Every Wednesday at the Museum with a Book!” | Reading & Creative Writing Workshops at IMMA

We begin the journey with wonderful books and imagination!
From October 2024 to April 2025, every Wednesday afternoon from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., the Museum will welcome children aged 5–10, with a different children’s literature book each time, and with various ways of approaching reading and creatively engaging with the books.

Each workshop is based on a scientifically designed framework aiming to cultivate imagination, critical thinking, creativity, and aesthetic enjoyment!

This year we will focus on where and why we read, we will choose different spaces for theatrical reading and role-playing games inside and outside the Museum, and we will support everyone’s right to reading and storytelling!

Each child is a wonderful, unique reader.
They see, hear, observe, feel, and connect to texts in different ways.
They imagine, remember, struggle, reflect, find comfort, laugh, and discover different secrets and answers within books.

We create a safe and inviting environment where all children, regardless of their previous reading experience, will feel comfortable and ready to express themselves freely, to talk and to create—using the stories we read as a springboard for their own artworks, crafts, poems, and short texts.

Artistic expression, through Art and Literature, is a powerful tool for creative writing and at the same time becomes a colorful backdrop for the creation of new stories!

As every year, once a month our workshop will take place outside the Museum, in another cultural or reading space (gallery, bookstore, other museum, music hall, etc.). Our goal is to familiarize children with reading books in different everyday spaces and to raise awareness about literacy issues for all social groups.

In addition, there will be workshops in collaboration with ΙΜΜΑ partners that combine storytelling with comics and robotics!

Workshop facilitator: Katerina Tzavara, Author – Educator MSc, Head of Educational Programs at ΙΜΜΑ
Organized by: Foundation of the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle and Modern History of Macedonia
Participation cost: €8/workshop
Information – Reservations: +30 2310229778 & kemit.education@imma.edu.gr

Scientific framework of the program

Culture and the love of reading provide skills that shape children’s identities and cultivate their speech, thinking, communication, and emotional intelligence. They give children the opportunity to discuss and express their opinions, desires, concerns, and dreams creatively—away from the pressure of grading!

Creative writing takes children on a unique journey into the world of literature, enriches and improves their oral and written expression, promotes positive life values, enhances creative expression and personal development. Children discover the world through reading literature, and within the Museum they find fertile ground to experiment with words, images, different cultures, and to develop their talents, as well as to form their own opinions on many social issues and make their voices heard.

The role of facilitators

During the creative writing process, facilitators support each child and also motivate the group so that everyone can unfold their thoughts and talents and gradually move towards initiative and creative communication.
The facilitator’s role is vital, as they empower children with appropriate group management techniques to build self-esteem, courage, and flexible thinking through reading and writing games.

In ΙΜΜΑ’s reading workshops, the participant group is deliberately kept small (8–10 children). This way, the facilitator can guide each child’s writing journey individually while also fostering group collaboration.

The Museum environment

The Museum itself is a cultural space where the region’s history, people from different cultural backgrounds, and exhibits/artworks come together. It transforms into an especially attractive environment that sparks imagination and natural curiosity and motivates children to express themselves creatively. Interaction with the exhibits is harmoniously combined with the enjoyment of reading books.

A historical museum, like the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle, can “tell” many stories from the past and give young book lovers the chance to write their own original stories while understanding human evolution through time, changes in daily life, local history, and major historical events. Children and parents take part in activities that combine learning with fun, and information with play and the arts.

Purpose of the workshops

The workshops have a dual aim:

• to help children fall in love with books and the reading of literature, and

• to help them fall in love with the museum—as a space of historical knowledge and entertainment.

They aim to:
a) build a community of active readers aged 5–10 who will develop reading skills and cultivate reading motivation (reading engagement) for literary enjoyment and learning,
b) create critical readers (future active citizens) who will produce original writing within a museum setting, as a wondrous stage of real and imaginary stories, and
c) promote children’s socialization, building friendships within an attractive cultural context of informal education.

Workshop content – Activities

Through a scientifically structured and original program of activities, suitable for the age, temperament, and needs of the children, we will discover the hidden messages inside books, dive into the colors of Art, “dress” images with music and theater, sketch dialogues, and meet authors and illustrators!

And all this will happen inside the Museum halls, conversing and playing with the exhibits.
After reading and discussing the books, activities will follow to bring the stories to life: exploratory discovery games, painting/illustration, comic creation, theatrical play, creating new stories or poems, digital games, robotics activities inspired by book characters, watching films, and more.

Each time, a different children’s literature book will be our starting point for inspiration and creative exploration, along with excerpts from other books, poems and artworks, observations in the urban environment around ΙΜΜΑ’s building, small research projects and online games, award-winning short films, photographs, and of course the Museum’s own material.

Children will get to know important books of Greek and international children’s literature, as well as their authors and illustrators. They will learn about story structure, narrative elements, and the unique ways we can read and write short stories and poetic texts.
We will use children’s experiences, play with words, and show them how not to fear writing and reading at school.

At the end of the workshops, a series of multi-themed texts illustrated by the young museum lovers will be presented!
This year, the chosen books will focus on stories that empower each child’s unique identity and support the all-round development of their personality. We will also explore texts and artworks that highlight every child’s right to education, culture, storytelling, and reading.

Short bio of the instructor

Katerina Tzavara is an educator and author. She lives in Thessaloniki and is a graduate of ANATOLIA College, with pedagogical studies at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Her postgraduate studies and research interests focus on Creative Writing in Education and on Physical Activity and Quality of Life for children.

She has worked for many years in private and public education in teaching and administrative positions. She has served as Supervisor of Student Internships at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki’s School of Early Childhood Education and as head of the Career Development Office at public and private IEK institutes.

She has also been a Creative Writing Club instructor for children at IANOS cultural chain in Thessaloniki, and scientific director and instructor at the Creative Expression & Writing Club for adults at Chalkos Gallery.

She collaborates with public and private institutions as a scientific advisor for educational activities and training programs. She participates as a speaker at international conferences, training sessions, and workshops on art and reading promotion in education. She writes articles in print and online magazines.

She is a member of the YMCA Thessaloniki Education and Culture Committee, a member of E.E.P.E.K., and of the Women’s Literary Society of Greece.
Since 2019, she has worked as Head of Educational Programs at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle in Thessaloniki.

She has published 24 books for children and educators with Diaplous Publications, as well as her first short story collection for adults titled “Twelve / Stories Born in Thessaloniki.”

You can watch the video from the children’s activities and stories from previous Reading & Creative Writing Workshops HERE.