Goldie Goldfish Tutorial

 Look what I got for FREE at NAEYC last month!!!
Just behind my booth the good folks at NASCO were giving away these amazing rolls of "smart-fab".
Of course you gotta LUV anything for free, let alone a FULL size roll of something that's similar to fabric!!!

 Right away my mind got busy. Then I unrolled it at home & fell in LUV.

Heavier that tissue paper, not as tough as fabric.

This stuff is AWESOME. Emphasis on AWE!

In my promise to create more 'craft-tutorials' here for my regular readers I had already purchased an orange snack-sized paper bag at my local WalMart for 20 cents. My goal is to show you how to sculpt an inexpensive goldfish puppet suitable for the first children's song that I ever wrote, "Goldie Goldfish."

I took the roll of smart fab and cut two inch wide lengths of each color: yellow & orange.
Then I cut those lengths into approxiamate two inch squares, making a happy pile of each in the process.
(Of couse if you don't happen to have delightful rolls of 'smart-fab' you can always use sheets of tissue paper to make your two inch squares.)

Next I folded the paper bag's "bottom" and glued those folds with my hot glue gun.

***Then I CAREFULLY trimmed the sides of the bag, making sure that there were still portions of the bag's fold to hold it's puppet-like shape.

I happened to have these yellow foam circle-thingies from an earlier dollar store run and they lend some happy, happy to the wiggle eyes glued onto buttons.

Next I took the individual squares and turned them into folded triangles, hot gluing to hold their shape on one corner, leaving the 'fold' of the square loose, which adds some dimention to her scales.

Once I had a bunch of 'sculptural' triangles created I started hot gluing them into place.

While she's prettttttttttie-sweet at this point already, that full roll of 'smart-fab' was just calling to me.

So I took a 24 inch length cut about 4 inches wide and 'gathered' it with my glue gun.

VOILA!!!! THE BIG REVEAL!!!!

(Yup, I added some bright pink buttons for the smile.)

Here's a YouTube video of my "Goldie Goldfish" segment recorded for my nationally award winning  DVD "Kweezletown." My DVD project earned its award from the DOVE Family Awards Program for favorites of families with mixed ages of children. 

+++NOW that you have an awesome puppet, swim on over to our new collaborative blog, PreK + K Sharing to see some art projects that go along with Goldie!!!!+++

Click right here!!! I have today's first post for our first month of articles following our intros last month.

[My first craft tutorial involved making a glove puppet for my children's song, "Ladybug, Ladybug" and its remained in my Top-10 blog posts since creating it. Click right here to go see how easy that one was to create. Next up? I have all of the ingrediants for a way-too-cool "Tall Giraffe" puppet.]

I added this post to the linkie: 

****The highest honor possible!!! I have been 'recruited' by Toys in the Dryer to include this post in their linky party!!!! I will smile all day! As you can see above, I can on-occasion, insert linky buttons. For the life of me, I can't get the Toys in the Dryer button to 'work.' You'll just have to click right here. Goldie is the 156th link in the blog-hop. She's swimming with all sorts of holiday inspiration. Go check it out.

******I have now added this idea to TINKERLAB'S amazing creativity challenge for all things paper bag related. There will be dozens and dozens of ideas created by children in her challenge, but she is kind enough to allow 'adult-entries' as well. I think this would be a craft for teachers + librarians to create for use of all sorts of goldfish and fishy tales. Children could of course adapt this idea to create their own puppets, too.

Head Start Happiness!

"To love what you do and feel that it matters--
how could anything be more fun?" --Katherine Graham

Truer words have never been spoken! I do indeed LOVE what I do!!! I absolutely feel that it/my work, matters..... in fact I KNOW that it matters!! I have listened to brain-research doctorates expound on just why my work is critical to young children. I'm not sure there actually is anything else that could be more fun, or more worthwhile? I love being invited into a classroom of children and having the opportunity to 'work' with them and see how excited they get, how easily they are engaged and how dramatically they become immersed in our time together. I love watching the teachers watch their children. I love looking at the photos after the fact and witness all over again just how much fun was had by all.

One of the universal early childhood early-learning content standards and goals, [no matter where you live, no matter your job description, no matter if you are the mommy or the teacher or the college professor of early childhood education,] is that we want the child/children to attend to the adult, to listen and to follow directions. Looking at these photos weeks weeks later, I can see again how these children gave me their full and complete attention and see how they followed my lead. Look at all of that eye contact. Look at all of those listening ears following my verbal instructions. Look at all of that bodily control. Yeah rah!!! Yeah team!!!

Photo Opportunity!!!

Ansbach evening. Staff training is scheduled. We are to be in the base's "ballroom" as it is equipped with sound equipment and an LCD for PowerPoint presentations. We arrive after our international meal in the city (baked Italian calzones, created by Asian chef in a German restaurant.) When we arrive at the ballroom, there are dozens & dozens of our uniformed personnel -- just finishing their own training event. Quite a few our proud US citizens are out on the terrace as we pull up.

