Workshops

Dannika is available for traditional author visits & story time sessions, as well as to present story-driven and curriculum-linked creative workshops.

Choose from a pre-developed range of workshops (see examples below), or work with Dannika to create a custom workshop to support specific learning goals or community engagement at your school, library, or event.

Creative Writing

In this highly-engaging writing workshop, Dannika Patterson will share insights into what, why and how she approaches the craft of writing.

Topics Include:

• A Writer's Journey
• Inspiration & Story-Starters
• Essential Elements of Story
• Settings & World Building
• Perfect Plots
• Characters & Characterisation

Zoom Out: Reading, Reframing & Resilience Workshop

In this brand new workshop, children's author Dannika Patterson invites children to

play with perspective both literally and figuratively!
Using Dannika's SPA Book of the Year 2025 Shortlisted title, Zoom, as a mentor text, children will experience a highly relatable story that follows a child learning to zoom out from the details of his tough day at school and see the bigger pictures.
After the reading, Dannika will share insights into the making of this picture book, and children will be invited to examine a range of old-fashioned cameras, like the one in the story, as well as other kinds of viewfinders. Experimenting with ideas and variables like lens, focus and view, children will be invited to engage in a discussion on how things can change depending on the perspective through which we are viewing them.  
The children will then have the opportunity to create their own cameras and/or 'big pictures' with a range of recycled and upcycled materials.

HEAVY

1 Hour Workshop

Age Range: Ideal for Prep - Year 6 (Can be adapted for high school & adult audiences)

This cross-curriculum story-driven workshop is designed to provoke thought and open age-appropriate discussions about what can be a 'Heavy' topic: intergenerational and societal patterns of load carrying for women and girls. Some handy curriculum links are woven in too, like looking at levers, pulleys, catapults, centre of gravity, loads & weight.

...After reading mentor text HEAVY, Dannika will guide a gentle group discussion of the book's central themes and facilitate a fun, hands-on craft activity and/or experiment using upcycled, recycled (and optionally edible!) materials to help students make relevant real-world connections.

Hedgehog the Wonder Dog

1 Hour Session

Age Range: Prep - Grade 6 (Can be adapted for adult learning and PD)

This highly-engaging author visit encourages children's creativity, love of story, writing and dogs!

Using working examples from the making of the picture book Hedgehog the Wonder Dog, students will learn about this book's journey to publication, the inspiration and research behind the story, as well as other details of the story-writing and book-making process.

Following a reading of Hedgehog the Wonder Dog, Dannika will lead a gentle discussion around the themes in this book, as well as facilitating participant Q&As about...anything!  Kids ask the BEST questions & Dannika is an open book about books!

Curriculum links that can be woven into and around this author visit include: narrative writing, linguistic devices (alliteration, assonance), days of the week, counting. An optional book-themed art/craft component. 

Jacaranda Magic

Working with Jacaranda Magic by Dannika Patterson & Megan Forward as a reference text, participants will learn about the making of a picture book, exercise their imaginations and celebrate nature through story and art.
This highly-engaging workshop encourages children's creativity, love of story, art-appreciation and real-world connection to nature and its seasons.
Using working examples from the making of the picture book Jacaranda Magic, participants will be invited to imagine, hypothesize, problem-solve and get creative.
They'll be shown examples of how flexible thinking and open-ended play can lead to great ideas through an engaging mix of story, science and art.
Curriculum-links built into this workshops include; narrative writing, poetry, science inquiry skills, seasons and weather, eco-systems, growth of trees, chemistry and art (colour-mixing).
This workshop is 100% waste-free, with all materials being either recycled, upcycled or compostable. 

