North+East+Valley+Normal+School

kat anna fiddle website Click on the photo above to see information, photos and videos of our work. ||  || Artists-in-schools North east Valley 2009 diary Exhausted! But a FANTASTIC day, this school rocks! Starting off with a whakatau from the senior students, we have experienced a very real and warm welcome from teachers and students alike. Drew and I have already spent some time at the school, depositing a mound of materials (and resource requests -school now 18 glue-guns richer than before!) and have been greeted with smiles and offers of help. We are SO lucky to have such support! So today was kinda mad as we got to know the cllasses, starting with the littles (who are just natural puppet performers) making the simple-but-cute scoop-mouth puppets. Some great creativity, including one-eyed aliens, ski-ing puppets and mustachioed characters. Next week we get to make shoe-box puppet theatres plus ball-heads, can’t wait Next up the year 2’s who are going to make 2 types of very different puppets, fluro “spookies’ floaty ethereal spirits, and the rowdy blurt-mouth Ya-yas. The children took to the ya-ya slighky manic character almost **too** well! We decided to collect all their puppets into a basket and send it back to class with the teacher, inflicting 22 noisy puppets singing ya-ya-ya all the way back to class would be too disruptive. A quick lunch and hurried conflab as we worked out who would do what, and then the years 4 & 5, which meant sopabox puppets as well as floating birds. We split the class and it was lovely to work with just 12 students each, though when you are stringing marionettes it can be quite time-consuming, especially in this velcro generation when knot-tying is not a universal skill! The soapbox folk worked much faster than planned and all of a sudden we were painting! Not a problem with these older kids as they were able to set up paint tables and smock themselves, we just LOVE those kids that ask “what can I do to help?”. One young lass must have spent at least 10 minutes at the sink washing up paintbrushes, so helpful! Then all of a sudden the bell rang, everyone left, and quiet reigned (although we had to do a quick stocktake and write yet another shopping list! You go through a lot of stuff in schools and you don’t want to be running out of materials). Home and another session of gathering supplies and sewing up piuppet sleeves....However all the fatigue is wiorth it when you hear of how excited the kids are with their new puppet friends. The students are enthusiastic,positive and polite, as are the teachers! We have a really good feel about this project and look forward to the weeks to come. Thursday 13 Aug Day 2 Each class today has already heard about puppet making through the playground grapevine and come into the creative space excited and champing at the bit to get started. The 5 year olds splash black paint onto their shoe box puppet theatres and tables and the floor! As they add features to their scoop mouth puppets they rush up proud as parents to show me their new born children. In their enthusiasm their teacher has to remind them puppets also need to respect other peoples’ personal space. The year 3/4 class has the challenge of sculpting foam mouth animals and people. The process of cutting into a block of foam to a 3 dimensional shape beneath causes initial protests but after some successes (and failures) they see the possibilities and as they snip off edges and corners we are in danger of being smothered in foam chips. They are a very well mannered class, patient, polite and a delight to teach.  At lunchtime I walk “Green Guy”, my super hero marionette, into the playground and we’re instantly mobbed. Green Guy is followed to the staffroom door with screams and hands wanting to squeeze him to see if he is real. The senior class who welcomed us the day before, greet us as old friends. Half the class is WOWED with the idea of making little stringed people and the other half soon become very enthusiastic about their Giant God Puppets as they dive on the wide and eccentric range of recycled resources Katrin has collected. As the hour progresses we hear “Can we make puppets all day tomorrow and the next day” and “Wouldn’t it be great to be a puppeteer.” “We are puppeteers!” stresses another. A very rewarding day for all of us and seven days seems like a long time before we can get back to our projects. But Anna comes tomorrow to start musical training and there are puppet movements to practice and characters to develop in class time.
