the idea: create a pink elephant as an example for the puppet project

You may or may not remember, but a few ideas back I had another puppet named Feathers.  Today I taught the same activity and instead of ending up with a blue bird that went through a quest to find a bowler hat, I ended up with a pink elephant that somehow replicated.

As an art instructor, there are pros and cons to making an example.

Pros: examples explain what you are teaching (very helpful when you are teaching a visual concept), they can be a big draw, and they are fun to make.

Cons: If you make an elephant, at least half of the kids will also make elephants.  Some kids will go far enough to be extremely upset when their piece isn’t as good as the example, or they will be too intimidated to start.

The little girl I worked with today fell into this second category, which is why there are two pink elephants in my picture.  Despite numerous attempts to get her to draw or cut out the pieces, it wasn’t until I drew the trunk the wrong size and she had to tell me how to fix it that she started to make the puppet her own.  She didn’t even pick up a pencil (apart from drawing a perfect circle for the head in one try) until it was time to add the details.

However, in the end, I think she enjoyed it and sometimes it’s okay to end up with two pink elephants.