Pea Pilly Bean * » costumes

Budding Thespians

Sarah — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 02:01:56 +0000

I’m not even sure how we got to this but I guess this is what home Schooling is all about. We are putting on a play, maybe, if Eli wants to on the day.

We have been looking at Aboriginal art and culture and as part of this unit I read Tales of My Grandmother’s Dreamtime to the kids. This book is a collection of short fables from the Aboriginal Dreamtime. Most end badly for the protagonist as all good life lessons usually do. In fact I think the majority of characters in this book get eaten by a crocodile with the exception of three vain animals who dress up in bright colours and get killed by humans. We also went to see a play in which puppetry was used and at the same time as all of this the kids have gotten totally hooked on the TV show Merlin. Ok so they don’t all fit together, or do they???

Alanah is cluey, she wont just except things she has to know why and how. So we have been bombarded with questions about how puppets are made which led to questions about Merlin and all the special effect on the show. She has become very curious about the whole production process, how they made the special effects, how they know what the character should look like. As I was reading through the book at the time I used it as an example talking to them about what we would need to do if we wanted to turn the story into a play or a movie. Then of course they wanted to do it. So I let them chose a story, Eli wanted “the one where they all end up dead” but Alanah found the only story in the whole book where no one dies and insisted we do that one.

I got them to design their costumes on paper first and think about how they would be made. Then we began our costume workshop mostly involving paint and Papier-mâché. These photos are of the creation of the costumes I’ll post some later on with them wearing the finished product.

IN OTHER NEWS: Sabrina has learnt to survive on absolutely no sleep at all. She is going to make medical history by being the only child to remain teething for the rest of her life. And I have mastered the skill of holding my hair together in a bun with the aid of a single HB pencil.

On the tenth day of Sabrina…

Sarah — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:50:38 +0000

…my true love gave to me, an artistic baby.

Sabrina’s first but I’m sure not the last self portrait with textas.

She also learnt to pull herself up this month making homework time at the coffee table a thing of the past.

Her crawling became more adventurous finally having a go at getting around on that prickly tickly green stuff.

*** I swear I didn’t dress her in that top every day this month, she just happened to do all the cool things while wearing it, honest.***

Oh and the foot fetish continued. (Photo of Sabrina dressed as Thing 1 taken moments before she attacked)

Book Week 2009 – The Cat in the Hat

Sarah — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:34:48 +0000

Something went BUMP!

How that bump made us jump!

We looked!

Then we saw him step in on the mat!

We looked!

And we saw him!

The Cat in the Hat!

"Right here in my hat

On the top of my head!

It is good that I have him

Here with me today.

He helps me a lot.

This is Little Cat A."

They said, "How do you do?

Would you like to shake hands

With Thing one and Thing Two?"

Oh how we laugh at those Cats in their hats. Dr. Seuss books especially the two cat ones are absolute favourites in our house. The way they are written with such a cheeky and sometimes naughty abandonment of reality, so appealing to little imaginations.

Nose in a book

Sarah — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:32:55 +0000

School and I never really bonded. I did have some good times in primary school but I have since found out not many of them had anything to do with learning. It seems I became quite proficient at avoiding education. Most of my memories revolve around escaping class. I’d do anything, run messages, clean out the store rooms (they were actually really cool with ladder like shelves all the way up to a man hole into the attic space above the rooms. A space you could stay in all day if you were quiet enough to let the teachers forget that they had sent you in there), offer to help out in the Kindy room or just not come back from lunch. I’d convince the gardener that I had permission to spend the rest of the day with him digging holes, planting plants and all the other fun not stuck in a class room type things that gardeners do.

Some of the few memories I have that are based around actual learning are about Book Week. I probably have to thank my library teacher Mrs Fitzpatrick for her ability to read a story in such a way that you were immediately transported to another world and my Mum who read to me every night and read to herself every day. I fell in love with books, head over heels. I love immersing myself in someone else’s imagination and the chance to dress up and do that for a whole day at school was amazing. Plus and a big plus you get to meet a real Author, it felt a bit like having Superman come visit your school.

So I am understandably thrilled to be helping my own Kiddies to create their Book Week costumes. In less than a week that pile of gloves feathers and fabric will be transformed into characters from an absolute favourite book in this house at the moment, two books to be accurate but they go together. Can you guess which books?

Update: Here are the finished book week costumes