I guess you could say that the original Pippen's started whilst I was working in a Day-care nursery.

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I remember sitting down contemplating on a new activity for the children to try, that was different to the usual type we would put in our weekly plans.

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I had always been a big fan of singing nursery rhymes with the children, particularly the ones I could put actions to!

My favourites were "Little Peter Rabbit", "Mary, Mary, quite contrary", "Little Bo Peep", "Hickory Dickory Dock" and "Miss Polly had a dolly."

I also enjoyed doing singing games such as the "Farmers in his den", "Ring o roses", and "Peter Hammers."

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After about half an hour of thinking about it, I decided to record a structured tape which would cover a few action songs and games, as well as some mime and movement activities such as pretending to be a train, a windmill, a pony etc. It took me about 3 hours, but I was very pleased with what I had accomplished.

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Later that week I tested my tape out at work, and the children and staff loved it. It soon became part of the regular weekly structure.

After a few weeks of using my one tape I thought about bringing in even more dance experiences for the children which would include my own Ballet and Disco stages. 

Once again this was greatly received by the children, and before long parents were hearing all about it and suggesting that I start up a club,

So that's exactly what I did.

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The Box Tree Pippen's opened it's doors to the public in the April of 2002, with a staggering 20 children aged between 2 and 5 years, and continued successfully until April 2004, when numbers declined to 4 through various weekend commitments.

Sadly this was no longer enough to cover hall hire.

Parents who stayed loyal offered to up the weekly subs, but I had recently had a baby, and decided it best to close the group.

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In Pippen's time we staged  2 successful performances.

 

* The first was a variety show which included singing, poetry and a variety of dances including "The Teddy Bears Picnic," "Mr Mistoffolees" from the musical CATS, "Bob The Builder and "Reach for the Stars," and my own play version of the 3 little pigs performed by my 6-10 year olds.

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*The second performance was called

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" Christmas celebrations"

 

This was a 2 part performance and included A Drama performance written by me,  based on the Christmas story called 

"One Special Christmas"

 

followed by

 

"A Magical, Musical Christmas"

 A show full of music festivity and dance including the well known classics

"Sleigh Ride, The Twelve days of Christmas and

We wish you a Merry Christmas."

We also did some scenes from the "Nutcracker Ballet Suite" (Older Children)

and "Walking in the air" from "The Snowman."

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What I remember most of all about the original Pippen's is the children's smiley faces, their excitement when coming  into club, and their sheer enjoyment of joining in.

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