Evolution of a Project - Puppet Show

It all started with me showing Sid and Nidhi an empty cardboard box used to hold oranges and asking "What does this remind you of?" and it snowballed into a big project!

They quickly responded looking at the box, "A Window!", "No! A Gingerbread house!"

"Hey Mom! Can you give this to us?". Sure, I handed over the box and they started to look for materials to convert it into a house.

Nidhi pulled out a roll of unopened contact paper and inserted it into the handle of the box making it look like a tent pole. Then came the roof of cardstock attached with tape. 

"Hey! Let us decorate the roof. I ll draw candy canes.",said Sid.

Decorating the roof of their Gingerbread House

"Look Sid, I have drawn checkered pattern on roof!",  exclaimed Nidhi.

"Really?! Checkered like the Window? That's good!", complimented Sid.

The house was ready but the roof kept falling down and they found a wooden arch to reinforce it.

Now, they wanted to do a puppet show of Hansel and Gretel with opera music using this Gingerbread house like in Curious George episode "Sock monkey opera". I offered them a few animal finger puppets we had at home. They put on a show with a moose, a parrot and a mouse for a few minutes.

Trying out puppet show with animal finger puppets

Then Sid said, "This is Gingerbread house, so we need a witch." "If you want a witch you have to make it", I replied.

"How to make one?", they asked.

I pulled out the iPad and showed them a few images of puppets made with strings and puppets made out of cardstock. They studied it very carefully for sometime and started to source their materials.

Sid started to make a witch, a fairy and Hansel. Gretel was missing.

Fairy, Witch and Hansel - Popsicle stick puppets

 Nidhi was working on tying a couple of pipe cleaners, a lace and a cube. I assumed she was trying to make a String puppet. She said  "This is a swing. See, it swings."

String Contraption made by Nidhi

They tried their puppets peeking in and out of Gingerbread house.

Trying out popsicle stick puppets in Gingerbread house 

 Then suddenly declared "We need long paper".  With a long roll of easel paper they began drawing scenery (a tree, forest, house etc.) for the Hansel and Gretel story.

Preparing the scenery for the puppet show

Time to prop up the scenery. Nidhi requested us to load the easel board with scenery. With a little bit of help from us, the stage was set to perform the Hansel and Gretel puppet opera. Rolling and unrolling the easel rod changed the scenery.

I was amazed to see Nidhi sticking her fairy puppet on the String contraption to make it fly!

Nidhi changing scenery with one hand and making her fairy puppet fly with the other

They were engrossed in it the whole day and put on multiple shows for dad and grandparents.

It was great to see their little project evolve from a simple box for oranges to a full blown puppet show.

It was a long, hard work full of creating, problem solving and troubleshooting. Most of all, it was a blast!!

Encouraging Block Play - A Progressive Approach For Young Toddlers And Preschoolers

Blocks are the most versatile, open ended toys that can be lifelong companion to any child.

A lot of research talk about why block play is important in toddlers and preschoolers.

I read up on those research articles and felt pressured that I have been losing time on introducing blocks to Sid and Nidhi. So, I hurriedly bought our first set of blocks from IKEA and presented it to the twins when they were almost 2 years old.

I was eagerly awaiting to watch them start stacking right away but to my dismay it laid unattended. If you are in that phase right now, relax! We are well past that stage now and blocks are an integral part of play in our everyday life now. How we did it? OK, Let me share my step by step progressive approach in keeping my then young toddlers( now young preschoolers) interested in blocks.

1. Start with building Horizontally and use pattern/idea cards

       Start slowly introducing blocks for very young toddlers.Though our mental image of blocks are tall stacked towers and castles, using them for particular task gives the toddler focus and a sense of accomplishment. Start with shape and color matching or sorting activities.
I made simple laminated pattern cards of cars, trucks, trains etc with the blocks I had and put them on their montessori shelves for matching. Make sure each card has not more than 4-5 blocks to start with.
Using magnetic blocks on cookie sheets can help reduce frustrations.

