Miraiker's World of Puppets
Have-a-go puppet workshops for children aged 5 - 11 years. This activity is
particularly suitable for schools.
Miraiker has a large variety of quality puppets including hand puppets, marionettes and muppet style puppets. The children are given the opportunity to operate all of these types of puppets and can finally be guided towards putting on their own puppet shows in small groups.
The workshops vary according to age and cover many of the teaching objectives for 'Speaking and Listening' and 'Drama' as set out in the National Curriculum.
This can be booked on a 'one off' basis or as a series of visits. Get in touch to discuss your particular requirements or to find out more.
A class of up to 30 children at a time works well.
Themed Workshops
Several themed workshops are now available to fit in with some of the topics currently popular in schools. Anything from an hour with a class up to half a day gives a memorable experience. The workshops include the following.
India
India has a rich culture of puppetry. Rajastani string loop puppets (pictured left) have been used for entertainment for thousands of years.
The children can use the many Indian puppets to dance, charm snakes (puppets) and perform puppet illusions.
In the Northern Anduras region there is a strong tradition of leather shadow puppets with which religious and moral stories are told.
Children love to handle the puppets and try them out using shadow screens and lamps.
A little history and information is made far more memorable by the hands-on approach.
Puppets from around the World
Many countries have their own distictive forms of puppetry. This is a chance to travel much of the world's puppetry traditions in one place.
As well as the Indian puppets above, children can find out about and use: Indonesian rod puppets (pictured right), various styles of marionette from Thailand, South America, Africa and China, wrist puppets from Slovakia, Austrian jumping puppts, muppet-style puppets from America, English jig doll puppets, Punch & Judy puppets used in different forms through much of Europe and much more.
Dark & Light
Shadow puppetry is the best way to learn about shadows. Using a range of old and modern puppets children enjoy discovering how to improve images and what happens if you put your head in the way of the light . They soon begin to experiment with how far the puppets should be from the light source or screen, what happens if you introduce colour filters.
Eight screens with lamps and lots of puppets means that everyone gets plenty of hands on experience.
The Seaside
Here is a chance to learn all about the Punch & Judy show, how it came to the seaside and how it all works.
It starts with a brief talk to put it all in perspective. Then a traditional show aimed at the age of the children present. Then a look inside the show - taking the cover off so we can see inside and a chance to ask questions on anything - the props, the characters, the story...
Finally, a chance to handle and have a go with the figures as we pass around some child size versions of the cast.
Traditional Stories
Using the many story sets of puppets the children can practice retelling a well-known story in groups and, with any necessary help, show the class the finished production.
Sets currently include: The 3 little pigs and the 3 Billy goats Gruff (both pictured left), Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Jack & the Beanstalk, Cinderella, The Enormous Turnip, Goldilocks & the 3 Bears, The Gingerbread man and more are being added all the time.
The puppets include large, muppet-style puppets, wooden headed hand puppets & shadow puppets.
A new twist in the Autumn term, particularly with older children, is to look at what changes a traditional story into a pantomime and try to add some panto into the show.
Victorians
Victorian puppetry included street performances of glove puppet shows and marionette shows, theatre shows of humanettes (pictured right) and puppets that children might own such as model theatres.
Here is a chance to play as Victorian children might have done and also to try out puppets that Victorian children would only have been audiences to.
There is and option to finish the session with a puppet show from the era.
Watch this page for more themed workshops, coming soon!
Ask about workshops on:
Toys Old & New Myths & Legends
