Thanks for all the good sources and recommendations!
Shannon Minner
smm2p@mtsu.edu
Murfreesboro, TN
MNP Librarian
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Caroline Feller Bauer has published a book on using puppetry with literature.
If you cannot find it thru regular vendors, try ALA.
------------
I began a puppetry unit last year. I do it the last 6 weeks of the year when
the kids are bouncing off the walls. It was the best thing I have ever done as
a librarian.
I used this book as a basis for my lessons:
Making Puppets Come Alive: How to Learn and Teach Hand Puppetry (Dover Craft
Books)
by Larry Engler, Carol Fijan (Contributor)
It is available from Amazon.
I break some of the basic movements into a lesson and then let the kids come
up in groups of 3 to perform. I require COMPLETE and TOTAL compliance with all
instructions I give. The students are very excited so you really have to have
control over the group. Very important to tell them: Puppets don't fight and
puppets don't bite, otherwise the first thing they do is start smashing their
puppets together. I usually have one sacrificial lamb that I have to take the
puppet away from. They still participate in the lesson just using their bare
hand but I don't have problems with the group ever again and that student will
always follow directions the next time.
--------------
Have a look at my list at
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/primary/Puppets/ . might be something
useful.
--------------
A great book is "One-Person Puppet Plays" by Denise Anton Wright Teacher Ideas
Press 1990
Even if you use more than one puppeteer it keeps things simple backstage.
-------------
I am no expert but have collected a few puppets over the years from countries
I've visited or through friends. The Muppets and their international versions
or Bill Baird's Art of the Puppet is a good place to begin. Don't know if its
in print anymore but you can find others. Jim Henson's work and his studio
have carried on the tradition and enhanced the popularity of puppets in our
time. I don't know many books but online I am sure you could find info.
Looking at puppets as an art that crosses cultures and history is one great
approach. You'll find Marionette theaters in the history of royalty like the
almost lifesize Saltzburg Marionette Puppets of theTheater in Austria and
Punch and Judy in paintings of peasants (like Breugel's village scenes). You
can find the stick puppets of Asia and Africa, as well as the shadow puppets.
They can be tiny on something like a popsicle stiick to gigantic, on bamboo
poles. Online you should be able to find information about Elton John's Lion
King musical with the giant stick figures and then look at how that form was
used during the Olympic ceremonies in France and since and in parades with the
wind sock stick puppets.
These days look at the AP photo archives for recent protest marches in which
the demonstrator used puppets (Phila especially has a social issues puppet
movement organization.). I have had fun collecting political statement buttons
to pin on a few on my own marionettes, especially the Mexican ones that look
like rebels!
If you get into Marionettes try to learn about the different paddles available
for manipulating the strings.
Dover Publishing has cut our books of marionettes with arms and legs you
connect and can manipulate with strings.
I am sure you'll come up with many great ideas on your own and I am excited
for you! Glad you are keeping the interest alive! Have fun with your ping
pong ball eyes and tennis ball heads on socks and doll clothing ala Kermit and
Kukla, Fran and Ollie and I am sure you'll find a Lamb Chop lover in your
group, too! I wonder what the kids will have to share if invited to bring in
any they have?
--------------
You may want to contact the University of Connecticut. They have a puppetry
center and may be able to direct you to some good sites.
www.sfa.uconn.edu/Drama/Puppetry/HOMEPAGE.HTML
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I recently bought " How to Do "The Three Bear" with Two Hands: Performing with
Puppets" by Walter Minkel (ISBN: 0838907563 -- $25 ALA). Haven't had time to
read or practice. An older book (also ALA) is Storytelling with Puppets by
Connie Champlin and Nancy Renfro (ISBN: 0838904211).
I recently bought puppets online at http://www.puppetjungle.com. Their prices
and variety were excellent. They are Folkmanis puppets -- good quality and
great mouths.
