![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puppetmakerYes, I have been quiet this week but if you read last weeks CT, you will know pretty much why.
At Caroline’s school in the last month of school, they hold a Field Day were the children are divided up into teams and compete for points with a nice shiny ribbon for the prize. For the past 4 years I have been helping out with the puppet show we do in the Library during Field Day. The puppet show is in the air conditioned Library giving the kids a break from the sun and heat of the field. We sit them down to rest for a set period of time and try to amuse them.
This year was a little different since our wonderful Librarian was working at more than one school due to budget cuts. So rather than being there all the time and working with the children and teachers to ensure that we had a group of children who feel invested in the Library and how to use it, they decided to make it hard for him to get anything done in a timely fashion because he has to run multiple libraries at the same time. (As you can tell, I am not happy about this at all.) Since we had so little time we decided to go the variety route and use puppets and songs that we could tailor for our audience. We looked at the puppets that we had and decided maybe a Sea Themed show was in order.
I made a couple of puppets for the show and redressed other puppets I have at hand so we would have the characters to tell a story through the music.
First off an octopus was a must because there are a number of songs that have octopi in them.
(For the VI: this is an orange 8 legged octopus with a yellow underbelly. It is on a stack of boxes and things to show off the legs sitting on my work table.)
So we used him for “Octopus’ Garden” and “Billy the Squid” among other things. This is a glove puppet. The fingers go into a glove under the Octopus to move the tentacles.
Then I made three little Fish for the song “Three Little Fishies” I still have the chorus suck in my head. We used the Andrew Sisters version of the song.
(For the VI: These are three fish puppets. They are on my worktable where you can see the paws of my cat Millie at the top right part of the frame and a blue clam in the top left part of the frame. The top fish has a blue body and green fins. The middle fish has a green body and blue fins. The bottom fish has a red body and yellow fins.)
These are finger puppets that I put rods into so we could manipulate them and pass them off from puppeteer to puppeteer.
Clams seemed a must have for chorus singing and “Billy the Squid”
(For the VI: These are two clam puppets on my worktable. They are blue with red mouths and ping pong balls on top for eyes.)
These were hand puppets and took the longest to make since I had to work the pattern through twice to get the look I was going for. But they got some of the biggest giggles from the kids.
We also used a number of toys and stuffed animals to round out the company included a Ken doll on a surfboard.
Overall I think the kids enjoyed it. We got through the 6 shows with minimal injury. I pulled a back muscle in the next to the last show and almost went out. That’s what I get for leaning at that angle for that period of time.
I am grateful that we had Peter as the MC of the show.
At Caroline’s school in the last month of school, they hold a Field Day were the children are divided up into teams and compete for points with a nice shiny ribbon for the prize. For the past 4 years I have been helping out with the puppet show we do in the Library during Field Day. The puppet show is in the air conditioned Library giving the kids a break from the sun and heat of the field. We sit them down to rest for a set period of time and try to amuse them.
This year was a little different since our wonderful Librarian was working at more than one school due to budget cuts. So rather than being there all the time and working with the children and teachers to ensure that we had a group of children who feel invested in the Library and how to use it, they decided to make it hard for him to get anything done in a timely fashion because he has to run multiple libraries at the same time. (As you can tell, I am not happy about this at all.) Since we had so little time we decided to go the variety route and use puppets and songs that we could tailor for our audience. We looked at the puppets that we had and decided maybe a Sea Themed show was in order.
I made a couple of puppets for the show and redressed other puppets I have at hand so we would have the characters to tell a story through the music.
First off an octopus was a must because there are a number of songs that have octopi in them.
(For the VI: this is an orange 8 legged octopus with a yellow underbelly. It is on a stack of boxes and things to show off the legs sitting on my work table.)
So we used him for “Octopus’ Garden” and “Billy the Squid” among other things. This is a glove puppet. The fingers go into a glove under the Octopus to move the tentacles.
Then I made three little Fish for the song “Three Little Fishies” I still have the chorus suck in my head. We used the Andrew Sisters version of the song.
(For the VI: These are three fish puppets. They are on my worktable where you can see the paws of my cat Millie at the top right part of the frame and a blue clam in the top left part of the frame. The top fish has a blue body and green fins. The middle fish has a green body and blue fins. The bottom fish has a red body and yellow fins.)
These are finger puppets that I put rods into so we could manipulate them and pass them off from puppeteer to puppeteer.
Clams seemed a must have for chorus singing and “Billy the Squid”
(For the VI: These are two clam puppets on my worktable. They are blue with red mouths and ping pong balls on top for eyes.)
These were hand puppets and took the longest to make since I had to work the pattern through twice to get the look I was going for. But they got some of the biggest giggles from the kids.
We also used a number of toys and stuffed animals to round out the company included a Ken doll on a surfboard.
Overall I think the kids enjoyed it. We got through the 6 shows with minimal injury. I pulled a back muscle in the next to the last show and almost went out. That’s what I get for leaning at that angle for that period of time.
I am grateful that we had Peter as the MC of the show.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-08 05:23 pm (UTC)The local school district is also starting the "librarian in charge of more than one school" thing. It stinks.