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Day 8 Hospital D | Puppet Portal Project - hospital D
2009-06-17
Day 8 Hospital D
I was welcomed with a little Puppet Portal-Toy theatre I had made last week having been moved to the entrance hall. This had been an idea of the principal, after last weeks converstaion about opening up the project. Adressing this really prooved positive - another outcome was that , on proposal by the principal, I now accompany the teachers when they collect the children from the wards.
I brought a puppet (Paddy from Limerick ) in my apron and , with his help made contact with a few of the kids- some really wanted to come after seeing Paddy - not all were able to, but one teacher asked me for advice on a simple way to make a puppet on the ward and brought back materials to one girl .
It was the first time for me to visit the wards and meet some of the children I know in their space, see others who are to sick or in a wheelchair so never come to school- seeing their shared bedrooms with drawings up the walls, their personal belonging and mothers or fathers in the armchairs was quiet moving and connected my experience which is very much happening in the schoolroom to the childrens experineces before and after they come to school.
The group was quite small, five children from 4 to 14. Paddys visit set the theme, and we started off talking about funny kinds of sports all around the globe and decided to make puppets for a curious sports fair. The two teenage girls who ve become Puppet Portal regulars (one had already asked the day before when I d be back) have turned into puppet making experts and invented and tried out new things whith not much guidance at all- making string puppets and experimenting with pipe cleaners, they really gained confidence in their skills and use them to work on their own ideas! One of them got really tired though towards the end, and their was another little girl affected by new medication (imapaired in movement, speech) (I knew her from last week ) she had explicitly expressed the wish to come and join despite this. So the mom dropped in once in a while to check on her,it was great though the girl took part, made -assisted by the teacher assistant-a beautiful puppet princess and even performed.
The younger boys really liked Paddy the hurler, the four year old set off to make a mate for him , no hurler though but a professional jumper! The other boy wanted to make a Clown and then, once he started changed his mind every second- thinking of all the puppets you could do, horses and pirates and this and that (which reminded me of myself: all the differnt ways to think of I could facilitate the project!!). He was a bit rough with poor Paddy Puppet and had a very short attention span whilst making, but it was nice to have a smallish group so I had time to really work alongside him and we filmed a little scene with his Clown and Paddy playing hide and seek.
Performing / Filming was fun as there was a nice interaction and playful approach- especially the four year old was really into it! I joined them performing Paddy the visitor who met the other puppets, and the cheerleader string puppet performed a great Flamenco dance.
we linked up with Limerick and got to see some great spiders, and showing Paddy s new friends.
In the afternoon there was only one girl and she expressed the wish to paint, and did a great portrait of Paddy for our book.
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