Sock puppets

On Monday 19th January everyone had to bring in a sock and we had to make our own individual sock puppet that we would use to make a short puppet show in our children's theatre group. We got given two hours and was actually quite fun to do. 

I had an idea of making glasses for my puppet with pipe cleaners but my first attemt failed very badly as you can see: 

They just did not work at all they we're too big first of all and just looked bad...my puppets eyes we're quite big also. 

In the end I had James help me make some new glasses for my sock puppet as mine had no use. 

I was one of the ones who finished my sock puppets first and it ended up like this: 

We then had to write our name on a piece of paper with our puppets name next to it. I called my puppet 'Hanks' because the cloth around it looks like a hankie. Then Ella took a headshot of all our puppets. 

working with our groups and story telling...

On 15th January, Ella got us all to talk about some photocopies of a book she gave us called 'Twice as Difficult, Twice as Rewarding'. The man who wrote this book was the same person who wrote 'The see-saw tree', David Wood. She wanted us to read it in our groups and highlight what we thought was key points.

After this, Ella told us that we are all invited to Eden's (in our class) '8th' birthday party and the theme is superheros, and it is the same day as our context presentation but it is in the morning and context is in the afternoon. 

Then Ella brought out these 'story cubes' which was dice with pictures on it that you make a story out of, she got one of us from each children's theatre group to roll all the dice and then we had to write down the pictures in our group and make a story from it and make a short three minute piece with them. My group has a torch,scales,abacus,magical spectacles, a letter, a keyhole, and three others but I cannot remember. We made a story of kj's four children going missing and she is telling the children the story about how they went and maybe they could help her find us, the children went to the park and my glasses were the magical spectacles and there was rain and so it flooded and i lost my glasses, we had one lamppost working which supported the torch and the scales balancing the light and darkness, we counted steps home which was the abacus, getting home and mum not being there because she was looking for us represented the keyhole, and kj finding my glasses in the park and coming back home and finding us supported the spectacles finding us in the end...(very short brief of performance). 

Later that day, Kelsey moved to our group. Eden and KJ have already thought of some idea's, which we discussed as a group. Afterwards Ella wanted to test our story telling skills...she got us to sit in a circle and roll the story cubes and tell a story with the pictures...I had to go first and I tried my hardest but I did not do it very well! Everyone had to tell a story and it all got better towards the end as they all had the chance to see everyone from the beginning. Then Ella told us all to take one cube each and pick the picture we want best and make a story, and I had to end it. The picture I originally chose was a angry boy pointing but the story did not match the picture so I changed it to a magic pill and managed to end it in a happy ending. 

being introduced into children's theatre

Now that panto is done, the second part of the performance assessment is children's theatre. On our first day back on the 5th January, Ella talked about the task and gave us all a assessment brief. She asked us what came into our heads when we heard 'children's theatre', people mentioned things such as cbbc, ceebeebies, fairy tales, puppets and so on. She mentioned watching 'yonderland' as it is written for children but is incredibly funny. We then had to write our names on small strips of paper and have our groups chosen. My group is Eden, Kj, Georgia, and Tom. I am happy about my group! Ella then talked about the task more and said we do not have to perform, we could do production in our groups if we wanted too.

I have noticed recently that I usually perform to adults, and when I do perform to children I can sometimes find it difficult, as they obviously do not laugh at as many things as the adults do, they react when you least expect it, and they get bored and bothered quicker. Which made me think whether I should perform or do production.

On the Wednesday, Ella talked about the original stories of fairy tales such as 'little red riding hood' and 'sleeping beauty' and they are not as they are written now. She mentioned that 'fairy tales' is translated to 'scare or warn' because the originals of children's stories are more of a warning. Ella gave us a few handouts, such as a written version of 'little red riding hood' but not the complete original, a article written by David Harradine on children's theatre, and a few papers on children's theatre.

On Thursday, Ella gave the whole class a one between two of a script from a children's theatre piece called 'The See-Saw Tree' by David Wood, there was some roles in it that people volunteered to do such as Mrs Dunnock/Dunnock who I read for, Mr Bunn/Rabbit, Mr Jay/Jay, Mrs Thrush/Mistlethrush, Mrs Cook/Cuckoo, Mrs Wise/Owl, a squirrel, and Mr Batty/Bat. I really enjoyed this piece and the character I read for, it really opened our eyes at children's theatre isn't so much what we expect it to be as there was so many surprises such as the humor, involved one of the characters stealing, and there was a part of giving birth! I appreciate the read through as I know it will help with this unit.