WISHING YOU A JOYFUL NEW YEAR!!
This article includes our upcoming puppet performance schedule, a delightful seasonal song, and a magical moving picture craft to accompany the music!
Work on the parent & educator resource "A Journey Through Winter" has begun!!
What a joyful exploration: the discovery of the basic foundational elements of the Winter season! I love the process of creating and developing materials that are engaging and fun for children and adults. This collection will include both original work and new adaptations of old favorites. It will still be some time before the project is complete, but enjoy a musical except from "A Journey Through Winter" this season. Learn a song about the brave Merganser ducks who stay and sing in the Winter time! Following each 'quack, quack' in the song, an instrument or the children may echo back.
This verse was inspired by a walk that my kindergarten children and I take to the park that adjoins our school. We delight in feeding the ducks every week on 'walk day'!
"Little duck, little duck his beak he takes,
To dip in the waters of the clear blue lake.
Little tail up, and little beak down,
Then up pops his head and he splashes around!"--by Connie Manson
Children love pictures that move; watching an adult using them in a poem, song or story, and then making their own. (Note: For young children cut the duck pattern and the slit in the paper in advance.) Trace the duck pattern provided below onto a piece of card stock or water color paper. Color the duck with crayons or paint, cut out with scissors, and glue to a flat wooden craft stick. Use a piece of water color paper or card stock, laid out lengthwise (landscape style) and cut a wavy slit with a matte knife 1/3 of the way up from the bottom about 2 inches from each end. Color or paint a 'winter pond' landscape, and then operate the little duck from behind the paper to make some winter magic! If you choose to include snow in the setting, try lightly brushing craft glue over parts of the 'snow' with a brush, then sprinkle on a pinch of clear glitter or fairy dust for a little sparkle!
Pattern for Little Duck:
Cut one for Moving Picture Pattern
Cut two for Finger Puppet Pattern
:Upcoming Puppet Performances in Southern Florida
Click here for Upcoming Performances!