Ahimsa Kids: Set Teachers

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  • Virtual / Remote Set Tutoring / Teaching Options

    A bit of Zoom Storytelling fun!

    Ahimsa Kids has been providing teachers to production sets for 15 years now and we are excited to forge forward into this school year with our additional offerings of virtual set tutoring, in response to UBCP’s recommendation of remote set teaching, during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    Our teachers have already been very active in the virtual space, long before in-person teaching came to a halt. Over the last few months we have even created our own online learning platform, the StoryToGo Classroom, and have been running camps and small group interactive courses there, including BCIT’s first online summer camps!  We will be able to tailor online learning hubs for remote instruction for any productions that need that this school year.

    A BCIT Summer Camp on the StoryToGo Classroom site.

    Our team has designed and taught online courses through BCIT for 8-years now, in addition to delivering virtual instruction to all ages, from family yoga classes to piano lessons, story coding camps, and acting classes to corporate mindfulness sessions. We understand the importance of building connection and finding efficient, yet creative and enjoyable ways to get important academic concepts across. 

    Ella showing us how she coded her story.

    Erica Hargreave, the founder of Ahimsa Kids, is currently working on her Master of Educational Technology and is passing on and incorporating all of the latest methods of utilizing digital technology to teach remotely to our certified teachers. We are ready and prepared to adapt to the needs of your production! 

    Sam walking us through an animated story that he created.

    Learn more about us on the main Ahimsa Kids site, and please reach out with any questions: info[at]ahimsakids.com/ / 604-785-3602.

  • Working With Minors On Set in BC: An Inspirational Quote

    One of the most wonderful aspects of working with minors on set in BC is that every day has the possibility of bringing new experiences for our students and teachers.  Being well prepared for your day is essential in the film industry, but being able to go with the flow and adapt to changes is equally as important.  Our team of set teachers find themselves very fortunate to work with small groups, and often times individual students where they are able to assess a child’s state of mind as they move through their day together.  Being in tune means knowing when it’s the right time to teach a more complicated subject and when it’s time to enjoy lighter material. It also means being open to learn new things from the students!

    something to think about when working with minors on set in BC
    Every day is a new adventure that, although carefully planned, lends itself to unexpected learning moments of discovery for all.

    Sometimes a child actor we work with is in their very first role, so having a set tutor who is experienced with life on a set is invaluable for the guidance they provide and confidence they instill in the child. After all, we do remember what it’s like to be students ourselves!  We pride ourselves on being open minded to the needs of the parents and perceptive to the needs of production.  Being willing to work with, and learn from everyone has provided our team with countless memories to cherish and carry forward with us onto each new show.

  • On Set

    Over the years, our teachers have enjoyed being a part of a wide variety of production crews.  Shows that our teachers have worked on as tutors on set in BC and elsewhere in Canada include:

  • Production Services

    Ahimsa Kids is a full service set tutoring agency in BC that caters to the needs of production and child actors in British Columbia. We offer our services for:

    • set tutoring
    • child coordinating

    Filming in Golden Ears Provincial Park: Beauty is one of the blessings of being a set teaching agency in Vancouver!
    Filming in Golden Ears Provincial Park: Beauty is one of the blessings of being a set teaching agency in Vancouver!

    Our Service to Production
    We provide production with:

    • Certified teachers whom have undergone criminal record checks.
    • Free consultation prior to and during production with regards to meeting health, welfare and schooling requirements for minors and school aged youth.
    • Communication with the parents and school with regards to the child’s schooling.
    • Organized paperwork for production on schooling.
    • Substitute teachers in the event of an illness.
    • School supplies.

    Our Teachers
    We provide production with a network of teachers who:

    • Are certified in BC, Alberta, Ontario and the United States, including a California Studio Teacher.
    • Have undergone criminal record checks.
    • Have a full complement of specialties including French, French Immersion, Japanese, Science, Math, Business, Language Arts, Social Studies, Drama, Fine Arts, PE, and the middle and primary years.
    • Are trained with production and set knowledge.

