soon, here on social media and on the Storybox Drama website (coming soon!)

You can see Mea’s website below 👇

Life is too short for poses! Photography with an artistic approach

🎭🤝 Building Creativity and Connection Through Drama 🤝🎭

Recently, we welcomed a new student to the 8-12yrs Homeschool group, and this fun warm up game called ‘String Shapes’ was the perfect way to build connection and create the right conditions for creativity to emerge.

Using a simple piece of rope, the children worked together to create shapes such as squares, triangles, and pentagons. I introduced new challenges, like making shapes without talking, and creating two connected shapes with one piece of rope. 🟥 🔺 ⭕

Once the group had developed confidence working together, we transitioned into building the world of our story for this term -
The Paper Bridge.

Using the rope, the children created parts of the story world:
the jagged mountain where the village sits, the deep chasm between the two villages, and the bridge that connects them.

The children loved working with something tactile and surprised themselves with the creative shapes they could make through cooperation and play. 🤸⭐

🎭 📚 Exploring Character 📚🎭

This term, our 8–12 year olds are diving into a wonderful story world called Paperlee - a place where everything (and everyone!) is made entirely of paper.

The children worked together, creating their own paper people from folded newspapers and the Japanese art technique of kirigami, inspired by the illustrations in our book.

It was so exciting unfolding the paper to discover whether our designs had worked… and success! Six paper people emerged, all holding hands together. 🤍✂️

We then explored some imaginative character questions:
💭 What would be some benefits of being made of paper?
💭 What would paper people be afraid of?

The children came up with so many creative ideas.
We decided that any kind of water would be catastrophic… which sparked another big question:
Is the rain made of paper in Paperlee too? 🌧️📄

One of our favourite ideas was that paper people could fold themselves into anything they wanted to be.
What a magical world to imagine!

A fantastic first lesson full of creativity and collaboration!

First week of Term 2
Lost and Found 5-7 years after school class 🐧

One of our families arrived at class with their own copy of our book for this term, in pride of place on the front of the pram - a gift from when their daughter was born.
Given pride of place like this, the book itself made a bit of an entrance!

Now Mila is nearly 5 and getting to explore that same story through Process Drama at Storybox! 🎭📖

Before opening the book, we spent time with a few objects from the story, sparking ideas and wonderings about what the story might be about.

There are still places left in this class if you’d like to join us. 😊
Enrol here: https://forms.gle/BzgJjM3vPT95DZZX8

Trial classes available
Email: [email protected]

Wonderful to see this research about the benefits of Dramatic Play shared on RNZ this morning.

At Storybox Drama, this is exactly what we nurture through guided Dramatic Play within our Process Drama approach. 🌟📖🎭

Through role-play, movement, and imaginative worlds, children:
• explore emotions in a safe, supported way
• build confidence and connection
• develop creative thinking and problem-solving
• practise seeing the world from different perspectives

As the article puts it: "Thinking isn’t something that happens only in your head. Your body and the way it moves through the world are also involved in thinking...Acting things helps children learn how to think, feel and respond to their environment".

You can read the article here:

Pretend play is a magical part of childhood. New research suggests it can also help mental health Children have huge imaginations, and diving into them can lead to better emotional regulation.

I love receiving messages from families sharing how the Storybox lessons inspire imaginative thinking and creativity at home ✨

Here’s a photo I was sent last week after our school holiday workshop at Telling Tales, The Search for Our Cosmic Neighbours (story by Chloe Savage) 💫

Ivor-Wolfe’s mum shared that he created his own “alien transmission device” at home and has been using it to "talk to aliens" - an idea sparked by the story we explored together!

A wonderful example of how Process Drama encourages creative thinking to flourish beyond the classroom 🚀

(Shared with permission from Ivor-Wolfe, 8 years old.)

April School Holidays at Telling Tales Bookshop 🚀📚
The Search for Our Cosmic Neighbours by Chloe Savage

It was a joy to welcome both familiar faces from past workshops and some wonderful newcomers joining us for the first time. Together, we explored the story through Process Drama, reimagining key moments and bringing them to life in creative and playful ways.

In our first workshop, I loved seeing how fully the children immersed themselves - sharing imaginative ideas and stepping confidently into role as members of the Star Drifter space crew.
The team at Telling Tales shared how captivated the group was- so much so that a quiet hush fell over the entire bookshop while the session was underway.

In our second workshop, the group started off a little unsure but gradually grew in confidence, building on each other’s ideas. During our warm-up, we created the “sounds of shooting stars” and the “fire” of the rocket ship.

There were so many thoughtful questions, curious wonderings… and, most exciting of all, the discovery of an alien tucked away in the back corner of the bookshop!

…I wonder if they’re still there? 🛸👾

Telling Tales were such great hosts and we look forward to offering another holiday workshop there sometime in the future. 📚