 * [[image:P1010070.JPG width="248" height="178" link="Welcome to The Valley of the Puppets"]]
 * Day One- 12/08/09 **

  This week the juniors have made cuter-than-cute scarfies.With floaty head scarves and skin tone christmas decorations we are exploring the possibilites of a silent pupet who is understood only by their parent/creator. At the same time, the music element has joined the scene (huge thank you to the very talented musician **Anna Bowen** who has joined the team). So our “puppets-on-a-stick” can move and dance in time to some malaysian songs one of the families has kindly found for us (NEV school is lucky to have so many different cultures in their community). While we were waiting for the PVA to dry we couted to ten in all the class languages, including Malay! Neat eh?
 * Week 2 ** ...and puppets everywhere! In the classrooms, on kids hands, in their songs, in my kitchen, my car and my dreams, it’s GREAT! 
 *  || The noisy ya-ya class has thankfully moved on to making spookies and we are all enjoying the thrill of scarey-but-not-too-much ghostly tales and songs, plus splashing around fluro paint that shouts in the daylight, but will be ethereal and eye-catching under blacklight (we all had a wee preview, wooooah!) ||  ||

Other classes are still working on their ongoing projects but getting to the “good” parts in terms of adding facial features, accessories and developing the personality of their puppets. Last week I accused one group of going to the jewellers shop, choosing a bunch of earrings, necklaces etc...but forgetting to wear any clothes! It’s hard when you see all this stuff, but really you have to do the “hard graft” first in terms of building a body/mouth/head etc S’orl part of the process! The puppets are definitely nearing completion for many and next week we will be looking to developing characters, voices, ways to move, dance etc Drew and I are learning heaps! Teachers have to cope with this every day, but things like the child who was sick last week and suddenly has to be bought up to speed. Or the seagull-round-a-sandwich energy whenever there are resources to be handed out. As they say in the trade, its all about “location, location, location” ! Like where on earth did I put that thing?! It is fascinating seeing the way different personalities attack their projects, those who want it NOW! Those who have a whole story to go with their creations. How we choose colour and shape...We feel we have probably taken on some rather ambitious projects with some of the classes and are so fortunate to have teachers and parents who are supportive and cheerful. Ken the caretaker has had to cope with demands for more extension cords, multi-boards, dustpans... as well as all the extra cleaning, and he still manages to smile, what a guy! Overall, there is a positive energy around the school, it is lovely to be greeted by the kids when we arrive and told stories of their puppets or given yet another soap box! These kids are friendly, confident and polite around us (even when we’re not! ). We are both exhausted at the end of the day, but it’s all worth it when you see the art and the enthusiasm. This week the juniors have made some delightful 2-in-1, nay! 3-in-1 creations. Puppets that walk along one minute...and have an alien leap out of their bottoms the next. A concept we find hilarious and luckily our sense of humour coincides with our young puppeteers’. 3-in-1 because Drew stumbled on the idea of giving the puppets two faces, one at the front and another different emotion at the back, brilliant! This lead to the development of stories as to why they were feeling happy/sad/cranky/suprised...good old Prince Serendip and his elephant (google it!). We have been trying to encourage our young artsists to reflect on their work, and to have several attempts at something rather than dash off a “good-enough”. Often you only get one chance at something in schoolroom art, so it was great to see these wee dots draw several faces then choose their favourites. No time, no time, the middles are arriving. Some are completing spookies (again we got them to really look at their work so far and think about how to improve it, usually eyes are the key to a puppets overall look). This week involved stringing our floating ghosts to a wire coathanger, not easy for young fingers and they did really well. Loving singing the scarey song that Anna taught them all last week, especially the loud BOO at the end. Another class is working on their foamouths, which has been a real challenge. Drew and I ended up staying on and working on each puppet just to bring everyone up to the same point, especially as we had the use of a sewing machine. In spite of the task being somewhat daunting, this class remains cheerful, enthusiastic and lots of independant workers here, awesome! I overheard soemone saying “These puppets are going to be SO COOL when we get to play wuth them!” It IS hard not having immediate results and we are lucky they are so dogged and optimistic, it will all be worthwhile. The soapbox puppets are beginning to look like wicked babies from the planet Weird as they near completion and grin maniacally