Crossing Borders/Breaking Boundaries
The Arts of the Renaissance
July 14-21, 2003
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Making Shakespearian Hand Puppets

Teacher: William H. Christ, Jr.
Discipline: Elementary Art
Grade Level: 5th


UNIT: Making Shakespearean Hand Puppets, 5th Grade, Two 45-minute Classes

Outcome I:

Perceiving and Responding – Students create a hand made Model-Magic clay face for a puppet based on a character from Shakespeare’ play excerpt. Using mixed media items, they will demonstrate their ability to decorate their puppets in a specific style.

Outcome II:

Historical Contexts – Students are shown through visual examples how puppets have been used since the Middle Ages for teaching and entertainment purposes.

Outcome III:

Creative Expression and Production – Students use their literary knowledge of
Plays , Theater Production and the Elements of Art to complete their puppets and prepare for a theatrical presentation.

Outcome IV:

Aesthetic Criticism – Students will be able to compare and contrast their hand puppets and relate which specific culture or tradition their characters reflect. Students will explain their choice of character and what items they used to get the effect.


INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES: First Class Session
Students will select a character from the Play excerpt and design a character head out of Model-Magic clay. They will affix the clay head to a 3/8” wood, 12” long dowel stick.
(Allow clay to air-harden over night.)

SPECIFIC SKILLS TO BE TAUGHT: First Class Session
Thinking skills that allow the student to review the play’s characters, ie: King, Queen, Fairies, Wild or Domestic Animals, Princes and Princesses (boyfriends and girlfriends)
The students use hand manipulation of the clay to create their character heads.

MOTIVATIONAL ACTIVITY: First Class Session
Students see a classroom display of different puppets made with mixed media. Students learn about Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and decide which character they will use as a bases for their puppets.

INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES: First Class Session
Students sit in their assigned seats – usually 4 per table. Each group receives different colored clay, dowel sticks, plastic clay modeling tools and a strip of masking tape for their name. They proceed to make their character’s head and affix it to the dowel stick with their name strip on the dowel. Upon completion, the puppet heads are collected and the dowel sticks are inserted into a cardboard box with holes pre-made to allow for drying.

MATERIALS NEEDED: First Class Session
Different colors of Crayola Model-Magic. Each student needs a 2” diameter ball of clay to begin with. (1) 12” – 3/8” wood dowel (pre-cut) , plastic clay modeling tools (1) set per group.

MATERIALS NEEDED: Second Class Session
(1) Brown flat-bottom paper lunch bag, scraps of material, yarn, colored or foil paper, colored tissue paper, pipe cleaners, colored feathers, popcycle sticks, markers, fabric glue, white glue, hot glue gun with glue sticks and scissors.

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES: Second Class Session
Students will create a puppet body for their clay head. They will decorate, using the provided art materials) the paper bag puppet body as necessary to complete their character. They will also name their puppet and on loose-leaf paper write some dialogue to allow their puppet to interact with another student’s puppet.

SPECIFIC SKILLS TO BE TAUGHT: Second Class Session
Using scraps of materials, feathers, sticks, cutout paper and colors, they will create a puppet body with arms, hands, armor, costumes, hats, hair, etc., and expressive personalities as per their selected Shakespearean counterpart from the original play.

INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES: Second Class Session
Students regroup as previous class. Art materials are provided for each group along with their puppet heads. Each student receives a brown paper bag and puts a small hole in the middle of the bag bottom with their scissors. They insert the head-on-the-stick through the hole, and now can hold the stick inside the bag. They decorate the bag with costume, create arms and hands, and upon completion, begin writing dialogue for their puppet play.

SUMMARY / EVALUATION: Second Class Session
Puppets take on human or animal characteristics during the play presentation. Two students interact with each other using their written dialogue in front of the class. Each group of two students introduces their puppet and tells where in the “Their Own Play” these two puppets act. Students are expected to be quiet during the short play and applaud when each group finishes. Selected puppets can be displayed in the school’s Showcase or in the Art Room.

RUBIC: Combined grade for both Class Sessions

3. Excellent Student completed puppet and presentation.
2. Good Student completed puppet and did not present.
1. Fair Student’s puppet was incomplete and did not present.

CONNECTIONS: These two class sessions help the student connect, through two and three dimentional art, to language arts through, reading and writing. They also will connect to drama and theater through their performance before an audience. Music could also accompany their presentation.

My students will study history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance later in middle and high school. However, this lesson lays an important foundation that generates interest in a period that generally goes unnoticed.

Sponsored by
the Center for Renaissance & Baroque Studies
and the Maryland State Department of Education