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Day 11 - Image and text - Making puppets from Syringes | Puppet Portal Project - Hospital A
2009-09-25

Day 11 - Image and text - Making puppets from Syringes

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Today was a lovely first day back. All day we had a consistent group of 5 children aged 6-11yrs, with an even mix of boys and girls. This is a rare enough situation in my hospital, and it was a treat. The effect of the workshop on the group mood and energy was remarkable. They gathered in the playroom quiet, low, and shy. By the end of the day, the laughter, camaraderie and enthusiasm attracted parents and staff members who all gathered to watch the children perform. In fact, when the play specialist and I came back from lunch, we entered the play room to find the group waiting eagerly to begin again. It was lovely to see how the creative activity brought together the different age groups, backgrounds, and gender.

In conversation with the play specialist, we continued from Day 10`s theme of transforming hospital materials, and also with the practice of limiting materials. This time we worked with syringes, transforming them into finger puppets. This is an activity which I have facilitated in the past in other hospitals. However, this time, I considered more the plastic see through nature of the syringe, and how we could explore this, using high quality materials with similar properties. I offered the children beads, wire, and glass type markers, with a few other bits and pieces. Interestingly, for all of them, it was the first time they had used pliers to cut wire. In fact, it was the first time they had used wire, I think, as they first called it thread, or string. The play specialist also learned how to cut wire.