Puppet Project

James had a book report due last Friday. James read a book - no problem. It's all the STUFF that the 3rd Grade teachers ask them to do additionally that IS the problem. On the way home from school, James could sense that he was headed to frustration. It was time to make a puppet based on a main character from his book. James doesn't enjoy crafting (unlike other members of our family). James is all about speed which means that glue gets globby and cutting isn't precise. Did I mention that Jon was out of town and it was my responsibility to see that the project got done. I told James that we needed to complete the assignment, but it didn't need to be the best one in the class. If fact, he had my permission to have the dumbest puppet in the whole 3rd grade.

I had help with the baby, so my hands were free. James & I had "help" from Jacob & Jessica who LOVE crafting. Jacob (who was grounded because he refuses to complete his reading assignments) couldn't keep his eyes off the puppet. The coiled shoes were his idea. Jessica was so excited that we were making puppets. She gathered supplies from the garage to help her make a princess puppet (with no help from any of us I might add).

First we tried drilling a hole into a tennis ball for the head. IMPOSSIBLE. Jon showed me later that I didn't have the drill bit on the drill. I was just using the screw driver head. Instead we glued and taped an unpainted round wooden ornament for the head. Tah-Dah! Cutting up some of James' holey jeans added a special touch. James drew the patterns for the clothes. I taped them to the materials. James would try to cut them and complain that it was too hard. Then I would touch it up a bit :)

I think that the puppet turned out quite cute in the end. That was only worth 10% of the grade, so we didn't sweat it. James ended up getting full credit. I'm an AWESOME 3rd grader!!!

After crafting, I sent the kids in the back yard so I could clean up before dinner. I pulled out the broom and then scolded myself, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!!!" I returned the broom along side the fridge and went to find a camera. I'd need a macro lense to really show you just how far red glitter spreads and how many nooks and crannies it finds. James caught me with the camera and asked, "Mom, do you like remembering all these messes?" Seems I've been doing this a lot lately. "It's evidence," I said.

So here's the aftermath:



Yes, this is a bowl full of Elmer's glue. Jessica "paints" it on her pictures so the glitter will stick.



I took several pictures of this glitter glob until I finally realized that THIS is Jessica's princess puppet. She had the popsicle stick idea herself.


There are always LOTS of clippings on the tile from Jessica's handiwork.

Part 2:
James' written report needed to be in his best cursive handwriting. This takes much more time and concentration than print. James completed this on Wednesday which was great until I read it on Thursday and suggested/insisted that he needed to rewrite the whole thing. He needed more clarity in his writing and he needed to follow the specific directions to meet the grading criteria. He was upset, but pulled out a blank sheet of paper and attempted to write out a revised report based on our discussion of each paragraph.

Later James came to the office in sobs & tears because he had forgotten to make separate paragraphs for each section. It was just one big ol' block of text - well, tilted text. Everything was diagonally diving toward the right. I read his revised version and knew that it still needed work. I also knew that James was not in a state to receive a heavy blow (the one where I said we needed to rewrite the whole thing AGAIN). So, I sent him off to play video games for 30 minutes. I told him we would work on it together after the younger kids had gone to bed. That was a good idea. Later I marked up his copy and taught him about rough drafts. He then went and rewrote his report on LINED paper that I printed for him.

Finally:
James also had to prepare an Oral Presentation where he summarized the book and demonstrated his puppet. At this point it was well past 9:30 p.m. I had too children sleeping on my chest and I had never read the book. He was on his own for that part. We had already reviewed (and clarified) the plot for his writing assignment, so I'd helped all I could.

WE received an A on the assignment :)

Good-Night