FunSongs at the British Embassy

FunSongs actresses Audra and Vita presenting the FunSongs
Monster Show to English teachers at the British Embassy, Riga

Last Thursday 18th March Charles Goodger and Vija Blūzme of the National Latvia Puppet Theatre, together with expert actresses Audra and Vija, presented the FunSongs Monster Show to a group of English teachers and press representatives at the British Embassy in the Latvian capital. The first FunSongs Monster Show will be performed on Tuesday. The theatre already has bookings for further shows throughout April.

His Excellency Richard Moon opened proceedings with a short speech on the importance of education and the English language followed by Charles Goodger, who also spoke in Latvian, and then Vija Blūzme, creative director of the National Puppet Theatre. Next the Theatre's bilingual actresses Vita and Audra offered participants a brief sample of the FunSongs Monster Show - designed to give young learners of English a PMA* experience in body vocabulary and verbs of movement.

This was also the début of the new FunSongs puppets Britty and Lati. In Italy FunSongs Shows are performed in Italy in schools using a special puppet theatre. In Latvia, however, the actors are also visible as they manouevre the puppets, a technique typical of Latvian puppetry that lends itself well to the highly interactive nature of FunSongs Show workshops.

* Permanent Memory Acquisition. For further details click here

FunSongs website for Russia

FunSongs Monster Show in Parma, Italy

In the last few days Igors Siminaitis, Andrew Taylor (FunSongs webmaster) and Charles Goodger have been working on the new Russian language version of the FunSongs website. You can see the cyrillic by visiting www.funsongs.co.uk/ru. The aim is to make FunSongs action song packages available to schools throughout Russia. With possible assistance from the UK Department of Trade and Industry, a field trip to Moscow is being planned for June 2009 to present the programme to Russia's Ministry of Education.

FunSongs Website for Lithuanian schools
Following the interest in FunSongs in a growing number of Latvian schools and the intention of the Lithuanian Ministry of Education to adopt the FunSongs programme throughout its primary school system from August 2009, Charles Goodger has been invited to give a special FunSongs workshop at LAKMA, the National Assembly of English Teachers in Vilnius, Lithuania on April 25th. Work has already started on a Lithuanian version of the website. It will follow the same format as the other versions of the FunSongs site in Italian, Spanish, Latvian and Russian with the explanatory ages of the website aimed at school heads and boards in the local language and the download pages for teachers in English.

FunSongs Monster Show - World Premiere
Rehearsals of the first Latvian-English version of the FunSongs Monster Show are well underway. The first performance at the National Latvia Puppet Theatre will be performed to the press and a group of Riga school children on Tuesday 24th March. The FunSongs puppets Britty and Latis have been made and a special set built. The two FunSongs actresses Audra and Vija (both fluent in Russian and Lithuanian as well as English) are working hard to perfect the songs and puppet routines - and the excitement is building. Watch this space for a special report on the British Embassy promotional event next Wednesday 18th March.

Purvciema School Riga

Thanks to the new FunSongs assistant Igors Simanatis who arranged the event, Charles Goodger presented the FunSongs Approach to an audience of interested English teachers at  Purvciema Secondary School one of the Latvian capital's largest educational institutes this morning.

As well as interest in FunSongs action song and worksheet downloads, teachers were curious about the FunSongs Shows and several intend to register with the British Embassy for the presentation event next week.