For World Book Day 2019 Waterstones Book Shop in Truro, Cornwall focused on artist John Dyer, his colourful book - 'Painting the Colours of the World' and his new arts project https://www.lastchancetopaint.com and invited artists John Dyer and Joanne Short in to make their children's book section a place to tell the story of the Yawanawá tribe from the Amazon rainforest!
Two fantastic groups of reception children from Bosvigo School in Truro all made Boa Constrictor snakes
"Working with children aged 4 and 5 has to be carefully considered and we divided the children into two groups having around 1 hour each in the book shop. Each of those groups was divided again into two with one group learning the tribal song and the other using paper and glue to create their Boa Constrictor paper snakes. The groups then swapped over and at the end, all of the snakes were added to the tree and we celebrated by performing the tribal song whilst parading around the book shop! We chose the Boa Constrictor as the rainforest theme for the day as the patterns on the snake's body are very significant to the Yawanawá who decorate their own bodies to take on the power of this sacred animal. It is one of the most powerful animals in the rainforest." John Dyer.
The children sang a tribal song, Wacomãya (happiness) https://www.lastchancetopaint.com/music/ and performed it parading around the book shop with tambourines and improvised percussion.
"Paper plates and paint brushes made excellent drums!" Joanne Short.
Much fun was had by all and it was all done in fancy dress too in celebration of World Book Day! The children and staff dressed as characters from famous storybooks including, Pooh Bear, Paddington Bear, Harry Potter, Fantastic Mr Fox, Snow White and more!
You can see the snakes in Waterstones now.
"Thank you for the fantastic talk you gave the kids today at Waterstones, my daughter and the rest of the class loved it as I did!"
