Nightmare Lesson

On 11/ 30 Jen and  Megan taught their lesson on nightmares. We came into the classroom and the lights were dim. There was a screen in the center of the classroom and we were welcomed by a shadow puppet show about a giant and a bird. I think this was a wonderful introduction to the lesson, it instantly got students excited to make their own puppet. The teachers then went on to tell us that they made these puppets based on nightmares they had had. They also explained that even though these were frightening for them as children, making a story about the characters and creating these puppets helped them get over their fears. Jen and Megan showed the class several examples of artists who use puppets including Brian Froud. The showed us a clip from Americas Got Talent a routine from dancers called The Silhouette's; they also showed us some examples of Javanese Puppets. I really enjoyed these artist examples especially the Silhouette's, these examples conveyed the ideas they wanted the class to understand accurately.

The video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkMVExUzGhY

Jen and Meagan gave a demo on how to make puppets they told us that it was important to concentrate on the overall shape of the figure and not to get to caught up in details because most details wont show up in shadow form. We were told we must use at least in hinge to create a join on our puppet. They asked the class for examples joints or hinges. Some students mentioned elbows and knees.Then they recaped that yes we can create joints for our wrists ,arms, legs, feet ext..
Great lesson every one was so caught up in making their puppet. Everyone seemed to want to finnish and do the next step of creating a show.