at everyone who comes up the stairs. We //just// had time this week, to give our characters a name and role in the story this class is developing as part of thier concert item. It will be good to go further with this next week. The other half of the class are finally assembling their beautiful bird puppets, with all the joys that stringing marionettes brings! They too have a faith in the end product and are starting to see the benefits of all their hard work. Seniors are frantically working on thier very different but challenging tasks. The “god” puppets are starting to make sense (we really needed a model for these guys and unfortunately the youtube dvd we provided to demonstrate what puppets are about, didn’t really show anything like these). The groups are coping really well with the demands of collective creativity, limited resources and a wild windy day! We have been lucky to be able to work outside and realy spread out (although this involves carting everything up and down stairs. Luckily there are some great workers in this group including the dedicated-but-shoeless Josh. One poor group’s head “popped” right at the end of a long day, somewhat desponding! But repairable, and they were able to see the funny side. Many of them had brought materials from home, and next week they will get to work on the faces and eyes, always the “Pinocchio/Frankenstein” moment for puppet-making, when your puppet really comes to life. The Marionettes finally have their limbs attached and look like small lifeless people lying on the floor after a natural disaster. The first marrionette put together, was proudly held up for inspection by the group until someone noticed its arms were strung on backwards! Though they are all of the same design they will next week be transformed with clothes and their foam bodies sculpted to become anything from muscle men to catwalk models. This is truely a character building experience. Finally we both sink into the child-sized chairs and adult-sized mugs of tea with a huge slurp of relief as another week of puppet-making draws to a close. At the risk of sounding repetitive, we are truly grateful to have such a supportive staff. For example, when I asked Ken the caretaker if i could borrow a screwdriver to put a curtain rail up on our pupet theatre, he just offered to do the whole task hiomself. All the teachers are hands-on helping during the making stint, as well as doing puppet writing/music/drama exercises duing regular class time. We feel very welcome both in the classroom and the staffroom and enjoy talking to staff about the great work their students are doing.
 * Week 3 ** ..and we are nearing the Grand Finale of our Artists-in-schools stint, with a show for the whole community...all of a sudden, not only have we got artistic goals in mind, but all the hoopla of press releases, publicity, booking lights and staging, a name for the show, our own contribution, rehearsal times, aargh! Luckily Drew, Anna and I have a good working relationship and all will be right on the day (see //Shakespeare in love// for the evidence of the value of serendipity!).

**Week 4** and most of the puppets are completed (or very near to it). This is the fun part, when our young artists can add the finishing touches and see their creations really come to life. This is a time too, of evaluation and a critical eye... The juniors however have made a new puppet each week, and this week it is the turn of the simple “papermouth”. This puppet can be made anywhere by anyone, but is challenging enough with paperfolding and all the necessary accuracy of straight lines etc. We drive our ‘bulldozer” finger along the printed line and create lots of different characters. One of the excitements is the fact everyone has made 2 of these puppets, one for school and one for home, yeeha! We practice talking with our puppets and learning to move our hands in time to words etc... The spookies class strings up the remaining unstrung spookies and the rest of the class is busy mixing skin colors for to paint faces for the show. It is good to see these young ones taking time to experiment with different colour combinations and noticing different skin features such as freckles, rosy cheeks etc. We tell ghost stories in preparation for the next week when we will talk about puppet and storyteling technique. Our foamouth class turns up with a bevy of parent-helpers in tow and Drew and I are so pleased to have these extra hands. One panicky moment when it appears one wee mans puppet is missing, aargh! But luckily it turns up and despair is replaced with frenetic activity to complete the project. This week consists of attaching red palates to the mouths, and, thrill of thrills, the eyes! So much of a puppets character is carried by the eyes, and the children all roll out “Fimo” (bakeable plasticine) and choose appropriate colours for the iris. This class is so cheerful and very willing, independant workers in spite of the difficulty of some of the tasks involved.After school Drew is startled by his singing pocket, none other than his cellphone alarm to remind him to take out a tray of freshly baked eyeballs, delectable!

