Wilf Pauls Games and Story | Games Project

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Wilf Pauls, Author, Games Guy, Storyteller

Hi! I'm Wilf Pauls the Non-digital Games and Story Guy. Check out my children's stories and traditional games.

About

About Me

Wilf Pauls is a non-digital games enthusiast and author dedicated to creating captivating stories for children. With a passion for traditional games, storytelling, and fostering imagination, Wilf brings a unique blend of creativity and entertainment to his projects. Explore the site to discover the exciting world of non-digital games and storytelling.

Education & Experience

School Visits: Storytelling and Games

Children's Books

Wilf Pauls has encouraged thousands of children in their love of learning through stories, magic, science experiments, music, trivia, and real-life experiences. He has published four children's books: Baby Brawn Hockey Superstar, Baby Brawn Basketball Superstar, Fweddy the Wed Fwog Pwince, and The Baseball Bat (A True Story). Cathy Steeves was the Illustrator for the Baby Brawn books while Myron Born illustrated Fweddy the Wed Fwog Pwince.

Author Visits

A typical author visit:

Baby Brawn Hockey Superstar – I start off telling fascinating hockey stories/trivia, this leads to the writing process, we play table hockey (I bring up to 8 games) and then I introduce and read the book at the end. (I bring my own projector/screen). Group Size: 30 Time: 45 minutes Space: seating/ 3 long tables, projector/screen

Baby Brawn Basketball Superstar – I use the history of basketball as a basis for the writing process and the development of this basketball story. As we talk about the evolution of the game and the types of shots, students have the opportunity to shoot hoops at my two mini 6’ basketball hoops plus an apple box and a basket which are set up on ladders. Then I give more details of my story and read the book on the big screen at the end.

Group Size: 32-36 Time: 50-55 minutes Space: seating/4 hoops, projector/screen

Fweddy the Wed Fwog Pwince – We play with words and I tell stories about people who have trouble saying certain letters. This leads to a chat about bullying with more true oral stories. We even sing a few tunes, purposely twisting the words. I introduce the story and then read it on the big screen.

Group Size: 60 Time: 45 minutes Space: seating for group, projector/screen

The Baseball Bat (A True Story) - I do a short bio of places we’ve lived. This leads to several entertaining, attention grabbing true stories about honesty, stealing and consequences. Baseball vocab and stories are in the mix. I share the writing process and particular details of this story before I read it on the big screen. If time allows, I have follow-up questions from the back of the book.

Group Size: 60-125 Time: 45 minutes Space: seating for group, projector/screen

The Games Project

The Games Project introduces four traditional non-digital games: Sjoelbak (Holland), Crokinole (Southern Ontario), Table Hockey (Canada) and Pitchnut (Quebec; a variation of Carom from India). This can involve up to 64 students/adults, if you have space (gym or large room) for 4 Pitchnut Games, 4 Crokinole Boards, 6-8 Table Hockey Games and 6 Sjoelbak Games.

This is a hands-on session involving all students and adults as participants. It works best from grade three and up. A typical session is as follows:

A. I introduce each game and throw in some of its history.

B. All students play all four games for 6–10 minutes each. We divide them into groups of four and they rotate to each station.

C. We bring the big group together and I read a true story called “The Crokinole Kid” which involves my grandson participating in the BC Crokinole Championships with me in 2019 when he was in Grade 6.

It works best when we have 70-75 minutes/session. This is adjustable…I’ve done one-hour sessions where we shorten things up. I bring my own screen/projector plus 10 tables. You need 32 chairs & a few more long tables.

These are the Games I bring to your school.

Table Hockey Sjoelbak Crokinole Pitchnut

The Africa Project

I've put together a series of true stories/experiences from Africa which will keep your classes wide awake and entertained with a combination of laughter, intensity, warmth and wonderful lessons learned.

These stories cover the range of:

a. living in another, very different culture

b. snake stories

c. stealing episodes

d. tarantulas in science class

e. bartering and African money

f. how a leper named Toza showed us an unforgettable example of gratefulness.

Audience size can be fairly large - 100 + although smaller is always cozier.

Age Range: Gr. 3 - Adult

Time: about 45 - 60 minutes. 3 sessions/day.