4 sessions of 45 mins with each of three classes over six weeks one day a week. Approx 15 children in each class with one teacher and one classroom assistant. The children were 4-5 years.

Objectives

For the school: Language development and encouraging social play

For both: Creative expression, helping children develop technical/manual skills in making and playing with puppets, learning in pleasurable ways etc.

In addition for me: it served as research for my new show for little ones about growing and its challenges and pleasures (including learning how to sleep). 

Get in 9 am, prep glue tray in classroom, newspaper prep for tables, meet teachers etc till 9.20 when children begin to come in.

Teachers then apron and name-sticker, settle children etc

Week one 9.45-10.30 and second group 10.45-11.30

The plan: Seated in a circle getting to know each other, meeting my baby puppet wrapped in a blanket, remembering being small, what couldn`t you do then that you can do now? counting, acting out growing from a tiny egg into themselves,  demo on how to make their puppets (emphasizing various possibilities, that there is no one way to do it etc), moving to tables and `birthing` (making) baby puppets, wrapping them in fabric, labeling them and putting them to sleep, return to circle, collecting all the ideas that are good for helping you sleep, singing them to the `babies` until they sleep, the babies are put away in the `nursery box`.

The acutality! Write up:

Circle time: worked really well for two of the groups but one group was chaotic so I achieved the bare bones of it only, but even this group did enjoy it. Looking in everyone`s eyes and saying their names checking pronunciations was a nice check in /calm down. At this age they seemed unable to supply much info/memories about being tiny, save the children who have baby brothers/sisters. Bottle feeding came out though as a clear idea and works well for me: I pretended to feed and then burp my baby (later children did this with theirs), I did it three times, and on third it puked a little too, which makes them laugh so this was repeated on the second week. Acting out growing from a tiny egg into themselves while counting ages worked well  - they do love to enact things and action and song is more likely to attract their attention than talk of course. It worked even better then the second time. On meeting my baby puppet, they like to make rocking arms themselves. One teacher squealed in distaste as puppet came out the `nakedness` of it she said afterwards that they are a bit `creepy` for her. So with the third group I tried a polystyrene ball on stick like they have for making theirs. I am not sure this is as successful but was useful in the workshop context as I could go straight into making demo. But with a little more making I think I might prefer it to the `lifelike` one, I am tiring of the cuteness of the foam carving I am doing and like the simplicity and abstraction of the simpler form. Demo on how to make their puppets (emphasizing various possibilities, that there is no one way to do it etc) worked well, they love the making, becoming very happy and absorbed when we moved to the tables (teachers calling them one by one) and having the materials prepped in pots and fabric rolls so they could be given out easily at stages when they were ready also worked. We held back on the glue until they had had some play time with the collage pieces and were asking for it, etc as they can so easily be swamped or distracted at this age. We had a couple of glue fiends too - the children who just love buttering the glue thickly on and although it is messy I let them at it as far as possible. The split pins are very popular as well they can mostly push them into the polystyrene balls themselves - they proved useful as hole makers too to facilitate their using the cropped q-tips as noses or ears etc. And they can be taken out again - a couple in the third group undid their heads again at the end. They will get a second go at these collage materials after making the body (they took so much pleasure in them the first time around I decided to bring them back out again) so it doesn`t matter and it is handy for absent children / late children too.  As they finished we encouraged them to return things to pots and we began to remove glue where we could and then they chose blankets for their babies (I had to make sure these were not glued on at this stage though as they are to become the bodies when the puppets `grow` ), we wrapped and sang to the babies then. As we were out of time and due to logistics we did not return to the circle, earlier a child had suggested rock-a-bye baby as a lullaby and as they all knew that, it helped us all sing and put closure on the session, the children each carefully placing their wrapped baby in the `nursery box`. The nursery box stays in the classroom all week and the teachers say it is nice as it keeps the puppets in their minds. 

Week two, the plan:

Circle time: welcome, recap (re `grow` while counting if that worked well) talk about waking up, what are the good things to wake up to, enact waking (if we didn`t do growing). Make up a waking song (if sleeping song worked well last week). My puppet wakes, it has grown! (growing re-enaction possibly here). Will we wake their puppets and make them grow? Look at the puppet clock to see if it is time to wake them, nearly! Demo possibilities for body and hair of puppet, then it is time, and we wake the puppets and move to tables to attach arms and add hair, the puppets are gluey and sleepy, puppets are put in the nursery box and then in the circle we remember our sleeping song from last week (possibly playback).