    Commonly Asked Questions:

  • Our Teachers

    Lori (one of our many set teachers in Vancouver), and Charlie on the Set of Charlie St. Cloud
    Lori (one of our many set teachers in Vancouver), and Charlie on the Set of Charlie St. Cloud

    Ahimsa Kids provides qualified teachers for film and TV productions that hire school age actors.  We have a team of set tutors in BC who are passionate about education, love to teach, and understand day to day life on a set. They work with the child, their family, and the production to ensure that the child has the best possible experience on-set, while keeping up in their school work and fulfilling the role they were hired for. These teachers have undergone a criminal record check and are certified in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and the United States, including a California Certified Studio Teacher. They are also willing to travel for productions filming on location elsewhere. To learn about our individual teachers, please click on the links above to see their bios.

  • Happy Holidays from Ahimsa Kids, Live From Burnaby Village Museum

    The winter holidays to us at Ahimsa Kids are all about spending time having fun and laughing with folks we love.  It is for this reason that Lori and I take a break from the pre-holiday craziness each year to be goofy and shoot a holiday card together. We admit, we add quite a bit of fun on a regular basis while working together at our set tutoring agency in Vancouver, but we love to step it up for special occasions!

    A typical bit of Erica / Lori silliness, as caught by the talented Jeremy Lim.

    This year’s shoot was even more delightful than usual, as we were fortunate enough to shoot at the Burnaby Village Museum, which is such a magical place.  What an absolutely perfect location for two gals that have a love for hands-on learning and engaging in creative ways!  If you haven’t been, you must go.  Burnaby Village Museum is a living history museum, with historic interpretors dressed in period clothing there to spin tales for you of BC’s history.  Having worked in such environments in my teens and twenties, I can tell you I view such sites with a discerning eye and am not easily impressed.  Burnaby Village Museum impresses me.  It is a place of magic.

    To experience a bit of the magic yourself you can visit the Museum from noon until 8 pm each day, up until January 2nd, 2011.  Who knows you may even see Rudolph.  He was after all created there.

    After that the Museum doesn’t reopen until May 2011, except for special event openings.  Hoping they host their scavenger hunt again in February and March.

  • Ooey Gooey Good Animal Track Activity

    At Ahimsa Kids Set Tutoring Agency, we have a tradition of sharing a yearly activity that can be enjoyed with friends and family, and you don’t have to be a kid to have fun with it. We hope you enjoy this year’s activity inspired by our own team of set tutors in BC. After all, who wouldn’t enjoy hunting for animal tracks…or eating them for that matter?!

    One of our favourite winter time activities is animal tracking, especially in the snow.  I love finding animal tracks, identifying them, and creating stories of the critters that left the tracks behind on their travels. And animal tracks can be found anywhere in winter, even if there is no snow.  If there isn’t any snow, go hunting in the mud or on ground where the mud has hardened, for some tracks.

    animal tracks

    Here are some fun kitchen goodies that are easy for all ages to whip up and can help you to learn your animal tracks.

    Peanut Butter Snack Tracks (A Tracey Temple Invention)

    Recipe:

    • Mix ½ c peanut butter, ½ c icing sugar, 1 tbsp softened butter, and ½ c Rice Krispies together.

    Activity:

    1. With your young ones or the young at heart, take a heaping spoonful of the peanut butter mixture, flatten the peanut butter ‘dirt’ and make the imprints different animal tracks in it,using the picture of animal tracks as a guide.
    2. Stick the peanut butter tracks in the fridge to harden.
    3. Whilst your peanut butter tracks are hardening, enjoy a winter walk and search for animal tracks, identify them, and create stories of the travels of the animals that left the tracks behind.
    4. Share your animal track stories and teach your family and friends some track id as you enjoy your peanut buttery snacks.

    You can also find last year’s paper making activity here.

    Happy Holidays!

