Theatre Camp Wednesday

Playing

Group Stop, Minefield, Wink Murder, Categories, Gibberish, Two Sticks, Yes... Let's!

plus Guard the Fire, which Anna taught us. This is a fun game! You take two sticks and cross them in front of one child, who sits on the floor blindfolded. That child must guard the fire with his/her hands (but is not allowed to actually touch the sticks). All the other children crouch at the starting line and try to sneak up and steal the sticks without being sensed and tapped. If the guard taps you, you must return to the starting line. Whoever successfully steals the sticks becomes the new guard.

Cooking

Today we were gluten-free and baked gf roll-and-cut sugar cookies. I used Grandmommy's vintage "deck of cards" shaped cookie cutters. Heart, Spade, Club, Diamond. I can imagine her making plates of these cookies to serve at bridge parties. It was fun to make cookies at the very table, in the very kitchen, with the very stove, where we always rolled and decorated Christmas cookies when I was a child!

Planning

final to-do lists and the countdown to dress rehearsal tomorrow!

plus, planning the menu for the reception & making parent/grandparent invitations with watercolor notecards and watercolor pencils

Creating

• drawing and painting a cardboard cow
• gluing cotton to the cardboard sheep
• painting the cardboard lion mask
• composing lyrics and creating a song for Grandfather to sing before the play starts, warning Peter of the dangers in the woods
• continuing to decorate the living room windows with window crayons to look like we are in a forest
• laying down a light blue king size down comforter to be our lake, moving the coffee table out of the way
• creating the duck costume/cape (I'm a big fan of simple capes as costumes)
• drawing and painting duck mask out of a brown paper bag, attaching and painting the bill
• gluing dyed coffee balls to the wolf mask
• gluing red feathers to the cardinal mask
• beginning to sew red feathers on the cardinal costume/sweater dress

Today I went to the craft store after camp and got the supplies on the list I was handed. That was blue paint and green paint. You may have noticed that I'm going to the store daily to get new paint colors. This is deliberate! Instead of buying a bunch of paint and handing it to the kids and saying, here, guys, have at it... I wanted them to focus on the planning process. Let me think about what I want to create; let me think about what we have on hand and what I need; let me make a written shopping list. Because they haven't thought things through, they have to wait until I've gone back to the store. This (gentle) real-life-lesson is supposed to make them more focused and aware, instead of expecting craft supplies to fall from the sky. Love and Logic says that you should give kids lots of chances to make small mistakes and learn from them. You then react matter-of-factly and with empathy. I haven't had any paint emergencies so far, and the kids are doing well with huddling up, checking in, looking at our to-do lists, and participating in the planning process.

Today's cost: $6.50. Total cost so far: $37.92.

Tomorrow's plan: more acting games, testing the last two recipes for the reception menu (Vegan Gluten-Free Black Bean Brownies & Vegan Coconut Smoothie), last details in designing/sewing/painting/decorating costumes/ masks/sets, walk-through and blocking decisions, dress rehearsal (hopefully) in the afternoon