‘Minotaureland’ restitution workshop by the Léo Lagrange school at the Carnot school

As part of the European Storias project, Les Apprimeurs ran a workshop on the myth of the Minotaur with a class of fourth-year pupils from the Léo-Lagrange school in Trignac.

The aim was to get the children to take ownership of a story, to understand it better and to be able to tell it themselves, in their own way.

Using the narrative tools in the activity book designed by Les Apprimeurs, as well as a system of pictograms devised by their teacher, the pupils wrote, illustrated and acted out Minotaureland, their own revamped, vitamin-packed version!

After several performances in front of other classes in their school, the troop went abroad: the fourth-year pupils from the Léo-Lagrange school in Trignac went to the Carnot school in Saint-Nazaire!

There, the pupils gave a performance of their Minotaureland in front of a class of kindergarten, who were themselves working on rewriting their version.

A rewarding encounter between two schools

Following their performance, the Year 4s sat down opposite the Kindergartners and listened to the teacher read out the children’s readaptation.

They also answered questions from the younger children and explained the process of re-creating the myth of the Minotaur (discovering the story with mimes, retelling it in their own words, retelling it using marottes / pictograms / myrioramas, inventing other characteristics for the characters, writing a revisited version, illustrating, acting, making noises, etc.).

The two classes had fun spotting the changes each version made to the original story and characters, sharing a new common culture.

For the Year 4s, this experience was a new way of showcasing their work and passing on the story that they took full ownership of during the workshop sessions and performances for other classes.

They were happy to play the question and answer game and compare versions with the kindergarten pupils.

The parents who accompanied the outing and the kindergarten teacher really appreciated their creative work, bringing an outside eye to the Léo-Lagrange school.

All the students went home with a little Ariadne’s thread around their wrists, as a thank-you to the Apprimeurs for this great experience with a highly motivated, close-knit and exciting class!