Laminated card made to match blocks

2.  Shift to building vertically and use pattern/idea cards

       Once you feel your child is ready for some tumbling excitement present the same blocks with idea cards such as a bridge, a house, a rocket etc.. The cards can be hand drawn 2D shapes or photo print of simple structures built by you.  This is basically a copy and build activity. To keep the interest alive you can present them with progressively complex structures.

An inspiration card for building a Rocket

3. Set up provocations with pictures of real structures

       Once your child has mastered copy and build with blocks or his interest has moved on, challenge your child to build with pictures of real structures. I set up provocations with pictures of castles, downtown, bridges etc and ask them if they can replicate the structures.
Take care to provide block shapes equivalent to the shapes in the real structure to avoid frustrations when introducing this step.

A provocation set to build castles

4. Enhance block play with add-on materials

       As your child gets older his play gets structured, imaginative and intentional. He starts to build with intent. To encourage this phase, introduce other materials in your block play area. The materials can also act as subtle hints on what they can build. For example, adding animal figurines with blocks can lead to building a barn/zoo. Adding peg people/cars can lead to building a community or race tracks...
Follow your child's current interest and add materials accordingly.

A Barn built with Magna Tiles and Animal Figurines

5. Encourage Tinkering with Blocks

        This suggestion is useful for older preschoolers who are interested in creating or tinkering. Present materials for tinkering such as glue sticks, velcro, scotch tape, masking tape, straws, cardboard tubes etc in the block play area. We found that foam blocks are great to tinker with.

A Tower crane lifting a bunch of sticks - built with Foam blocks, Tape, Cardstock and Straws

PS:
1.  These ideas came out of  my experiences with my kids and we are still exploring. There are many other ways to encourage block play if these don't work for you.
2.   Leave out the blocks for easy access and your kids will surprise you one fine day.
3.  If blocks are left unattended for long time, sit and build something by yourself and the kids will surely follow you.

Finally, there is no one way of playing with blocks. If your child only loves to knock off your beautiful structures, so be it! Just relax and have fun!!

Past week - A Photo Journal

"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood." - Fred Rogers.

Here are some snapshots of some play based learning that I happened to capture last week.

Math Provocation - Button grouping

I arranged this simple provocation with a bowl of buttons and muffin tin.

  "How many different ways can you group/sort these buttons?"

I was very curious to see what kind of answers Sid and Nidhi could come up with. 

Past weeks update - First experiences

The past couple of weeks has been fun with a few first experiences. I am recording our explorations via pictures.

Air Dry Clay Modelling

We enjoyed our first modelling experience with Air Dry clay. It was a great sensory and fine motor activity. The kids tried to create snowmen, pinch pots, rings, cookies,buttons, happy faces etc.
They molded, stamped, kneaded and rolled. They learnt the tactic of sticking clay pieces with little water. We are going to color the clay pieces once they dry out.

Our little Snowmen creations standing tall

Trying to make a pinch pot - a great fine motor exercise

Making a ring out of clay

Holiday Show Performance

The twins were part of Holiday show called "Festival of lights" at their school. Sid played a Dreidel and Shrinidhi, a Snowflake. It is their first time getting on stage and I am happy for the way they carried themselves. Here is a snap shot of them in their partial costumes before the performance.

All set to become Snowflake and Dreidel 

The Nutcracker Ballet 

A most exciting experience of all has been our visit to watch live performance of The Nutcracker Ballet. This was a first theater experience for us adults too in USA and we loved it. The kids were leaping, twirling and role playing the Nutcracker and Clara ever since. 

                                                 

Are you ready to spin Sid?

"Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression" - Dr. Haim Ginoff

Hope these first experiences have made deep impressions in their mind. :)

Check our last week photo journal to peek into their other activities.

Also visit our Math Provocations to see our explorations in Mathematics.