Chris Collin

Chris Collin

Queensland

Speaker type

  • Author
  • Poet
  • Storyteller / Performer
  • Virtual visits
available for virtual visits

Chris Collin specialises in fun and interactive workshops and presentations for all ages. For detailed information, please refer to the links on the right hand side of the page under the applicable age category, however please note that they are all adaptable to suit all ages unless noted otherwise.

Chris performs his highly engaging author presentations at libraries, schools, early learning centres, day care facilities, special schools, business groups, public events and literary festivals all over Australia and internationally. His role is to bring fun (and funkiness!) to the world through his books and highly engaging presentations; designed to encourage readers of all ages to 'read for the joy of reading!'

  His first book Funky Chicken: A Bushy Tale of Crocs and Chooks was released in March 2013. This title is in the Australian curriculum (Qld C2C) and was shortlisted for the 2014 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards. It is also in the Premiers Challenge Reading book list in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

His second book A Bug Called Doug was released in March 2013. This title is in the Qld Premiers Reading Challenge book list and was long-listed in the 2015-2016 ISLN (International School Library Network) Awards. This is a reader’s choice award which makes it extra special!  With it's many cross-curriculum applications, this book is widely used in schools and early learning centres around Australia, including the Brisbane School of Distance Education's E-Kindy Program for 2019.

Chris’s next book,  Funky Chicken: Chooks in Space was released in 2015 and was voted winner of the 2016 SPA (Speech Pathology Australia) Book of the Year Awards. This title is also in the Queensland and Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge book list.

The new Funky Chicken Instalment – Funky Chicken: Mission InCROCible is out now. On a rescue mission like no other, Funky Chicken returns in his wildest adventure yet! Join our feathered hero with friends, old and new, on their tropical trek through the great Australian wilderness! This delightfully funny tale, told in rich rollicking rhyme, will have the reader in stiches and may provoke the idea that friends can be found in the most unlikely places!

For his latest book, Chris has teamed up with multi award-winning illustrator Bruce Potter for a new project, The Things You Can Do With Blue Whale Poo! This is a ridiculous story where grandfather octopus is telling junior octopus lots of silly things you can do with blue whale poo until, at the end of the story, he explains the facts about this very stinky stuff and how important it is!  See the Live Show tab  for his really funny, environmentally-themed show, tailored for libraries and festivals about the importance of animal poop on the earth and in the sea. It is highly entertaining for people of all ages, and very informative, about the power of animal poop from the bugs to the biggest creatures to have ever existed! This show combines The Things You Can Do With Blue Whale Poo, with his earlier book A Bug Called Doug (who fertilizes the forests!),

Chris is a highly engaging presenter and performs his interactive author presentations at libraries, schools, early learning centres, day care facilities, special schools, business groups, public events and literary festivals including Voices on the Coast and the Gold Coast Writers Festival. His role is to bring fun (and funkiness!) to the world through his books and highly engaging presentations, designed to encourage readers of all ages to 'read for the joy of reading!'

COVID-19 UPDATE!

In these unprecedented times, many schools have been forced to cancel all kinds of events, including author incursions. In this uncertain climate, most parents/carers and educators recognise the importance of ‘normalising’ things for children as much as possible. Chris Collin offers an awesome alternative that offers a very special experience for your students, with all the elements of an in-house author event, at a fraction of the cost and at a time that suits you!

Chris has been performing his fun and funky Live Virtual Visits for remote and overseas schools for a number of years now. They are awesome fun and just as beneficial and involved as an incursion, if not more so. The virtual visits cater for all year levels and include all the elements of the in-house visits - story-telling, puppets, music/dance and art activities where the children will all start their very own creative project.

Chris’ philosophy of encouraging kids to develop a love of reading through fun and play, really comes through in the intimate setting of a live video-link visit!  ChrisCollinVirtualVisit

Chris featured in the first episode of the new Qld Dept of Education collaboration with Channel 9 Go. See:

 Chris reads Funky Chicken on reading@homeTV

Awesome curriculum lesson plans compiled by teacher-librarian Jodie Carlson, for Funky Chicken A Bushy Tale of Crocs and Chooks and A Bug Called Doug are available now on the Teachers Pay Teachers website:

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Funkybooks-Lesson-Plans-And-Educational-Resources.

 

Follow these links to view Chris's individual Workshop Outlines:

Live - Virtual Author Visit!

Virtual Workshops - Primary Years

Virtual Workshops - Pre-school

Funky Author Presentation

Doug the Bug Presentation

Brain Strain Creative Rhyme Workshop

Story in a Session Workshop

Chapter Challenge Workshop

Writing workshop for 2 sessions with maximum 30 children in years 4 to 6

Session 1 – Creative Idea

  • Chris will narrate one of his books, asking the group to after determining who wants to be an illustrator or author, each student in the group is given a badge marked ‘author’ or ‘illustrator’.
  • We then split the class into groups of 5 or 6 with a mix of authors and illustrators.
  • Each group selects a ‘lucky dip’ item from 3 bags – bag 1 is the setting, bag 2 is a character and bag 3 is a random object. So for example the setting could be the moon, the character could be a cow and the random object could be a hat. A story about a cow who is on the moon and somehow involves a hat!
  • That group will develop a story that needs to include each of these components and the group will outline a plot, challenge for the character and a resolution.
  • The first session ends with each group outlining their story and one story is selected which will become the focus of session 2.