The next class is divided into soapboxes and birds. The birds still need quite a lot of stringing and Drew has little bits of string dangling down all over the classroom so each bird has a workstation. I allow the soapbox people to add the final finishing touches to their characters, then we all go off to write the story...easier said than done! Though to be fair, I have been involved in adult collaborative writing and it’s not easy. I abandon democracy for a benevolent dictatorship (sometimes the benevolency might be under question! No, not really) and we come up with the bones of a story which the class will work on over the week. Weird thing is that on the news, the very next day, is a story that mirrors exactly what we have been talking about! People spoiling the habitats of a bird population...Anna creates a rap on the Friday that captures the conflict succinctly and hopefully they’ll all live rappily ever after... Seniros are really working against the clock now to finish both marionettes and god puppets. Drew has been op-shopping, acting out his dress-up fantasies and purchasing cute outfitfs for all the wee mannikins... They work throughout the lunch-hour as well as class time. “This is too much fun for food” says one, when sent off to have a break! God puppeteers are still adding colour, texture and eyes to their creations, which are all starting to develop their own personalities and styles now. I am worried we will not have enough time to truly practice moving but I know these students are dedicated and we will just have to make the time. A newspaper reporter arrives just as I say “We need to explore your internal organs!” (one of the god puppets suffering from spinal injuries).So we can add linguistic expansion to the list of skills being learnt as I explain what “internal organs” means. In fact there is heaps of learning going on, not only all the artistic considerations, but things such as working in creative collaboration. I teach one group how to draw a 5-pointed star from mathematical principles (instead of just downloading for the net). We have technical challenges to overcome, the use of tools...s’orl good. The week ends with Anna rehearsing songs for the concert as well as encouraging students to sing with their hands (like a pupets mouth) and how to use the boomwhackers. At the weekend Anna, Drew and I get together to plot and plan our own puppet item for the concert (currently a well-guarded secret, watch this space!) and it is fun to sit in the sunshine, collaborating on our own project as well as reflecting on what a great time we are having at this school...roll on next week! Our final week and the project is drawing to a close. For some this has meant frantically try to attach strings, clothes and finishing touches to puppets and for others a chance to explore how to use puppets. I have enjoyed focussing on performance skills, and incorporating dance and movement into our repetoire of language, especially important when working with “non-mouth” puppets, but also to enliven all puppets. Juniors have been learning 3 basic skills · moving puppet, even when it is not talking. ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">developing a puppet voice ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">keeping the puppeteers eyes on your puppet when it talks (this being the most difficult). <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">They are also becoming aware of watching other puppeteers critically (poor Harold the giraffe from a visiting lifeskills programe, has been scrutinised by the whole school! Luckily his manipulator has been sympathetic to the cause!) <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Our “spooky” class did some movement exercises but, highlight of the session, was definitely looking at their finished ghostly puppets under a powerful blacklight. Spooky! Moving around on a dark stage without bumping into each other will be a challenge...but thats next weeks problem. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Seniors all had an extra session to finish off their projects (and still Drew is stringing some marionettes this weekend!). The “god” puppeteers have now added eyes and got a chance to experience moving around as a threesome with these huge creations. The first group to finish instantly rushed to the boundary wall and proceeded to “monster” passing traffic and pedestrians before getting told off...funny though! And I wonder what the motorists thought? We started one session with a storytelling session from me, telling a Cherokee story about the first strawberry. This is a story about quarreling and patching up, inspired partly by the arrival of the first strawberries in the shops down here, and partly by the fact that I had been pretty grumpy the day before! Sometimes these groups have not been operating particularly well in terms of co-operation, and I have been frustrated by this at times. However I have found myself reflecting that actually, in my experience of collaborative creativity, adults can also struggle with group dynamics, it’s not easy. It does feel like a real achievement however, to see these magnificent creations up and working, and their makers are justifially proud of them. One minor mishap, involving a head falling off, lead to dramatic exclamations of “Jeffery’s dead!”...to be folllowed by squeals of delight at his reconstitution after some emergency surgery at my house overnight. