Making our Puppets!
This week we began our visual arts component of the unit where we began making our puppets. As a group, we discussed and thought about our scene, our feelings of our characters, their traits and persona, as well as how we wanted to make our characters. As far as it goes, we have watched several puppet shows but we have never made puppets before. Fortunately, with the help of group work and decision-making, we were able to collaborate using our ideas effectively as a group, which was helpful throughout our making of the puppets. Collaborative learning activities engage peers in subject-specific discussion, promote cooperation and support, develop teamwork and communication skills, assimilate multiple view to deepen knowledge and promote critical thinking, foster individual accountability, structure out-of-class learning and mitigate learner isolation (Collaborative learning, 2013).
Coming from a student’s perspective this was a great first and hands on experience to learn about the making of puppets, and demonstrate our ideas into practice which to me could be easily utlilised in any classroom setting. For the making of our puppets I used a range of different materials such as toilet rolls, shredded paper, cotton string, satin, cotton material, and thick black fabric for the stepmother’s dress which we thought conveyed her character effectively. With the help of our collaborative skills, I felt like it helped us to gain an idea in thinking strategically on what materials were needed and how they could be used to convey meaning of our character to the intended audience of our film. In taking part in such a wonderful, inspiring, engaging experience allowed me to understand how the use of puppets is so crucial, effective, and beneficial to utilise in a classroom. This lead to my perception where students not only learn by looking at puppets and making them but also become creative learners by developing their creativity and imagination in the process of making puppets. Not only it is an experience of creativity and imagination but it also leads to student’s ability to collaborate effectively with their peers during the process of puppet making.
