What is rubbish?
- Is it just “matter out of place”?
- Why do we throw things away?
- How can we use rubbish as a valuable resource?
What is this project about?
Alerting children to:
- The problems of human rubbish/litter in a wetland environment.
- How children themselves (like all of us) are part of the problem.
- What they (and we) can do to change and improve the situation.
-Encouraging empathy with wild creatures threatened and damaged by human rubbish.
The Story of 'The Rubbish Monster'
What if the crisp packet you’d just thrown away came to life and begged you to take it home?
This is just what happens to Katie Dumpster as she paddles her boat down the backwaters of the river,
on what is clearly going to be a very strange summer’s day.
As more litter floats downstream from the city and lands in mounting piles on the river-bank,
a scavenging gull gets into a tangle, and the Watervoles watch helplessly as a mysterious Robot arm carries off their Baby, trapped in a discarded wine-bottle.
Puppets can help teachers and children tackle difficult issues
Environmental education has to handle some very hard issues - many of which can be traced back to human influences. If children are not to be left feeling alienated and powerless to act, it is wise to tackle the issues which mean most to them and which are part of their experience.
Puppets can say and do things which humans cannot. They allow children to act out what they would like to be able to achieve, helping them to step into the role of champions of the natural world, vanquishing the forces of destruction.
Devising and creating a puppet show adds another dimension to the educational process.
It exercises may skills and requires a lot of knowledge.
It also develops children’s ability to work in teams: researching, story writing,
and the practical making of puppets, props, scenery
and music.
An enormous amount of environmental education is done in the preparation phase of a puppet show.
Our experience shows that it is perfectly possible for young children to understand basic ecology, produce original and convincing stories and to act them.
A Chance to Shine
An exercise such as taking an environmental problem and turning it into a play, requires so many different skills that it can bring out the best in a huge range of different children. An astonishing quality of work can sometimes be achieved by usually silent, slow or uncooperative children.
Children who may see themselves as incapable at school, now have a chance to shine. Those who are very practical and skilled with their hands may suddenly find other, ‘brighter’ children asking them for help.
Those who spend hours playing or ‘mucking about’ outdoors, now find their knowledge of animals and plants invaluable.
Those who understand the construction of a good story find their story-weaving skills being sought.
The Play's The Thing
The purpose of the workshop is to give children the chance to devise and perform their own stories
about the relationship between people, rubbish and animals.
Like Nutmeg’s show, “The Rubbish Monster”, the children’s shows can include live actors as well as puppets made of rubbish and animal puppets.
Materials
Please ask all the children to bring in at least one clean, and not too damaged, piece of their own rubbish, such as;
An aluminium drink-can.
A crisps or snack packet, or
A plastic milk-bottle.
You will need a good supply of recycled materials (the children can help collect it), such as:
Card from cereal or other packets, old CDs or tapes, coloured plastic bags, wrapping paper, bubble wrap, light cloth, and fur fabric (from old clothes), wool, ribbons, buttons, drinking straws, feathers, socks.
You will also need to supply
Rough paper
String, thread, and thin wire.
Sellotape, double-sided, and making tape.
Hot-glue sticks and glue for card/paper.
Fishing line.
Tomato-sticks, or thin garden canes, or withies (willow).
Tools
Please provide:
Scissors, pliers, wire-cutters, tin-snips, paper drills or hole-punches, bradawls, staplers, pins and needles, hot-glue guns, pens, pencils, felt-tips, craft-knives and cutting-boards, marker-pens,
and percussion instruments/noise-makers.
Some puppet-making ideas
(see attached image):
Programme for the children's workshop
- General introduction and discussion.
- What we shall be doing during this workshop.
- Introduction to tools and materials.
- Planning, making and performing instant shows.
Planning, making and performing instant shows - How you can run a workshop.
As the leader, you can decide how much you want to direct a children’s workshop (as in Stories first), and how much to adopt a ‘hands off’, enabling approach (as in Making first). Both work!
Theme
The leader explains the show must relate to us and our rubbish,
and wildlife.
Explanation and Demonstration
You will need to have available tools and materials and some reference information (optional).
Demonstrate basic construction with some sample puppets.
Stories first: making after
Break the class into smaller groups, or allow them to group themselves, with no more than 6 to a group.
Ask them to write a brief story on the theme (in the form of a story-board, or just a simple storyline), create and list characters, and decide who is going to make or act them.
The children then make the puppets and work out words/music. (Tasks can be divided or shared by all.)
Making First: stories after
(An organic way of working can be a good approach for a leader or participants who are impatient to get on and make*. This method functions on an instinctive, intuitive level, reinforcing the learning experience in a less formal situation, and allowing the participants to learn by doing.)
Make groups as above, or wait until some puppets are made and then group the makers according to which characters seem to go together. Allocate some tools and materials to each table and encourage the children to start making and experimenting.
When the puppets are more or less made, get the groups to think about the story, action and characterisation. (They are likely to have been discussing this while they were making.) Are any characters missing? This is the time to make them.
Rehearsals
Allow enough time for rehearsal (at least 10 minutes). Each group rehearses and sorts out sound effects as they go along. They may benefit from a director (one of the group) or leader to act as an outside eye, or, if you have a small group who are used to working together already, decisions can be made co-operatively (this will take longer).
Performance
Perform the show to the rest of the group. Record in photos or on video if you can.
Timing
The workshop should take only about 2 hours from explanation to performance; and the shows should each last no more than five minutes. It is important for the leader to keep a track of time and regularly remind participants how much time they have left.