As an organisation passionate about delivering Welsh-medium education to the children of Wales, Mudiad Meithrin is delighted to announce that the new Dewin a’r Mabinogi (Dewin and the Mabinogi) resource will be launched at 3.30 on Tuesday afternoon, 8th August on the Mudiad stand at the Llŷn and Eifionydd National Eisteddfod in the presence of the author Anni Llŷn.
Anni Llŷn said:
“Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi are our oldest legends here in Wales. The ‘Pedair Cainc’ are made up of four legends and they are long and complex stories, so only very small parts are told in the Dewin a’r Mabinogi resource. They’re not children’s stories per se! So I adapted small sections of the legends to introduce them to young children. But they are a big part of our roots as a nation, a big part of how we in Wales love to use “story” to make sense of the world and its things. Just like young children do so.”
The creation of this resource was made possible through a grant awarded to the Mudiad by the Welsh Government to create Welsh-medium educational resources. The Dewin a’r Mabinogi resource is one of the series of resources created and aimed primarily at Cylchoedd Meithrin and day nurseries and childcare settings delivering funded early years education and the Child Care Offer to children between 3 and 5 years of age.
The resource includes adapted sections of stories from the Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi (Four legends of the Mabinogi) called ‘Pwyll a Rhiannon’, ‘Branwen’, ‘Manawydan’ and ‘Blodeuwedd’ as well as a short presentation for staff on how to use the resource. The resource is available in 2 formats on the Learning and Development resources – Meithrin section of our website. You can choose either to download the individual stories as a Power Point presentation with activities to accompany each story or watch a simple animation of the story (with Welsh voiceover).
Eleri Llewelyn Owen, National Welsh in Education Project Manager, Education Consortia Wales said:
“It is great to see new opportunities and new digital approaches to introduce the important stories of the Mabinogi for a new generation of Welsh children. The Education Consortia across all regions have also identified the need and have benefited from the Mudiad’s experience in initiating the development of similar resources to promote the Mabinogi and develop the Welsh language skills of our pupils within the English-medium schools. We would like to wish the project the best of luck!”
Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies, Chief Executive of Mudiad Meithrin, said:
“Since its inception in 1971, Mudiad Meithrin has led the way in creating various resources for the early years Welsh-medium sector. On every step of the journey, and with every relevant development, we set about leading the sector with the publication of suitable and appropriate resources, co-creating them with the sector itself. This funding has enabled us to create a new resource pack for Cylchoedd Meithrin and day nurseries, and as they are available to all via our website they are also of benefit to schools.”
Anni Llŷn added:
“We need to gain pride and awareness of these legends so that we can encourage the little ones to explore more of our past and our history when they are older. There’s certainly enough here to capture their imagination!”
A warm welcome is extended to everyone to drop in at the launch at 3.30 on Tuesday, 8th August at Mudiad Meithrin stand at the Llŷn and Eifionydd National Eisteddfod in Boduan.
