Thursday 9 May 2013

Bottesford Juniors Shadow Puppets

On May 2nd, Bottesford Junior School graced us with their smiley faces, excellent behaviour and impecable creativity. We walked through the halls of 20-21 and asked lots of questions about the building, why it was made of stone and why there were angels in the roof. We waited patiently to be allowed into the great big black tent in the Nave Gallery, but once inside we witnessed a wonderful show of moving objects and magical music; Sharmanka Theatre Company's exhibition Gothic Kinetic.

After the show, we discussed what Gothic Kinetic meant, what the words suggested and what the artist was trying to tell us. Some children thought the show was "spooky but magical", others thought it was "very clever indeed!" The children filled out worksheets with questions specific to the exhibition, that encouraged them to think critically about the artwork they'd seen.

Back in the Education Room, children were split into four groups and handed story lines that made up some weird and wonderful stories about dragons, tomb raiders and brave knights! The children played around with lots of exciting materials and equipment which was used to create some marvellous shadow puppetry! Unfortunately, we had a technical hiccup with the overhead projector, which meant Education at 20-21 had to quickly find another light source! We improvised with a powerful lamp used by our technician. The children were so patient in waiting for us to amend the lighting issue, we were very impressed!

There were four very different shows that had some interesting characters in, including Lucy The Explorer and some characteristic dragons. The shows were performed to the rest of the class who became an active audience. The teacher filmed the performances on his iPad for all the children to use back at school.

Feedback from the children was all very positive, despite the technical issues, and they all had such a good time that they wrote us all letters to thank us for the fun they had! Some quotes below come from these letters:

"I had a great time at 20-21 visioun. I wish it could happen again."
"I also enjoyed the Sharmanka show, it is realy imperesive what you can do with old junk! The show has made me wonder and think about the story of Edward and I've gone home and started to study the life of Edward."
"I come to 20:21 quite alot and it's never been more fun."
"Yesterday was really really fun, it was my first time at 2021 and I thought it was amazing. One day I'm going to go with my family. It was the best school trip I have ever been on. With the light issue I thought you handled it very well."

One girl drew her own logo for letterheaded paper

A really lovely THANK YOU message accompanied by a butterfly

An excellent recreation of the shadow puppet scenes!

PHEW! It seems Education at 20-21 was successful again, despite technical issues! We'd like to thank Bottesford Junior School for sending such lovely heart-felt letters with such beautiful handwriting and spelling, too! It's the first time we've ever received thank you letters, and we are really glad to have inspired so many children.