Attached to the anchor desk of the TV studio we built a puppet theater out of
PVC pipe. The largest diameter pieces are attached to the desk and the
supports fit in. The top is made using elbow joints and the smallest diameter
pipe fits between the two sides so we can take it down. I made curtains for
it. We also have a purchased puppet theater (Demco), but it was falling apart
almost as soon as we got it. Smaller students use it; it's two small for two
adults.
---------------
I don't have any good ideas on the making of puppets, in fact, I wish I knew
more and hope you post a hit. However, I did have a theater built and it
turned out great. It took about $160 worth of wood and then more for some
"fixin's". If you are interested in knowing more, email me.
---------------
Oriental Trading offers paper bag puppet kits, as well as several types of
inexpensive animal and people puppets for small hands. When I use puppets in
stories, I choose stories that ambiguous characters that the children can
become, such as the gingerbread man, where he runs away from.....insert
puppets here....be creative in including students. Other stories could include
"Hats for Sale" with puppets being the monkeys in the tree. How the Elephant
got His Trunk could use many Kola Kola birds.
Just relax, and have fun! You can change the stories any way you like to
include student puppeteers. They needn't be restricted to the stage.
----------------
When I taught First Grade a million years ago, we used an old console TV set
with the tube and wiring removed for staging puppet performances. The kids
loved it! If you had a few of these, you might be able to have several groups
creating or practicing simultaneously or simply working on small performances.
It would be a nice alternative to the larger puppet stage.
---------------
Look up Jim Henson's daughter. I can't remember her first name. She is very
involved with puppetry.
---------------
http://www.puppetsbylinda.com/
Here is the guy who built the stage. http://www.mwt.net/~jmrdc/
---------------
I received a grant and found a really nice puppet stage that can be easily
assembled and disassembled - will get info and send it to you. Cost only
$300.00 or so. Also have a good puppet person.
---------------
You should check out Caroline Feller Bauer's books, including one called
Leading Kids to Books through Puppets. She has some great ideas.
---------------
Hi from SLJ. I was a puppeteer for years & I might be able to give you some
advice. But I'm not familiar with Atlas grants, so I need a little more
information:
How many kids, what grade levels, & what are their abilities?
How much of a budget do you have for materials? Stick puppets are always
easiest--get 1/8" wooden dowels, cut them into foot-long segments, put
styrofoam balls on the end for heads, & glue features to them cut out of paper
or felt. Arms can be added with 2 more dowels that have hand- or paw-shaped
pieces of cardboard or felt, joined to the head-stick with a large piece of
material cut into the shape of a body with arms.
My recommendation: Don't spend too long making any puppet. The thing many
people don't understand about puppetry (here comes my soapbox) is that making
puppets is not puppetry. Performing with puppets is puppetry. The kids should
think long & hard about the character they're portraying, with a different
voice & personality.
Would the grant pay for hiring a local puppeteer to come in & do a show, or
are puppeteers available through the local public library? I recommend that
kids see a puppet performance before they begin a puppetry unit, so that
they'll understand what they're working toward.
As far as a story goes, choose something in which many kids can participate if
you're all doing one performance as a group. There are lots of simple
fairytales that work well, too. If the group is old enough for Aesop's fables,
many of those work well. The 3 Billy Goats Gruff & 3 Pigs are, of course,
great for puppets. The new Caldecott winner, My Friend Rabbit, could make a
great show--Rabbit piles up a big stack of animals to get the airplane out of
the tree and they all fall with a mighty crash. The toy airplane could be
mounted on the end of a long segment of black coathanger wire or the rib of a
broken umbrella (I know plenty of puppeteers who save broken umbrellas they
find on the street or in the trash), so it can "fly" around the stage.
The one thing that will happen unless you're careful, particularly with
primary kids, is puppet fighting. A puppeteer I know has a rule when he
teaches classes with kids that I use too. When you're working on the acting or
story with the kids, the kids may not pick up the puppets until they're either
rehearsing or about to "go on." Note: puppets can be put into "time out," too,
if necessary.
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