ReSparkle! Celebrating Creativity and Christmas crafts at Tooting Library

TTT have been ReSparkling with Tooting Library since 2012 - it's always a magical event upstairs in the beautiful children's library. 

Indoors last Saturday the library was full of colour, light and energy as it became darker, wetter and stormier outside. 

It's a free and simple event: for two hours we offered 5 activity tables, with eight of us helping.  

Why is it so fun and rewarding?

We think it's because:
1. There are familiar faces and new families every year - diverse, multilingual, positive, keen to experiment.
2. Creating a special occasion together is a good feeling 

3. The Library is such an excellent trusted community social hub in the buzzy retail heart of Tooting. Everyone is welcome, nothing is for sale, everyone can work at their own pace and  materials and goodwill are shared freely.
4. Children, parents and carers are discovering and making together - all generations trying out very different activities, getting familiar (again?) with using glue, scissors, staplers, velcro.
All these activities and more can be repeated at home.

5. Everyone creates using simple materials - making beautiful decorations and presents out of everyday things and scrap saved from waste.  
6. There's always new ideas - new activities, new facilitators from TTT, creative solutions from participants (turning the drinks cartons inside out to show off the silvery liner was very neat!)

There's more photos by Bryony, Chuck & Annie to look at online - please click here. And there's more of just Bryony's beautiful photos of ReSparkle online here - thank you Bryony!

ReSparkle! exactly six years ago on Dec 15th 2012

We value our long-lasting partnership with Tooting Library very much and want to say thanks to the Library team for hosting us so many times since 2012.

Many thanks to our TTT team of fab facilitators: Annie, Bryony, Elly, Jane, Jeni, Nicola, Resina & Chuck.
We're looking forward to December 2019 - please put ReSparkle in your diary!

Rewilding in Tooting - a new storytelling event to explore environmental thinking with children

Children from 5 to 8 years old and accompanying adults are welcome to join this new event which explores rewilding and environmental thinking in a fascinating and participative way - right here in Tooting on Saturday 8th April.

All welcome to come and explore our themes:

Play - Learn - Dream 

We're thrilled that Andres Restrepo and Emily Duizend are running this imaginative free event based in the Tooting Community Garden.

 

We hope you're intrigued and want to join us on the first weekend of the Easter holidays. Adults welcome if accompanying children, and together we'll be look at nature, use our senses and imaginations, focus on what's special about our surroundings, appreciate Tooting as a place - all from angles that may be new to us.

When? Saturday 8th April, from 11:00 to 1:00. And it's free

Where? Tooting Community Garden, 5 North Drive SW16 1RN

For who? Children aged 5 to 8 years old

Details? Children need to be accompanied by an adult

Flyer? Click here for a copy of the flyer

How to book? Contact Andres by email to book and for more details

We want to inspire children and adults to 

explore how the outdoors can be experienced right here in the city

All welcome on Saturday 8th April - please book in and we'll see you there!

Reduce, Re-use, ReSparkle! Our seasonal family crafts workshop with Tooting Library

On Saturday 12th December TTT offered our fourth annual Resparkle! seasonal crafts session at Tooting Library -  this time combined with Jeni Walker's monthly Meet & Make.

The aim was to teach children and adults how to make interesting, fun and attractive decorations or presents using household materials - newspaper, drinks cartons, scrap textiles.

Here's what we had on offer to make:

• drinks carton wallets
• newspaper present bags 
• textile and paper decorations
• paper flowers
• adding to the Library's collage Xmas tree
• and some children made up their own ideas...

All these activities are easy to repeat at home - for us it's all about mixing creativity and upcycling everyday waste.
And it's all about enjoyment and making things together. 

Some children did every single activity on offer, then went back for more..



The afternoon was delightful - a real mix of Tooting's cultures, with a lot of concentration and focus from three dozen young people. There were rewarding challenges working with new materials and techniques, and persisting with folding, cutting, punching and sticking to make beautiful things.



Most of the adults were making too - it was great to see the mix of generations and also whole families doing these engaging activities together.
There was a lot of achievement, pride and quiet celebration.

 



Thanks so much to the multi-tasking TTT volunteers who ran the day: Jane, Jeni, Hilary, Rachel & Chuck.
Thanks to Tooting Library - to Heather and Khalid for inviting us (and for helping to clear up at the end).

                

                                      
 More photos in this slideshow  

See you at December 2016 Resparkle!

BATCA Community Heroes

BATCA Hero Hilary

It was a good night for TTT and our partners at last night's BATCA (Balham & Tooting Community Association) Community Heroes Awards.  Our Rooting in Tooting colleagues at CARAS (Community Action for Refugees & Asylum Seekers), won a Team Award, while Hilary Jennings ex-co-chair and key player in TTT since 2008 was a highly commended hero(ine).

Eleanor Brown, CARAS Youth Services Co-ordinator, with Hafsa and Waseem

We were happy that our nomination for the ever helpful Ilesh Patel at Miss U Stationers also resulted in a highly commended award.  

Hilary, delighted (and somewhat surprised!) with her award, reported that "it was a great evening with a real sense of warmth and pride in how this area is a place of community and diversity. A few people mentioned it being an example of how diverse community can live well together."

All the Community Award winners are listed in the BATCA press release - click here to read it.