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The lunchtimes have been busy with folk finishing off projects or making “extra” puppets to take home. These sessions have a quiet camaradrie about them and it’s interesting being a fly-on-the-wall for some of the conversations, like the young boy who was talking about how men who cheat on their partners are being disrespectful to women because it’s unfair to both parties! Quite a deep understanding. I find myself reflecting on the value of this artists-in-schools programme, and there are all kinds of unmeasureables such as these conversations. Or the exigencies of teamwork, sharing/scoring resources, overcoming technical challenges e.g.how to work out wind-direction when spray-painting, being in a creative zone at the same time as being aware of time-constraints... <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This week has also involved publicity for the show, including poster design and formulating a press release. It is easy to want to do this kind of thing ourselves as the concert date looms up large, but we are committed to passing these skills onto the students for future life. So watch out newspaper reporters and TV news, these guys have you in their sights now! <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Anna arrived on Friday to reinforce the music side of the performance, and the kids just love her positive energy. We are lucky that teachers have been practising the songs during the 5 weeks, in spite of all kinds of other demands on their time (student teachers in control this week as well. Woohoo, we see them as extra stagehands!). Foamouths now get to sing with their actual puppets rather than just practising with their hands. Some finishing touches to the soapbox rap and the usual problem of people being away from a previous session and needing to be bought up to speed. But its all sounding good, especially with the music resources that Anna has accessed such as a rap “backdrop” boofboof track. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">A quick 15 minutes for all 3 of us together, sitting in the hall as children queue up for the Friday “hot lunch” & trying to work out staging logistics...complicated when the stage is not set up yet, no real “wings” or backstage, and children need to access puppets when going on and off-stage as well as watch others performance...We think we have it nutted out, Anna rushes off to another school, I help Drew with a flat car battery, and another week is over... <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">We have really appreciated having the project spread out over 5 weeks instead of cramming everything into one Artweek. This way skills are consolidated, our young artists have an opportunity to make mistakes and choices, plus are learning how to use puppets as well as make them. We have been very fortunate to have chanced on a school with not only a spare room that has been totally devoted to puppet-making, but also a tolerant attitude to chaos/mess and very supportive teachers, very valley vunderful!
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Week 5 **

<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">WELL! It’s all over (bar the cleanup!)...and as with all good projects, there is a slight tinge of sadness plus relief at getting back to the normal rhythms of life ...until the next craziness! <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">As Drew, Anna and I loaded up our cars with the first of many loads, and repaired to a local watering-hole to partake of health-enhancing elixers, we were just happy to have the whole show over with no major disasters...and some major successes! The juniors wowed everyone with their sweet singing (and popping aliens!), the spookies looked amazing under the blacklight, the foamouths really moved their mouths in time to the music, plus added an enormous cringe factor (in a good way!) with their terrible jokes plus excellent delivery! The soapbox/floating bird play all made sense and really showed off the puppets (and their “owners”). The marionettes looked fantastic up on stage, and the god puppets filled the whole space with their presence. Best of all, the families were there to see just what their tamariki have been up to over the last few weeks. The inevitable speeches, and an opportunity to thank all the people who have made this such a positive experience for us- namely teachers and staff, the families and of course the kids themselves. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">As we reflect on the project, we have really appreciated the way the project has spread out over time. In the past, we have done simaler stints but all crammed into a furious and frantic week. This time, there has been the opportunity to really rehearse the music side of things ( for staging to be fun for the performers as well as the audience, they need to feel secure in their material BUT intensive rehearsal can take the joy out of it...by Anna coming in each week, the kids have enjoyed showing off their latest puppet acheivement, and had a chance to consolidate their material). We feel we have got to know the school better (even Kaitrin can’t remember room numbers!).Having the total use of a classroom has been an enormous help, as has a relaxed attitude to tidiness! Of course, there are things we could do differently/better, but we couldn’t ask for better people to work and play with. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Nō reira, ngā mihi mahana, ngā mihi nui ki a koutou, te kura tūmeke o NEV. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">So big warm greetings to you, the Very Valley Vunderful school!