    The Gang at Ahimsa Kids

  • PB and LA: A Lesson From A Studio Teacher in Vancouver

    We have some cool teachers working with us!  Was reminded of that by this Language Arts set teaching activity that Lori Yearwood, one of our Studio Teachers in Vancouver, recently did with Charlie Tahan on the set of Charlie St Cloud.

    Lori wanted to stress the importance of including details in his writing. To do this, she had him write out how to make a peanut butter sandwich. She then followed his instructions to the T.  So if he wrote, ‘put jam on the bread’, she would sit the whole jar on top of the bread because he did not specify to use a knife.

    Charlie is a funny kid, so at the end of his instructions he wrote that ‘it is always important to add your own flare’. Being two fun and silly soles, this then sparked Lori and Charlie to turn the lesson into a big food art competition.  Their creations:

    Set Teaching Activity: PB and LA
    The final entries in the mini home economics/language arts set teaching activity delivered competition style. Which plate would you vote for?

    Wish I’d been there to see this!  Would have been a hoot! This is just one example of how our set teachers make learning an enjoyable experience for students who are often away from home as they work on a production.

  • Where Are They Now?: Alex Ferris

    Alex Ferris
    Alex Ferris (2009)

    One of my favourite things about set teaching is all of the cool kids that we meet along the way, so I’ve created this category of the blog, ‘Do You Know Where Your Children Are?’ to highlight what they are up to.  One of my favourite kids and a young fellow I met early on in my set teaching days is Alex Ferris.  I think we first met on Masters of Horror, back when he was 8 years old.

    Well, I was very pleased to see this article on Alex in the Vancouver Sun two weeks ago and to see that Alex had been nominated a second year running for a Young Artists Award.  Congratulations Alex!  And congrats on the opening of your latest film, The Time Traveler’s Wife!

    At 12, young Vancouver actor is already a veteran

    By Peter Birnie, Vancouver SunAugust 14, 2009

    How does a young actor break into show business? Here’s one approach:

    “Dear Agent, I am a very cute boy, I am smart, and you should hire me — Alex Ferris.”

    Go ahead, laugh all you want. But that brief missive worked, and the seven-year-old lad whose mother forwarded the letter and a photo to a talent agency has had a busy career in film and television ever since.

    Alex Ferris went for his first audition, and “booked” it — that means he got the part. He worked with Hollywood veteran Jon Voigt in the TV movie The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and has been busy ever since.

    Now 12, Ferris can be seen the feature films RV, The Invisible, Runaway Vacation, Memory and X3. Or you can turn on the TV to catch him in The L Word, Terminal City, Harper’s Island, Stargate SGI, Smallville and Supernatural, among others.

    Then there’s his regular job doing voiceover work at Dick & Roger’s, a Gastown sound studio, which takes Ferris away from Kerrisdale public school.

    “I regularly have to miss half a day on Wednesday,” he explains, “because I do a show called Martha Speaks. It’s a cartoon on PBS.”

    For his role in New Line Cinema’s feature film The Time Traveler’s Wife, which opens today, Ferris took three trips to Toronto (“We worked late nights and it was really freezing cold,” he notes) and missed a big chunk of school.

    Strict rules for young actors meant that he had to make up his studies each day with tutors on set.

    “It definitely limits my free time, but not so much if I work really hard at the end of the day,” he says.

    “Complete focus, I can really get a lot done.”

    For two years running, Ferris has been nominated for a Young Artist Award. That means a trip to Los Angeles and a chance to hang with his peers.

    “It was a blast,” he enthuses. “A ton of other kids, and I got a few autographs — Emma Roberts, some people from Zoey 101, two people from Bridge to Terabithia, and Corey in the House.”

    Ferris is next booked for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a movie based on the popular series of children’s books by Jeff Kinney. Although he enjoys collecting pre-teen travel points, the actor is happy to be working on that project in Vancouver.

    “We have quite a good industry and there’s a lot of filming done here,” he says matter-of-factly. “But I’ll go wherever a job takes me.”

    pbirnie@vancouversun.com