Author Illustrator Angelo DeCesare has developed a new program for PIP.

In this story, Flip thinks math is boring and vows never to do math
again. With his mom and sister, Flip attends a New Year’s party at
Mrs. Liverlump’s house. It turns out to be the most boring party
EVER. Flip falls asleep and dreams of a fun party, filled with elements
of early math. When he wakes up, he writes about both parties in his
journal. Flip’s teacher reads it and tells Flip that he’s good at math!
She points out the places in his journal where he did math without
even realizing it. Flip learns that math is something we do every day…
even when we’re having fun!

The 5 day program includes a series of exciting early math activities:
- Paper Bag “Shape Jackets”, which the students wear while they play
a game involving patterns and shapes.
-Flip’s “Party Food”, made with colorful shapes of different sizes.
-Flip’s “Birthday Cake”-colorful rectangles that teach about patterns.
- “Number Animals”-Students learn to draw animals and practice making
numbers at the same time.

The program ends with a wonderful interactive puppet show called
“I Wish I Were a Dinosaur” which teaches students about the importance
of good behavior in the classroom.

20 Feet Tall and Homeless: Puppet Library finds a home at Brooklyn College

You may be one of the fortunate few who discovered the New York Puppet Library in the Sailors and Soldiers Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn . The library’s brief career, from 2004 through 2006, offered over one hundred puppets on loan to the New York population for over a decade. The puppet library evolved from a relationship the Cooperative had with Prospect Park since 2001. The puppet library was an immense success from the day its doors opened. However, after three exciting years, a leak in the roof of the old monument forced the park to close the Arch and evict the Puppeteers Cooperative. Understanding the dilemma of so many homeless puppets, the park offered temporary storage at another site but only through December of 2007. Needless to say the Puppeteers Cooperative members were rather discouraged in their search for a new space to house the puppet library. Enter Puppetry in Practice (PIP) to the rescue! Browsing on line PIP came across the website of the Cooperative and one phone call later a meeting was arranged at the PIP Museum kitchen table. Thinking back to 1979 when Brooklyn College offered us a home for our puppet program, we invited the Puppeteers Cooperative to partner with us and bring the excitement of our shared vision to life. Our second cup of coffee was with Lillian O’Reilly, Assistant Provost, with whom we explored possible spaces at BC with a ceiling that could accommodate a 20 foot giant puppet or a dozen such majestic monsters.  Enter Denise Paige, accomplice to the rescue! Denise is the Site Director for the Brooklyn College Art Lab, one of several sites run by the Brooklyn College Community Partnership (BCCP). The Art Lab is housed in a vintage gymnasium on the 3rd floor of the Roosevelt building. It has recently undergone some very creative renovations and its after school program serves up to 120 drop in students a day. Now, thanks to the enthusiastic and welcoming invitation from Denise, COO Diane Reiser and Program Director Steve Ausbury, the puppet collection that was the New York Puppet Library has a new home. series of conversations and events reflects the warmth and hospitality of the Brooklyn College community. Magic really happens when creative people collaborate. Thanks to this shared vision the Puppet Library will re-open at Brooklyn College with a wealth of visual imagery on display. A sampling of puppets under 8 feet tall will also be displayed at PIP’s main center in James Hall. To find out more about what’s happening visit the Puppetry in Practice website, and feel free to come see the puppets once they are installed around the New Year.To view a sample of some of the puppets from the Puppet Library go here

Puppet Animation Laboratory /Animation technology and memoir studies

We are in the second year of Puppet Animation Laboratory (PAL) a project connecting memoir studies and animation technology through our program My Life at PS46, The Edgar Allan Poe School, and Our Lady of Refuge in the Fordham section of the Bronx .

This year working with the 4^th graders, we will be connecting to the social studies curriculum with Native American studies as the theme. Each student will learn about the tribes of New York and the animal totems specific to those tribes. They will create narratives and clay figures based on those animals and enact them as claymation animations. Students will write poetry, use Native American song, explore clay sculpture as well as other methods of animation and computer arts. This pilot program is groundbreaking in many ways, using arts-technology to connect to the curriculum gives students is a project based approach to understanding.

Elements of the project involve using cameras, animation software, clay sculptures, paper puppets.Students learn about creating narrative stories, drawing, storyboarding, clay sculpting, and crafting animatable objects. They also get to make Zoetropes. Flipbooks, Thaumatropes and other mechanical animations to connect hands on learning and computer technology.

We used the new york state arts standards as the basis upon which to develop this pilot program. We plan to replicate the success of PAL at other schools in the New York Area.

During the first year 3^rd grade students at both schools created scenes from their lives using cut-paper stop-motion animation, recording memoir narratives that were used as the audio tracks for the final piece.

Students at PS 46 creating stop motion animation in year one of the State Ed grant for technology education.

Puppetry in Practice teaching artists conducted professional development workshops in ways for educators to use technology in the classroom to facilitate project based learning and brought teaching artists to PS 46 to involve parents in creating art with their children.

We have been busy providing direct services to children in NYC schools. The year started strong with many bookings for our new programs with Author Illustrator Angelo DeCesare.
Angelo has developed a new program for Special Ed students called “All Write All Ready”
A writing program geared towards the object of increasing writing skills and reading comprehension. Students will be hearing one of the flip journals, learning how to draw the characters and learning about the characters personalities.

Once students are familiar with the flip characters, they will be able to write about them and their enjoyment of the characters creates enthusiasm for the stories that they are reading and that will translate into better comprehensive reading.

In addition to AWAR, Angelo is busy delivering his other successful programs, Flip’s Neighborhood Journals, Flip’s Mighty Memoir Journal, Math Party Journal, to early readers and writers at PS109, PS 236 and PS 209.

Angelo’s other program is Math Party Journal

Our longtime collaborator Judith O’Hare featured us in her book titled

Puppetry in Education and Therapy:Unlocking Doors to the Mind and Heart

featuring our work and the work of many other puppeteers involved in therapeutic puppetry and arts education.

From the Book:

In Puppetry in Education and Therapy: Unlocking Doors to the Mind and Heart, one finds enormous variety, ingenuity, and creativity in the types of puppets, and the ways they are used in education and in therapy. Puppeteers, therapists, and educators, articulate what is meant by “puppetry in education” and “puppet therapy” and how it is the same or different from “puppet theatre”. They describe the unique characteristics and theory of puppetry in education and therapy, the skills it takes to be successful in these areas, the skills that are passed on to people who use puppets for personal expression, and how to assess the impact of puppets on learning or behavior change. Twenty-six authors discuss topics such as puppetry and the multiple intelligences; the process versus the product; using puppetry in schools to promote literacy, preserve cultural heritage, and teach music; how puppetry contributes to Core Curriculum Standards, the theoretical underpinnings of therapeutic puppetry, and a range of ways of facilitating growth and development. If you’re already using puppets, this book will inspire you to understand your work differently and to explore new possibilities. If you’re a teacher or a therapist and you’ve never used puppets before, it will open a whole world of possibilities. This book illustrates that puppetry arts can affect learning and behavior and that puppets indeed have the power to unlock doors to the mind and heart.

You can buy a copy here