CLEVELAND, Tenn. — What happens when you call some unsuspecting parents to the front of a classroom, put finger puppets in their hands and have them improvise “Goldilocks and the Three Bears?”
Who knew the food that was too hot, too cold and just right was biscuits and gravy, instead of porridge?
When a room full of laughing grownups and kids calmed down Tuesday night, the reluctant performers went back to tables at Mayfield Elementary School and back to making puppets with their children.
The point, said puppeteer Kathleen Lynam, is that puppetry is not only one of the world’s oldest performing arts, but that puppets are teachers, too. Math, social studies, history, famous characters, germs, fire safety and more are all in the puppets’ repertoire, she said.
The children at Mayfield and Yates Primary School know all about it since Ms. Lynam has been their artist-in-residence for a week. During a separate training session, Cleveland City Schools teachers also learned about puppets from Ms. Lynam, Tennessee’s outstanding artist of the year for 2008.
There were other puppet appearances, too, including at Life Care Center’s Garden Plaza, thanks to an Arts Build Communities grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.
“All these little finger puppets are stories,” Ms. Lynam said Tuesday, opening a treasure book filled with them. “The children help me tell the stories. So while they are having fun, they are sequencing, they are learning vocabulary words. They are working on fluency and expression. All this good language arts (instruction) is taking place while we are having fun.”
Ms. Lynam, who lives in Franklin, Tenn., became a professional and award-winning puppeteer after discovering years ago it was a way to tell stories to her young son. She moved on to making and using puppets in schools.
In other Mayfield Elementary rooms Tuesday night, kids and parents were playing German video games. A group of men hunkered over small tables with their children, figuring out color schemes for tiny wooden Volkswagens and German-styled nutcracker toy soldiers. Later on there was polka and sauerkraut.
ON THE WEBTo learn more about the Tennessee Arts Commission and grant opportunities, visit www.arts.state.tn.us.
That was not a coincidence, said art teacher Susan Parks.
“We decided with the German influence coming in with Volkswagen and Wacker, we needed something to prepare our children for this new culture,” Ms. Parks said.
With Brothers Grimm puppets, the program at Mayfield and Yates also have a German flavor, and the Grimm puppets will remain at Mayfield when Ms. Lynam leaves.