Shadow Puppetry has triumphed once again! We spent a day with year fives of Priory Lane Community School, this week. The year are studying Australia as their classroom topic and approached Education at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, to help them embed their topic in a fun and engaging way for the end of term.
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| Our shadow screen with its plush and swanky red velvet curtains. |
Luckily, almost all of the answers featured in the story that had been written by 20-21's Education Officer.
Pupils began making their puppets. Wallaby and koala templates had been made, but children were also given the opportunity to create their own animals and story sections, too.
Pupils began making their puppets. Wallaby and koala templates had been made, but children were also given the opportunity to create their own animals and story sections, too.
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| The boys' table concentrating on their wallabies and making effective use of the card they'd been given |
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Teacher assistants were really getting into the spirit!
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| This table were excellent team payers, helping each other out at various stages! They should be proud! |
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| Some of the wallaby mums and babies and koalas waiting to go on trees. |
When all the puppets were made and ready. Demonstrations were given as to how we create scenery and different effects, using a light source and a variety of objects.
The Education Officer acted as casting director and we all had a few practice runs of telling the story, while the pupils acted out their parts.
Then the performance was ready to begin:
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The Goodchilds
took a holiday last year. They went to Australia on an aeroplane!
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| When they got there, the Goodchilds got into the spirit of things! Mr Goodchild wore his Australia hat and Mrs Goodchild put on her sunglasses. |
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They
really looked the part as they headed off to Bondi Beach, where they saw lots
of surfers and took lots of selfies with their modern camera, with the
glistening sea in the background.
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Next,
they hopped on a bus tour to explore Australia’s wonderful places: |
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| They drove through the TV set of Neighbours |
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| They drove passed the Sydney Opera House |
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| They drove passed the Sydney Harbour Bridge |
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| Then they got off the bus at the Australian Outback. Where they saw: |
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| A family of koalas in the trees. |
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| A court of wallabies hopping in the distance. |
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| A slippery snake. |
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| Some creepy poisonous spiders. |
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| And they met a big friendly kangaroo. The Goodchilds made friends with this kangaroo, who convinced them to move to Australia forever. |
One oft he year five classes has learned the words to the song "Land Down Under" and even had dance movements for each of the lines. This was a really special treat for the staff at 20-21, so we decided to add this mini performance onto the end of our shadow play.
It was an honour to have seen the children acting this song out again!
Shadow Puppets remains our most popular workshop, because we are able to embed class topic, science, literacy, drama and a lot of fun! Here's some of the feedback from children:
"I enjoyed the shadow puppets and acting out the play and there was nothig that could be better!!" - Brooke, 10
"I thought it was amazing and I loved it." - Anna, 10
"It was good team work. I liked everything." - Jessica, 10
"Everything was amazing and fun. I really want to do it again!" - Callum, 10
"I abserlutely loved it, the scenes was really good and all the sound effects was really good. Everyone got a part and it was just great fun. I would definately reccomend it. It was totally worth it!" - Amy, 10
"I don't think I can say anything bad about it. Haley and Anya do a very good thing to make children happy and laugh. Thanks for coming" - Katy, 10
And some feedback from Mrs Dickens-McCreight, Class Teacher of Year 5s -"A very successful workshop which fully engaged the children. Akk children enjoyed the making and the producing of the shadow puppet workshop."