Lesson Plan Submitted by Mary C. Tevlin
Elementary art teacher at Rose Acres School
Grades: 1st - 3rd

Materials:

• Rectangular facial tissue boxes
• water color paints
• tempera paints
• paint brushes

Procedure:

This activity is part of a Caribbean Unit. A pattern of a dancing person should be pre-made so children can trace the pattern. After cutting the pattern out, take magazines and cut strips. Then fringe the edges of the strips. Glue magazines strips from the bottom up. Use construction paper to decorate each face. After the Pitchy Patch doll is completed, then add a dowel rod to the back. You now have a Pitchy Patch Puppet!

Note from Ken: Having students trace a pattern isn't very creative. Having a student model for their table a dancing pose might be a better route to take. It is unclear from the lesson how large the puppets will be. You may use tongue depressors instead of dowel rods if the puppets are small like the puppets in the image at left. I would think that fringed magazine strips around the entire body of a puppet might be too much. Would it be better to just have the face with the fringed strips around it? This way they could serve as a mask. But then it wouldn't be a puppet now, would it?