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Day 9 Hospital D - Ruby�s Travels | Puppet Portal Project - hospital D
2009-06-30

Day 9 Hospital D - Ruby�s Travels

The last day of the Puppet Portal Project before summer break!
And some really special developments : finally found a way the children can facilitate filming (nearly)on their own / a great joy in performing and play (in previous sessions, the puppet making was often their favourite bit)/ self-managed teamwork amongst the children.

After the initial introduction, there was lots of making, sharing ideas, and the children worked very independently- reasons may have been the similarity in age & gender (mostly girls around 7/8), the fact that some of them knew each other from the ward , the quite small number of children (around 6 at most times) and that I had made the progress of the workshop / making steps were very clear:

Ruby (a puppet who had been created in our Hospital School and had travelled to all the other Hospitals) was back . Being a true traveller, she was still on for more journeys which the children invented for her. I had copied photos of Ruby on card, so each child made a Ruby- stick-puppet to perform with and keep. A stage was prepared, a shoebox with a window to perform, which some of the girls decorated. All invented stories and thought of places for Ruby to go- one girl wrote her story down, so when performing one of the teachers read it for her, another boy -in the afternoon- made a boat which would bring Ruby from place to place and researched the flags of the places she d "been" to in the morning session (Turkey, India, Brazil, the beach in Bettystown, the ward, Italy...) on the internet. Backdrops were made, using all sorts of paper and collage material as well as cut out images from a big photo book on Asia I had brought.

The small group and the very defined stage made it possible that filming and performing really came together as ONE action/ experience, there were three kids involved with the performing and the others watched. After the "Link-Up" some more backdrops were made and three girls made another two films on their own, one of them storytelling and directing ("music off! muisic on! music off!") at the same time. An epic story! (".. and then Ruby went to bed. That was the second day. On the third day now...")

We spent dedicated time to watch the other Hospitals Videos: we had prepared for a link up, all sitting around the screen, but then no one to link up was available- so we used the chance of the moment and looked back at Ruby s previous adventures in the other schools and some other videos on Ait Eile, which the kids enjoyed a lot!
I was quite surprised by the joy the children had filming and performing, as in previous sessions they often were quite tired at the end of the day and often shy or (some) reluctant, loving the making much more. One girl was a natural storyteller and she definitely encouraged the other children, and they as well shared their roles, so some operated the CD player or moved the backdrop as another girl would tell their story.

In the afternoon I worked with two "new" boys and a girl who came back to film more stories! We as well looked at some more Videos on Ait Eile, made a film of Ruby in the Irish mountains and travelling in a mini-airplane, and uploaded images.

It was a great day with a few final chats with teachers and the principal- lots of ideas in store for next term!