Email us if you'd like to find out more about our Rooting in Tooting project and check out the newly launched CARAS website!  And don't forget tomorrow's Reduce Reuse Resparkle at Tooting Library!

Resparkle! plus Meet & Make: Free upcycled crafts activities in Tooting next weekend

Two long-running TTT crafts projects which mix creativity and attractive recycled materials are coming together on December 12th at Tooting Library.

Reduce, Re-use, Resparkle! has been offered with our partners Tooting Library at Christmas for the past four years.
Meet & Make is community artist Jeni Walker's monthly project for local upcycling and making.
On Dec 12th we are bringing them together for a free event.

Resparkle! is all about making fun Christmas presents or decorations out of recycled materials - do come along from 2-4 at Tooting Library on the 12th. All ages, all welcome, all materials provided.

The regular attendees (and others!) at Meet & Make are invited to come along too - make some great upcycled festive decorations and also get some inspiration and encouragement on any making project of your own. All artists and makers welcome.

Three inviting photos from last year's Resparkle! -

More Meet & Make news:
Our newly formed connection with local charity Wandsworth Oasis was knitted a little closer last month with the generous hosting of our monthly Meet & Make in their new shop near Amen Corner. 

Helen brought along the finished shopper trolley started at last months M&M, Jeni whipped up a couple of tiny aprons for her toddler art classes and Martin chatted at length about the possibilities and challenges of starting a social enterprise based on up cycled making.

 
Elsewhere in the TTT arts story the power of making saw many hands came together to put paint, paper and glue to the Giant Saxophone. The friendly yellow giant was witness to young mums with their children, Pilates teachers, Meet & Makers, local arts practitioners, people claiming that they 'aren't any good at this art stuff' another saying they 'literally hadn't made anything in years' all creating a very pleasing result both visually and in the sense of connecting together.

We have plenty more participatory making planned - please come and get involved, and also do share your ideas for new projects or community groups and partners to join up with. 
Contact us at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com

So what is outdoor learning?

For the past 2 1/2 years, TTT has been running outdoor learning classes with pupils from Gatton, a local primary school in the community garden. From weekly sessions with Reception and Year 1 classes, to 7-week projects with the Year 6 students, the classes encompass a huge range of cross-curriculum learning, developing new skills and vocabulary and allowing the children to fully interact with nature in the safe and beautiful environment of our garden.

But I still get asked regularly, what exactly is outdoor learning? So, here's a brief example of my class today, on a beautiful autumn morning with a lively Year 1 group...

After warm greetings and not-at-all-exaggerated reports on how much they had grown over the summer holidays, the children discussed the different seasons, today's weather and how the sunshine made them feel: happy, bright and a bit sweaty! We then looked at some of the plants we had been growing - a cherry tomato that I picked just before they arrived and a beetroot. They were very excited to discover that beetroot acts as a natural dye and took great delight in getting a red thumb. We also went to look at the green and yellow pumpkin that was growing in the vegetable beds.

Then we played an energetic game of seek and find, bringing back different numbers and colours of grasses, leaves, pinecones, sticks and acorns. The children learned that the squirrels love to eat acorns and hide them away so that they can eat them later in the winter; we found lots of buried acorns in the garden - sorry squirrels!

And then, while half the group help collect objects for the Big Draw, the other half used trowels (remembering the safety instructions I taught them last year) to dig up the old pea plants in their little veg bed. The plants went on the compost heap to be recycled in the garden. We all put our hands into the freshly dug soil to feel how it was drier on the top and damper underneath but was also loose like crumble mix. And the numerous worms that were unearthed during the process were all gently and kindly transported to the bush where rumour has it they were having a big worm party...

Finally, after making big shapes, small shapes and star shapes, the children exploded with an impressive "Acorns!" for their "word jump". Exit one group of happy, rosy-cheeked, energised children.
Sharon

 

Tooting Field Days - Free Family fun - Starting Sunday 19 April

Tooting Field Days are local safaris based in and around Tooting; a chance to get outside and play, walk or make something. We can't promise lions and zebras but you might discover something you've never seen before, think something new or have a mini adventure!

Tooting Field Days will happen every month on a Sunday afternoon from April until September. The first Field Day is Sunday 19 April.

The theme for the April Field Day is "Natural Neighbours." Make a pine cone bird feeder, discover voices of Tooting past and do scavenger hunts in Streatham Cemetry. Drop in for part of the day or join us for the whole event.

2pm: Meet at Tooting Library (75 Mitcham Road, SW17 9PD) to make a pine cone bird feeder that you can hang in your garden or balcony to encourage more feathered friends to visit you. Materials provided.

3pm: Depart Tooting Library to do Tootingwalks 1, a specially-made audio walk packed full of music and the voices of local people, talking about Tooting past and present and Tooting’s love of food. MP3 players and maps provided.

3.45 - 5.30: Treasure Trails, Scavenger Hunts and honey tasting in Streatham Cemetery (enter through gate on Broadwater Road).

You can join us for the whole afternoon or drop in for just one section.

All activities are suitable (and fun) for children and adults.

Tooting Field Day is a collaboration between Transition Town Tooting and local arts organisation fanSHEN.

To book a (free) place or for more information, click here