The Ministry of Silly Walks

We've recently done some interesting things in Poetry, Pottery, Puppetry, and Photography.

Poetry
Did you know about National Poem in Your Pocket Day? This year it was on Thursday, April 21st. You choose a favorite poem, write it down, put it in your pocket, and share it with everyone you meet on that day!

Of course, you can make your own P in Y Pocket Day whoever you want to. Maybe it would be fun to choose four days a year, one for each season.

Pottery

We recently discovered the AMAZING Craft Shop in the basement of the Student Center at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. They have designated rooms full of materials and equipment to work with paint, fabric, clay, leather, wood, metal, glass, and more. Simply pay a small materials fee and get to work making what you'd like! They have workshops and private lessons if you want more direction. Natalie had already gone once with a friend to the pottery studio and made some pieces, which you set on a shelf and they fire for you. Then you go back within 30 days and glaze them as you wish, then set them on another shelf and they do the second firing for you once there are enough pieces to fill a kiln. The baby and I walked up and down the long corridor and he was just entranced by all the art around us!

If you're looking to get started with clay, I highly recommend

The Great Clay Adventure:
Creative Handbuilding Projects For Young Artists
by Ellen Kong

Puppetry

This year -- FINALLY -- we participated in the All-Species Puppet Parade. It was on Friday, Earth Day. Becca so wanted to do this because they had been talking about it at school. She brought "Bubbles," her Chesapeake Bay seahorse puppet made of recycled materials, which she created several years ago at a Earth Day puppetry workshop at her old Montessori school.

Recycled Puppetry - Animals of the Chesapeake Bay - Puppets on Parade

Becca loved her seahorse puppet so much that we still had it hanging up in her room.

It was an awesome experience, very cheery and family friendly, a short and safe parade route, and Zac's first parade!

Photography

Natalie made a mask (a cat with a unicorn horn) and Leah made a mask (a tiger) but neither of them ended up in the parade. Natalie wasn't happy enough with her mask to parade it around and Leah ended up taking a hike with a friend. They were, however, both really happy with the photography work they had done as part of Picturing Home, a multi-week art experience supported with funding from "Here We Live." The final event was a dinner, which the kids helped make, and a chance for them to show off all of their photography with a big display. Natalie and Leah were thrilled to have their artwork displayed at the Carbondale Community Arts building!

Before we enjoyed dinner, Sarah Lewison, one of the workshop leaders over the multi-week series, led us in an exercise to help us Find Our Unique Individual Walks. This was something she taught the kids to do and it is centering and great fun. Here are the steps:

In silence and without touching anyone else, walk around. Fill the whole space. Do this for a minute.

Make your walk larger. Continue for a minute.

Make your walk sillier. Continue for a minute.

Come up with a sound that accompanies your walk. Make the sound while you move around. Do this for a minute.

Stand still and at the count of 3, throw both arms up over your head and loudly yell!!! 1 - 2 - 3 - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Then immediately exhale and blow out through your mouth and bend down and touch your toes.

Sarah says, "If you don't look stupid, you're not doing it right." :-)