Session 2 – Rhyming verse

  • The class is split into two groups; authors and illustrators who will sit on either side of the class.
  • The mission is for Chris and the class to transform the story selected at the end of the first session into a rhyming story. In the case of the example we might end up with the cows hat floating into space and how he or she gets it back! While Chris and the authors are putting the rhyming story together, the illustrators are drawing their own illustration based on the character and setting. This is going to be a wonderful challenge for us all and really brings out the creativity and an insight into the challenges of writing in rhyme where you have to tell the story, maintaining the rhyme and rhythm. It will be a lot of fun and I believe will be highly engaging for the participants.  This is even a workshop that could be taken to high schools and adult groups.
  • Time permitting, we’ll end the session with a song from one of my books and we can all let our hair down singing and dancing to one of my songs.
  • Students keep their badges and will have them signed by the author.

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Rhyming Verse Workshops for two sessions with maximum 30 children in years 5 to 6

Option 1 - The Brain Strain Rhyming Verse Workshop

top left

Author in Normal Mode

top right

Author in Brain Strain Mode

Session 1 – Create the Plot

  • Using PowerPoint, Chris will show the group his rhyming style and how he gets the ‘bounce’ in his stories
  • After determining who wants to be an illustrator or author, each student in the group is given an ID card marked ‘author’ or ‘illustrator’.
  • We then split the class into groups of 5 or 6 with a mix of authors and illustrators.

middle strip

  • Each group selects a ‘lucky dip’ item from 3 bags – bag 1 is the setting, bag 2 is a character and bag 3 is a random object. So for example the setting could be in outer-space, the character could be a cow and the random object could be a car. A story about a cow who is on the moon and somehow involves a car!
  • Each group will develop a story that needs to include each of these components and the group will outline a plot, a challenge for the character and a happy resolution with a good outcome (hopefully!)
  • The first session ends with each group outlining their story which must include the character, setting and object selected at the start of the session. Once the stories have all been outlined, one story is selected by the group to be the focus for session 2.

Session 2 – Turn the story into a rhyming verse!

  • The class is split into two groups; authors and illustrators who will sit on either side of the class.
  • The mission is for Chris and the class to transform the story selected at the end of the first session into a rhyming story. In the case of the example we might end up with the cow’s hat floating into space and how he or she gets it back! While Chris and the authors are putting the rhyming story together, the illustrators are drawing their own illustration based on the character and setting. This is going to be a wonderful challenge for us all and really brings out the creativity and an insight into the challenges of writing in rhyme where you have to tell the story, maintaining the rhyme and rhythm. It will be a lot of fun, highly engaging and is guaranteed to bring out the creativity in the participants! This workshop can be applied to high schools and adult groups as well.
  • Time permitting; the session will end with a song from one of Chris’ books where the students can all let their hair down singing and dancing.
  • Students keep their ID cards to have them signed by the author.

Option 2 - The Funky Chicken Rhyming Verse Workshop

  • Students will be given an understanding of Chris's rhyming style with an emphasis on the importance of rhythm and meter and making the story bounce! For the workshop the students will create their own rhyming Funky Chicken adventure and finish the session by illustrating a scene from their own story. This is heaps of fun and guaranteed to get the creative juices flowing!

Chris also performs workshops for Junior Primary students and inspirational talks and workshops for adults too. Contact Speakers Ink for more details.

The Power of Poop – from the Outback to the Ocean!  

Join award-winning author Chris Collin, as he takes us on an incredible publishing journey, where we will discover the power of animal poop, from tiny bugs to the biggest animal to have ever graced the earth! This fun-filled journey will include live narration to music of his brand new environmentally-themed book The Things You Can Do with Blue Whale Poo, song and dance, meet Doug the Bug and Bella Blue puppets, plus a surprise visit from a massive 3m long inflatable blue whale.

Testimonials

  • Chris made his presentation engaging for all of the students. He incorporated songs, dances and actions into the event. The younger grades really loved his books.

    Good Samaritan Catholic College - November, 2023

    Good Samaritan Catholic College - November, 2023
    Chris Collin
  • Chris engaged amazingly with all Primary age groups. He had them interested and the time flew by very quickly. The students thought that it was really great.

    Noosa Christian College - August, 2023

    Noosa Christian College - August, 2023
    Chris Collin
  • Thank you so much for your incredible virtual author visit. The prep students thoroughly enjoyed hearing a story from a ‘real’ author’s perspective. The children loved meeting Funky Chicken and his friend ‘Possum’!

    St Mary’s Laidley - 2020 VIRTUAL

    St Mary’s Laidley - 2020 VIRTUAL
    Chris Collin
  • WOW, WOW, WOW! All Chris’ sessions were interactive, funny, and appealed to all the audience members, regardless of their age group. From the Year 6 through to the Prep students, Chris was able to entertain and keep our students on the edge of their seats. His enthusiasm also transferred back to the classroom where, even reluctant writers and readers, were happy to give his activities a go or simply finish off what they had started. Chris also gave up time to chat to students about their writing efforts and was happy to look over their ideas and give feedback. This was greatly appreciated by the students! I would highly recommend Chris and his shows as he was really accommodating, flexible, engaging, funny and an absolute joy to have within our school.

    Our Lady Help of Christians School , Cairns - 2020 VIRTUAL

    Our Lady Help of Christians School , Cairns - 2020 VIRTUAL
    Chris Collin
  • Thank you so much for the most amazing session EVER this morning! I’ve had 4 teaching sessions today with some of the students who attended ‘Doug’ the Bugs’ talk this morning – and they were all buzzing! We’d love to work with Chris again and would not hesitate to recommend his author visit program to similar, audiences.

    Brisbane School of Distance Education - 2020 - VIRTUAL

    Brisbane School of Distance Education - 2020 - VIRTUAL
    Chris Collin
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Chris Collin