We've spent two days with 102 of Crowle Primary's finest pupils creating stories through shadow puppetry.
Reception, Year One and Year Two have all studied the seaside as their classroom topic and asked us to come along to join in the fun.
We decided to use shadow puppetry as a means to telling seaside tales and to embed further learning through creative activity and play.
Every pupil got the chance to make their very own moving shadow puppet. Because of the theme of the play, we each made a beautiful tortoise. The reception pupils named theirs and thought of the sort of jobs and hobbies they might have. This brought about some interesting ideas on what sort of jobs a tortoise was capable of under the sea!
Some of the girls had Princess tortoises, and ballerina ones, while the boys opted for professional runner tortoises and firemen. What a great way of getting children to think about characters in story telling!
Some of the classrooms had already had a practise with shadow and light and had made their own silhouettes, which we were very impressed with!
Once every child had finished their tortoise, we went on to work as one large production team, to create sets, props and further characters. All of these were made using black card on long rods, so make sure our puppeteer skills were effective.
Our Education Officer wrote a short story about the seaside for everyone to recreate using the props and puppets. Here is what we recreated:
Crowle Primary's Seaside Shenanigans
The Davidsons took a holiday last summer. They decided to go to the seaside. (Cue seagull noises expertly perfected by the pupils). Once at the beach, they changed into the swimming costumes and used their bucket and spade to make sandcastles.
When they'd filled the beach with sandcastles, they decided to go for a swim. But what would they find in the dark depths of Skegness beach? (Cue pantomime "oooos" from the audience).
The Davidsons found many interesting creatures. They swam passed a school of fish.
They passed a group of crabs.
They swam passed a beautiful tortoise that smiled and waved!
Then, around the corner of some unusual coral, danger strikes! The Skegness SHARK! (Cue a well rehearsed Eastender's style "dum dum duuuum!")
The Davidsons swam for their lives before the shark could spot them!
Thank goodness they made it out of the waters! The Davidsons had to have fish and chips to calm their nerves!
They were safe and sound and full of yummy seaside food!
All of the children thoroughly enjoyed the day and some of the teachers got really involved, too!
Shadow puppetry is our most popular workshop, as we can embed any classroom topic, alongside science, literacy, craft and drama skills.
Here's what some of the children thought of their time with us in their school:
"I lovd it because it was the best day of my life!" - Billy Year Two
"It was amazin" - Taylor Year Two
"I liket it wen the Sharck came. But they cudof been less noiseeer". - Jack Year Two
"It was the best show in the hole wide wold!" - Sammy-Jo Year Two
If you'd like to know more about how to book a workshop or what else we have on offer, please don't hesitate to get in touch: 01724 297070 or email education.2021@northlincs.gov.uk