Households unite for an exciting shadow puppet and storytelling 3-session workshop! This workshop is designed for children and families to embrace the powers of virtual lessons. Nicole will guide you to set up your own shadow puppet stage, demonstrate how to assemble engaging scenes and characters and finish by showing off your story! The outcome will be a recording of your shadow puppet story and show available for you to share with friends and family.
This workshop could work well with Nicole at home and the students working with their teacher in the classroom. It could also unite a class where some of the students are working from home. Depending on the ages, students working from home might need some family support. Each student needs a computer, though in the classroom, students could share them ( turning them around the center of a table, to keep distancing.)
Day 1: Nicole shows you how to set up a screen using a sheet of white tissue paper, chairs on the table, and your computer. We explore lighting possibilities. We begin to make puppets out of cardboard, scissors, and tape, and whatever you have around the house. We share fun effects we've discovered.
Day 2: We think about how to use these fun effects in a story. We draw a "visual portrait" of a story with a beginning, problem, solution, and ending. We start to figure out how to tell this story in the form of a shadow puppet show.
In between workshop days, we can build more items for our puppet plays.
Day 3: We perform our puppet shows for each other on Zoom. They can be recorded and shared, depending on permissions. They could be sent to parents to share with extended family far away.
| Grade Suitability | 2-10 |
| Maximum Class Size | 30 (if students are together in the classroom)/6 (if students are at home and working individually) |
| Time Required | 3 hours /3 hours of prep time |
| Material Required | Tape, construction paper and tissue paper |
| Language of Instruction | English or French |
| Availability | Nov 8-Christmas, and Feb-June |
Nicole Bauberger is a storyteller, painter, sculptor, writer and arts educator. Teaching and learning live close to the heart of her art practice. She educated herself mostly through collaborations and apprenticeships with other artists. She had the blessing of a learning friendship with Mrs. Annie Smith of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation which continues with Annie’s family today. Nicole loves to bring what she has learned in these relationships into schools, continuing to learn from collaborative adventures with students. For four years she created murals with students in Ontario High Schools through the Ontario Artists in Education Program. Her work can be seen out in the community and at the Yukon Artists @ Work Gallery.
Click here to read Nicole's published article in the Canadian Art Teacher's Journal (p. 49).