Shadow Puppets

What do shadow puppets have to do with westward expansion? Well, if you're not in the 4th grade at Ravenswood, then probably not a whole heck of a lot. The students in 311 were hard at work experimenting with their own shadow puppets on Friday. They showed great creativity and produced some really awesome shadow puppets.

So, what if they take these new found skills and apply them telling the experiences of the people involved in westward expansion? We shall soon see.

Now that there is a bit of time, I can officially post some of the awesome stories that the students researched and created based on Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea's experiences exploring the northwest.  I'm not gonna lie, a good majority of the stories deal with the traveling party's encounter with a bear, but if I were looking for some historical content with which to dramatize, I would also seek "bear fighting" stories.  At any rate, I think the students did a great job.  Especially with the backgrounds that they drew on a sheet of copier paper that was then projected from a document camera through Miss Kitty's projector (thanks again Kitty).  The effect was awesome and the students did great job while having fun.  Here you go.

The audio is not the best on any of these, but the performance effect is still pretty good.  Check out the mountains on this one...

I love how the students were able to create the expressions on the puppets faces.  None of the puppets had articulating parts, that's a lesson we just didn't have time to get to.  I am looking forward the next year when we can add those details into the performances!