Shadow Puppets

 

9th grade English classes read Never Fall Down. They also saw performances by Arn Chorn-Pond and the Khmer Arts Ensemble. In Visual Art they made a shadow puppet theater in five, 50-minute classes.

 

1. After introduction to Cambodian shadow puppets online, students explored modeling poses for corresponding torn paper collages. Each selected a final pose to glue and title.

     

         

         Lesson plan (click to enlarge)

2 + 3. Working in self-selected groups, classes storyboarded narratives. Then using cardstock paper, scissors, x-acto knives, hole punchers, paper fasteners, tape, and dowels students made puppets with movable parts. 

   

4.  Groups practiced choreographing movements. They performed and recorded their skits with a digital camera. Some added backgrounds by illuminating sharpie drawings on transparencies.

5.  9th graders video edited with iMovie. A final performance could require an English objective.

3rd graders narrated skits in Spanish and French. They worked with their foreign language teachers to script then voice record dialogue. I combined the audio and video files.