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY!!!!

I explain my mission to them in a heart-beat & explain that up until this moment, many of my photos could have been taken state-side and that I'm looking for a few good men to flank my stripes & polka-dots. Immediately I have a willing troop and the first photo above is snapped. As soon as we move into the ballroom, I spot the flags and yet more milling personnel and ask for the second shot above. Yes. I am on a European Army installation!! These pictures will remain as treasures for a very long time to come!

Before I can snap my fingers twice, our early childhood componant of teachers arrive and off we head to Goldie Goldfish and my usual set of singin' songs for movement & more!!! Has the ballroom ever held such a diversity of focus in one evening's duration? A million thanks to Trude for creating this unique experience. We head back to our windmill and ready our cargo to cross the Alps in the morning.

We're Singin' We're Dancin'

"Oh yeah.........." I'm really big on the big ending. Always have been. I love having the kids anticipating what's gonna happen. Looking forward. Predicting. Sometimes you can actually see the gears turning in their heads: calculating, extrapolating, launching a hypothesis and then they're watching for evidence to support their theory.

Ta Dahhhhhhhhhhhhhh......................

My favorite part is all of the squealing and shrieking, "I KNEW that was gonna happen! I just knew it! I knew it!" As Dr. Pam Schiller would say, "Trust is job one." Our first job is to build a sense of trust with children. Give them activities that they are familiar with, activities that they can anticipate the outcome...... and then stretch those boundaries. Kiss your brain!

Costumes Galore!!

You know you've walked into a special program when the goldfish are as big as the children. This brilliant teacher takes the koi from her summer pond and brings them into the classroom (yes, in a MIGHTY big tank.) We posed that little gremlin face so that you could see that I wasn't exaggerating. Goldie the goldfish is a whopper!! Welcome to Ephraim's Peninsula Preschool, hosted by Leslie Leline and lots of princess-people, some ninjas and a stray Spider Man. I got to be the special guest for the day. Just because!! They were tickled to see me in my "Tall Giraffe" costume and then spiffie-changeo I turned into a fierce lion and took them on a "Lion Prowl." Thanks, Mrs. L for opening the door to all sorts of fun & imaginations running wild.

ELA Library, Lake Zurich

As I travel about, on some happy occasions I get to "meet" my fellow BCO sisters. What a thrill to put up a post on Facebook that I was headed to Chicago-land suburbs to share my songs at libraries, and then to receive the news that LauraGTO lives just a heartbeat away from the Ela Library in Lake Zurich. We started plotting immediately to get together. I was sooooooo excited to have sweet Laura putting my event on her calendar. I was soooooooo excited when she walked into our workshop space. I was so excited to get a hug-in-person. I was so excited to put a face to a name. I was so excited to get a super condensed version of her journey while I finished pre-signing some of my books. I was so excited, I forgot to take a picture of the two of us together, smiling. Bummer. Super crummy buttons.

Imagine my excitement to download the shots and find that Kay, the Children's Librarian in charge, had captured the two of us in one shot. Not exactly the photo I wish I had, but at least some evidence of our being in the same room at the same time. I'm the one in the striped green tights, Laura's the one in the bright orange sweater having fun! I can't wait for feedback from Laura as to how she implements using my book as a prompt for projects in her teaching young children about art. How amazing does Laura's work sound?? I look forward to learning more of her first life in arts/advertising&marketing morphing into directing children with art materials. What a great way to contribute.

Road Bloggin'

Right this minute, I am fascinated by technology. Even more, I am fascinated by what I have learned on the technology-to-my-real-life continum. At this minute we are in the car, driving thru downtown Indianapolis on their interstate. More accurately, Allen is driving my car and I am sitting in the passenger seat. I have my laptop in my lap, hooked up to the web, thru a series of gizzmos & gadgets that all are ultimately connected to his phone. Voila. Road bloggin'. So I can sit here whizzing by the Keystone exit and simultaneously be reflecting back to last evening and the smiles and personalities that inspired me.

I kept them moving. Plenty of up & down. Lots of energy. Laughter. How I wish I could bottle the laughter and energy. There is a market for laughter & energy. People ask me where I get all of my energy. This world of ours is in need of laughter, that's for certain. Good to capture some of that laughter. ***Thanks Allen for doing all the driving, schlepping and hauling -- so that I can share my brand of happy.

Goldie Goldie Goldfish

With the younger crowd I switched things up a bit and "Goldie" got to make an appearance. That last picture is dear sweet Evan and his wee little sister Kate. They are now my offical fan club representatives as their family is leaving soon to live in Morocco. The set of my books is headed abroad!!! That's an exciting opportunity, to have my work headed half-way around the world..... and it all launched from the Schaumburg Library.