This was a much more challenging day for me. Facilitating puppet making was difficult from a trolley - a simple (so I thought) rod form, with papier mach� ball heads pre-glued on skewers or large coloured lolly sticks, and pipecleaner or q-tip arms and fabric bodies. The soft heads are useful for inserting cut q-tip ends to attach noses, pipe cleaners etc. I had covered the trolley with a bright orange cloth due to a child s crying last week when they presumed I was going to enact some kind of a medical procedure, and while this had the advantage of keeping materials out of sight until they were needed - very essential for one little forager in particular who is very easily distracted - it did mean I had to keep rooting to find what I needed myself. I should probably have designed a simpler form for them or given them less choices. But to keep things simple we concentrated on one feature at a time starting with the eyes and working our way towards feet. Rod puppets are handy though that they don t need feet at all if attention or time is short. They did all thoroughly enjoy the making and each puppet had quite distinctive character. One advantage of the process was that the parents became involved in the making also.



Unfortunately due to the length of time it took to make them, and the slow drying of the glue, it was not possible to do anything but the most basic performance with them. I expect to see some of the children again next week but realise I will be lucky if the puppets are still operable by then! My fictional framing, that my puppet was a bus driver and needed companions on her magic bus (or is it a plane, or a...?) barely got a look in, although the first boy (5 and a half years) I worked with did go on to draw a magic car for his puppet with window hatches cut so it could appear inside. However when I returned to him later to see if he would be happy for his puppet to appear on the web in his car, he was busy/tired and declined.

The bus prop was useful to warm up another 5 year old who had been shy the previous week, and he went on to enjoy making his own puppet with help from his mum. Again an appointment elsewhere in the hospital meant neither web nor filming was possible for him, but his mum and he said they would like to try next week. We used the bus also for some of the photos. It had been my intention also that some of the children might like to have finished the bus (or whatever it might be) but that didn t happen either, but that may be something for next week, when perhaps a simpler form allowing for quicker making could allow for more play and performance possibilities. Having a bus on top of my trolley did not help me much though as I had so much baggage already. It did not help either that I took the broken trolley as it was the only one available and steering was a bit too clownish as if the puppet really was driving.

I also used the StoryBear video diary from the previous week to encourage a boy who I had not met then and was a bit wary of me at first.



In the morning I met with the teacher and we successfully divided up the children to everyone s satisfaction and checked in with each other later also, so that is something I am pleased about.



Lowlights:

Trying to get a physically frustrated little boy (5 yrs) to calm down trying to cut when he had my finger caught in the scissors! Trying to negotiate his frustration with the fact that his mother had drawn a mouth on his puppet for him with her frustration that he was not satisfied with it.



Feeling frustrated at unsuccessful web link-ups (and worried I was messing things up for kids in another hospital) - the first time I was just set up and ready to go with someone just right for it and the doctors came in and I had to leave. I tried with another child but he was really too young and the web image did not register with him at all, he was too absorbed in trying to use my puppet. I also was finding it so difficult to direct his attention that I kept using his name.



The second time it seems I was in the wrong virtual room , I thought the others must all have gone, but later I got a message that they had been waiting in another room. I find it confusing that type exchanges you can read have no time attached so you can think they have just happened but they could be old ones. It all will take getting used to but I do find trying to co-incide with web appointments very difficult in the flux of the ward and where you are mostly working one on one. I wonder can we all just use the one room to increase the chances of co-inciding?



Finding it hard to take a lunch break when I was starving (but maybe this is a highlight as I was pleased they were all so involved....)



Highlights:

Joking with the eldest girl (9 and a half) about the dangers of being a puppeteer with reference to nearly losing a finger earlier "it s a dangerous world out there" she said. Enjoying taking more of a backseat with her after all the younger boys who had needed so much more technical assistance. Enjoying that she had tried to make puppets herself in the week since our last encounter and her enthusiasm and pleasure in it all.



Two little boys (4 and 5 yrs) finding me working with the youngest one (3) in the coridoor and joining in and then the parents arriving and becoming involved also until a spontaneous family workshop had evolved with staff dropping by to enjoy it also. A daddy proved an excellent hat maker and was enlisted by everyone. I was pleased that this space proved useful as I found it difficult to do group work in the ward itself and these boys were very gregarious and enjoyed working together without my worrying about other children overlooking who cannot participate being disturbed or feeling excluded.



Number of children I worked with directly: 6 from 3-9yrs old, brief interactions with an infant also. Number of parents: 10, number of siblings / other visitors 2, numbers of staff 3



Ps my finger really only has a little cut