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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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."
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| String Contraption made by Nidhi |
They tried their puppets peeking in and out of 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.
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| Trying out popsicle stick puppets in Gingerbread house |
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| 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!
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| 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!!
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