Taking Whimsy To The Next Level

So I've done a lot of...unusual things in my classroom.  I honestly should post a lot more about them, but to be fair, I rarely remember enough to make it a cohesive story. Recently, though, I've embarked on something that could either be a gold mine for me, like Standards Based Animals.

I own a small collection of hand puppets.  Yes.  The kind you stick you hand up and make the mouth move.  A long time back, I acquired an ostrich one and used it to mess with my then classroom neighbor Jonathan while he taught, or to randomly bring up while I was doing any direct instruction because why not.  In the years since, my collection has... grown.

Yes, the right one is a unicorn headband.

Still, I felt like I was missing out on how to use them.  My wife, Claire, and I work at the same school in Guatemala, so last week, I idly mentioned that I wanted to use the puppets for something more.

"Why don't you have your Calc kids do a puppet show?"

Dear lord.  How did I miss that?

So that's just what I did.  We had some quick review from previous maths, like parent functions, unit circle trig, etc., but rather than have them just review it on their own, I had them write a puppet show.  The early results were... promising?

The middle kid was quite good at nodding his puppet while listening.

I tried to get them to keep it under 3 minutes, but of course some tried to ad-lib. We discussed strengths and weaknesses in their performances afterwards, like some factual accuracy points, the need for scripting, moving the FREAKING MOUT--sorry.  But, things went quite well for a first time, I think.  I even had them sitting in a circle on the floor in front of the show.

So here's what I'm thinking:  they get used to the idea.  We do periodical 3-minute reviews on a rotating basis by groups.  Bring in some cocoa some days, a Capri-Sun some others, whatever.  But, of course, the big question: why?

I'll tell you that I didn't notice any real nervousness.  One girl couldn't stop giggling as she said the name "Linear Lion".  They played their parts, said their pieces, and did so without a hint of self-consciousness.  It was beautiful for that alone.  The fact that I was filming them ("You're filming this?!" "Well... it's pretty funny." "...Yeah okay") didn't really throw things off.  Rough? Yes. Room for improvement? Loads.

We'll see where this goes.  I may abandon it.  I may invest in a tripod and boom mike.  Who knows?