The actuality: This second session worked well also. I am also getting a lot of pleasure from the work. I developed a wig and different body for the first week`s puppet so it could appear to have grown. I brought it in wrapped in cloth like last time, then unwrapped after they had done their `growing` enactment. It toddled and fell on its bum, they liked that so I did it a few times, it go gooed and then began to speak with the children guessing what age it was a different stages, so yes a puppet that could grow before their eyes would be good especially in the context of their enactment first, so this model is not quite there yet, the wig being too hard to assemble etc. After their first session I had cut a slit in the centre of each baby`s blanket to facilitate it changing into a costume - they insert the puppet stick in this `neck hole`. So I told the children when they got their babies back they could look for this `sign` (showing it on my sample) that their baby was ready to grow. I showed how to `dress` the baby and demo-ed the more technical demands of adding hands (q-tips which can be both rod and hand when glued into the corner of the cloth). A child demanded a demo on how to add feet but in fact few of them went that far in actuality and I didn`t demo it to the other groups. It was interesting that some of the children understood these quite technical directives (though not all of course) remembering for example to lie the puppet down and open the cloth over their head (I had played `Peek-a-Boo!` a little with my puppet to encourage this) to help them find the corners for the arms. Another boy though, forgetting or having missed this, came up with his own way of attaching arms (which also had to do with the fact that he had made a kind of breast plate on his puppet stick with a large sequin) which was nice and simple - just twisting the pipe cleaners on, and I showed to the final group the following week. I had introduced pipe-cleaners to tie the neck pieces into position over the glue, as a decorative and double sticking feature and we were using these also on the hands but of course they make grand hands themselves or can be used to attach the hands to the rod instead of the costume. Once the hands had been mastered by the children I began to reintroduce the small collage pieces, sequins, felt etc from the first session and feathers, fake fur scraps, wool strings etc for hair. By now some of the puppets were already `running around` and interacting and some of the children finished early were encouraged to `give them a bottle`. Then we cuddled them and sang them into their nursery again, in one group I started to make up new words to the old tune (this time the teacher had suggested twinkle twinkle) and that got their attention, especially using their own names/school name so they know it is specific. The puppets are gorgeous.

Week three No aprons needed

The Plan: Circle time, puppet talks about places she passed through on her way to the school, maybe shows the children some pictures of places, draws from children their favorite places and the places they need/have in their lives. Before we wake the children`s puppets we decide to prepare some places for them as a surprise. Using fabric and blocks (if we could have the central area for this it would be great) the children collaborate on making all the places they think their puppets will need. We wake the puppets (with our wake up song) we tell them it is morning time, and they come out to play in the world we have made them. I will photograph these places. We use the puppet clock (and "dongs") to mark the span of a day, at bedtime, the puppets are sleepy we put them to bed. The children come to the circle to tell about what the puppets did and enjoyed (or we may see if the puppets can do this instead). We sing our lullaby (if it worked!)

What actually happened: In advance to the session I had collected some images from magazines to stand in as the puppet`s `favorite places` I stuck these on pieces of colored paper, I also collected some map images of Dublin. I started as usual, checking in with the children in the circle and with some of the groups we re-enacted growing etc, sang the puppet awake, etc. When the puppet came out he and asked them would they like to make a surprise for their puppets - make special places for them and asking for ideas of the children`s favorite places - they came up with football pitches, home, play ground, etc. Then the puppet handed out the maps to share in twos and we talked about what the different markings were standing for - lines for roads or blue lines for rivers, green squares for parks, squares for buildings etc. Then the puppet collected the maps and showed the favorite places images encouraging the children to discuss what they saw and sharing them out in pairs also. The puppet then collected them and told how we were going to move to the central area, where they were not going to play as usual, but sit on the bench while I showed them the materials to make their surprise for the puppets. The teachers called them into their line and we relocated. I asked what they noticed as being different about the room and we discussed how the climbing frame had changed into a snowy topped mountain (courtesy of green and white sheets with a plastic `frozen` lake on the top) and how the blue lino floor could be the sea for Puppetland. I then laid out seven or eight colored sheets on the floor saying how they were islands for the puppets and the children could make special places for the puppets to play on them. The sheets were A2, but I would have worked even larger had storage space in the school allowed for it. I then introduced the children to the materials available. By each sheet, where they would work in pairs, I put a box of crayons, pritt stick (introducing it to them, as it was new to many of them, they were very fascinated with it and used it like a mark maker as well as an adhesive) and scissors. I also told them how the teachers and I would wear rolls of tape like bracelets and if they needed tape we could cut some for them. We also put extra pieces of tape on the crayon boxes to give the children as much creative independence as possible. This gave me a chance to make it clear to the teachers/assistants that we were technical assistants to the children`s work. I provided masking tape, a shiny red tape, and some coloured insulating tape that became particularly popular. The tape was also as important as mark makers as affixer. I also showed them that I had some interesting cardboard pieces and boxes (blank ones from Lidl some with intriguing holes in them etc), coloured cellophanes and sugar papers, tracing paper and pipe cleaners. I showed them how the latter could be bent at the end and taped on to create uprights, etc, as well as being used in other ways as decorations etc. Then the teacher called them out to choose their coloured paper or put them in pairs, and they started to work. Many of the teachers went immediately into corrective mode, trying to guide the children to doing the `right thing` but when I encouraged them to relax about it, and not worry too much about what they were doing as long as they were absorbed and happy, they relaxed and enjoyed the work as much as the children. Many of them were so excited by the materials, colors and textures that they had forgotten the objectives, but it wasn`t as important as the pleasure they were taking in the work, and by asking about what they were doing and trying not to do it in ways that were too leading or directive, those who were creating specific things could develop their ideas and enjoy the imaginative journey they were taking, and others could get ideas and come back to the theme. But it was not necessary that they stuck to it. The atmosphere in the room was lovely and the children were very absorbed in and excited by the work. The only group who had members who declared themselves finished before time had to be called were the last group who because of missing their slot the previous week were given extra time - an hour in total as opposed to the 45 mins the other groups got. This group had just about time to play with the puppets in the space before we needed to lullaby them to their new beds on the islands and wind down and bring closure to their three week`s work. The other two groups were taking such pleasure in the making that we let them at it deciding to allow them further time the following week and introduce the puppets then. It was very interesting that even the most challenging group in terms of attention span, settled down quietly to this task. One little girl who has great attention difficulties co-operated with her partner and worked happily and productively throughout the session. There was only one child who opted out of the task but I think, unfortunately, he was already having a bad day before the session and was negative from the start. 