Scribbly Gum Secrets

Working with Scribbly Gum Secrets by Dannika Patterson & Megan Forward as a reference text, participants will discover how fact, fiction, science & art can come together in a picture book...and in life.
This multi-modal workshop fosters creativity, sustainability and ecological awareness for children in a gentle, joyful and highly interactive way.
Using working examples from the making of Scribbly Gum Secrets, participants will be invited to hypothesize, problem-solve, experiment and get creative.They'll learn how our iconic scribbly gum trees get their marks through an engaging mix of story, science and art. Curriculum-links built into this workshops include; narrative writing, poetry, science inquiry skills, eco- systems, life-cycles, biology, five senses and growth of trees (engineering & design in nature).Children are invited to LOOK, TOUCH, FEEL, TASTE & SMELL this story, via a sensory discovery station. This workshop is 100% waste-free, with all materials being either recycled, upcycled or compostable!  

Sea Stories

Age Range:  Kindergarten - Year 6 (Adaptable to other age ranges or adult learning)

This creative workshop encourages participants to enjoy, respect and protect our oceans. Dive into a multi-disciplinary exploration of ocean
environments, using books by Dannika Patterson, as reference texts. This workshop was developed to help foster a deeper understanding & appreciation of the sea and its creatures, through creative word & picture pairings, plus a splash of science.

Using working examples from her ocean-inspired books; SeaSpray17, Beach Kindy and Sera, The Shell and the Storm, Dannika's workshops aim to inspire ecological awareness & a love of books in a gentle, joyful, highly-engaging way. Participants will learn about the life cycle, habitat and migratory patterns of the Greenback Turtle, and will have the opportunity to create their own artistic interpretation of 'Mr Greenback' from reference text SeaSpray17.

Curriculum-links built into this workshops include; narrative writing, poetry, science inquiry skills, environmental science, habitats, life-cycles, earth systems, ethical understanding, cultural understanding & sustainability.

This workshop is 100% waste-free, with all materials being either recycled, upcycled or compostable.

 Beach Kindy

Join author Dannika Patterson on an incursion adventure to the amazing place that is...Beach Kindy!
Like all the story-driven workshops she develops and presents, Dannika's first priority is to meaningfully share her love of books and wild creativity with children in a joyful way. This workshop was developed to help foster a deeper understanding & appreciation of people and place, through story, art, science and sensory elements. Using working examples from her book Beach Kindy, set on Quandamoooka land, Dannika will share this story of people and place that gently encourages early years ecological, social-emotional and cultural awareness.We'll talk Welcome to Country, respect for land, animals & people and name the feelings that often come with new experiences, like the butterfly-filled nerve-citement of first excursions! (Plus a few child-led tangent topics, no doubt!) This workshop aligns with the primary concepts of the Early Years Learning Framework: Being, Belonging and Becoming. P-2 curriculum-links built into this workshops include; narrative writing, science inquiry skills, environmental science, habitats, life-cycles, cultural understanding & sustainability.The Beach Kindy workshop can be run as an incursion style author visit in kindergartens, primary schools, libraries, education centres, community events and writers festivals. This workshop is 100% waste-free, with all materials being either recycled, upcycled or compostable. 

Playing with Stories

Ideal workshop duration is 1 - 1.5 hours. Ideal for Prep-Grade 2

Inspired by one of the opening lines from Jacaranda Magic, this workshop is all about creativity & playfulness, using everyday objects as provocation.

• Workshops start and finish with stories by Dannika Patterson
• Children work in groups to 'Imagineer' new worlds, characters & stories
• Workshop focus on fun & engagement, with reflection on how thinking & playing in an open-ended way can be used to level-up creative writing.

Fabulous Fractured Fairy Tales 

This highly-engaging writing workshop encourages children's creativity and love of story, particularly in the forms of fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
Students will learn all about the tradition of fairy tales, how to twist them and tips for writing their own versions.
With inspiration from the pages of the fundraising anthology 'Once Upon a WHOOPS!' by Australia's Anthology Angels, as well as other reference sources, students will leave this session inspired to have a go at writing their own fabulous fractured fairy tales and not-quite-right nursery rhymes. Curriculum links include: narrative writing, linguistic devices, story structure.  

Customised Author Incursion

To suit your requirements