Sally Hancox

This place is completely bonkers and fun and inspiring and beautiful and colourful. If you ever go to Rome its the best day trip out of town you could do.

I’ve wanted to go since i find out about it 8 years ago. its small and i tried not to get too excited in case i was disappointed but i wasnt at all! 

I have these beautiful Indian puppets that hang from strings. we talked about them, drew them and played with them before making our own versions.

I didn’t know how old the children would be when I planned this activity and they were quite small!  lots of 4, 5, 6 year olds, going up to 11 years old. I think its important with kid’s art though to have a balance of activities between making something very impressive, and making something very independently. This activity was the former, as the students needed lots of assistance with cutting, glueing, painting, stapling. However, they were really impressed and proud of their results, continuing to play with the puppets long after, and make stories and personalities around them.

We made shadow puppets as part of our storytelling day camp. above is a 25 legged spider and a rooster.

We stretched some white fabric around 2 conveniently placed pillars in the church hall.

a cat, a dog and a horse. The puppets had moving parts (using a split pin). We were a bit hurried, but next time I’ll make sure everybody’s puppet is bigger and the moving part is bigger and easier to see. It would also be cool to make a large collaborative dragon or something with many moving parts (and puppeteers).

As part of my summer holiday art classes we made a book in 1 hour. we used the method folding a large piece of paper and making a slit. Some kids include a secret foldout poster/bonus illustration on the inside.

I told them they could write or draw as much or little as they liked, and I didn’t correct their writing in line with how I never ‘correct’ drawing. This was a chance to feel proud of producing a cool thing, not get it right or wrong. The topic could be anything they like, but as a starting point I said to make a story with themself as the main character.

Hard at work. The children were very focused!

This is the last page of “my perfect pet” all the animals except the kitten (citan) are sad because the author didn’t choose them.  🙁

As part of my storytelling with art day camps we made butterfly finger puppets and put on a show. I narrated while the puppets flew by. The puppets are very simple to do and can reinforce learning about symmetry. They fit on the child’s finger from 2 or 4 slits in the card fold.

We also made a theatre and accessories which I left the design and decoration entirely up to the group, besides putting one table on top of another. The group was made up of 18 children between 5 and 11 years old. I think it’s really important for my students to have time where I’m not telling them what to do; for them to lead the direction and use their imaginations. I suggested we can make tickets, posters, signs, curtains, decorations, whatever you like. They focused on decorating the stage and making tickets and numbering the seats. It was interesting to watch who ended up bossing the others around and who copied who/made rules for each other. One boy volunteered to be a welcome announcer he announced ” Welcome to the flying creatures show. Please ask me if you have any problems and I will ask a teacher. Enjoy the show!”

Good efforts on symmetry!

This student is making a ticket. They decided that the title of the show is “Flying Creatures”

When the curtains are closed.