Week four No aprons needed

The Plan: Circle time: the puppet and I show them back the photos of the places they made their puppets the week before. If they had not time enough last week for playing then we will just remake or develop these places using the same stuff, and take more playing time perhaps introducing more of a narrative (maybe time structure only comes in this week for example). or, we may make large scale collaborative `maps` on A1 paper using crayons, card and basic collage materials, and then let the puppets play in their more `permanent` world. Alternatively I may have them make this world on week three, finish it week four, allowing for more extensive play in it the second week.

Closure here, is there possibilities for bringing all the children together, do shorter sessions and then one of them all together? Sharing their `worlds` for a big play session, or their songs?? Or else to build in the closure/celebration to each group`s session. if we are making over the two weeks, we could make some party food for the puppets and have a puppet party for them at the end.

The actuality: 

For the two groups who had four sessions, I started in the classroom as usual, with remembering what we had done the previous week. We the tiptoed out into the central area where their islands were waiting for them. We discussed how they might like to make bridges between the islands and finish them off which they set to happily. Then we decided it was time to let the puppets visit the islands, with one group I sailed the nursery box from island to island distributing them, and with the other they sat back on the bench while we gave out the puppets, and I gave each a sheet of card to act as their boat to sail to their island. Later, after they had explored their own island they were encouraged to visit other islands (some of them using the boats again). They then played a little until as time began to run out I suggested they prepare some supper for the puppets before they put them to bed. I brought out the sequins, buttons etc that had been eyes, mouths and so on, the first week and they now became the food. I gave out bottle tops as bowls first. The puppets had their meal and then the children made them beds. The first group, where the puppets had sailed to the islands and the materials had not all been put away first, took to taping them into their islands. This group in particular were not pleased at all that they had to leave the puppets at the end of the session. Although this was their last session I wanted to hold off on their going home yet as we had one group cancelled and I was wondering if we could all do something together for the last spare session. When the puppets were tucked up securely, we sang them a lullaby and sat on the bench to wind down the session. For the final week in the end I didn`t feel there was a premise that would work to bring all the children and puppets happily and productively into the one space so I took ten- twenty minutes with the first two groups in turn to just discuss with them all we had done, re enacting our growing, and bringing out the puppet at the end to ask them one by one what they had liked and was there anything they disliked or found hard. They were very positive about it all (as were the teachers) and chose suprising things as favorites - loking at the puppets favorite places` pictures for example came up, but making the islands, playing with the puppets, feeding the babies etc were all mentioned also. The puppet then, as at the end of most sessions, said goodbye to each child individually with them choosing to shake its hand or kiss or hug it as they liked. The foam puppet did inspire more affection than the more abstract one that I tried on the last group. The children were delighted that they would be bringing homw their puppets at last "I`m going to take mine to bed with me" shouted one little girl "Me Too!"s answered everywhere.

2x15 children, 1 teacher, 1 classroom assistant?

Materials/prep week 1

heads prepped with lolly sticks

Prep wrapping squares

eye boxes

Q-tips cut to 2cms approx

PVA Glue

Glue pots

glue sticks, tray

Name stickers for puppets (use children`s if possible)

Newspapers

baby puppet, wrapped, place to keep it `off-stage` (a `carrycot`? box)

means to record lullaby?

Nursery box x 2

Materials/prep week:2

Toddler body for my puppet, more grown up hair, `off stage` place??

Make puppet clock (cut this as I had already spent too long on prep)

`Hair` feathers, wool, fake fur etc

Hands (Qtips uncut)

PVA Glue, pots, sticks etc

Newspapers

Small fabric scraps?

Pipe cleaners prepped in yoghurt pots for easy hand-out/sharing

Materials/prep week:3

Pictures of real places

Map samples

Large brightly colored sheets of paper

Interesting assorted cardboard boxes, packaging etc

Masking tape

Insulating and other colored tape

Pritt sticks, crayons, scissors

Colored papers, acetates, etc

Camera

Toddler puppet

Materials/prep week:4

As above plus bottle tops

Small collage materials, sequins etc from first week

Silver card flash cards as boats

Toddler puppet

For images of this work while in progress please see p�ca`s facebook pafe which you can access through www.pucapuppets.com