Hands on, hands in: using puppets with young children online workshops

I haven’t always loved puppets. In 1989, my new boss at the library asked me if I might want to try puppets. I was clear: “No. I don’t do puppets.”

She said, “Let me just give you the two-minute puppet lesson.”

What could I say? Judy was my new boss and I already had learned a ton from her in the few weeks since she began heading the department. She gave me the short puppet lesson and the rest, as they say, is history. I have been using puppets with young children ever since.

I’ve learned since then that not only do I love playing with puppets, I love teaching others how to use them. I still use Judy Stoughton’s two-minute lesson as my base (thanks, Judy!).

On September 2, I’m offering two Zoom workshops on using puppets, for teachers, librarians and storytellers. It’s for adults—my teaching style with kids is slightly different. The content will be the same for both workshops.

Here’s the scoop:

Hands on, hands in: using puppets with young children

In this participatory Zoom workshop, I’ll gently guide participants in basic puppet technique, character development, creating voices, puppet schtick and more. This workshop is especially aimed at teachers, librarians and storytellers who work with young children. The focus is on using puppets without a stage. BYOP!

Wednesday September 2, 2020

9:00-10:00 a.m. CDT

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/117556439475

or

6:30-7:30 p.m. CDT

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/117562423373

$22.50 per workshop

Content will be the same for both workshops.

Questions? Sling me an email

More on the Chile performances

I have a few more blog posts about the tour to put up. Here are a few random thoughts about the performances in Chile, some of which apply elsewhere. 

Teachers and students at Colegios Padre Hurtado y Juanita de los Andes enjoying the stories

When the teachers are enjoying the performance, the students are likely to as well.

They listen better when given good models. I love it when the teachers join in, showing the students that storytelling is worth everybody's attention. There were other schools where the teachers talked among themselves, graded papers in front of the students and/or abdicated responsibility for the kids' behavior. While I'm usually fairly good at audience management, I found these performances challenging.

I've written in the past about the energy of space. How the room is set up, what direction the listeners are facing, the temperature and the light all matter. 

I was at one school where the little boys sat on auditorium seats, the cushy kind. Not only were the house lights set on dim with no possibility of turning them up, the stage lights put my face in shadow. I was on the stage, which felt miles from the audience. The boys thought they were invisible, as they bounced up and down on the seats or got up and moved to different rows or poked the kids around them during the stories. In fact, I could see them quite well. If these kids had been in a different space, I suspect they would have been able to listen much better. At the school where the teachers were having fun in the picture above, I was able to stand in front of the stage, closer to the kids:

Bird's eye view of the performance at Padre Hurtado y Juanita de los Andes

At another school, the kindergarten and first grade sat on tall chairs. We tried to convince the administrators to seat them on the floor, to no avail. The kids couldn't see over the chair backs. Here's a picture of kindergartners and first graders in a better seating arrangement:

Kindergarteners and first graders sitting on the floor, joining in with Priscilla

Some of the best performances were those where the kids were prepared in advance, by listening or watching some of my stories online, either on my website or on my youtube channel. At one school, the fifth grade girls came in with signs that they held up saying, "I want my apple juice!" They had listened to The ghost with the one black eye and had the signs to prove it. These were the girls who leapt to their feet at the end of that story.

It's also true that it's impossible to know the effect of the stories. Students who don't look like they're listening may draw detailed pictures of the characters later.

Boys drawing pictures of the stories they'd heard

Picture of the puppets and stories, drawn by the students

Picture of the puppets at Trewhela's School

Even with some of the more difficult shows, on balance, it was an enormously fun tour, one I will dream on for years. Thanks, DreamOn Productions, for bringing me to Chile!