Creative way to teach the classics: Puppetry

By Mandy Coriston
Lenape Valley High School students in Sherry Carnegie’s Art for the School and Beyond service art course recently conducted a puppet show about famous artists for first graders attending Byram Lakes Elementary School in Byram, Netcong Elementary School in Netcong, and Valley Road Elementary School in Stanhope. Prior to conducting the puppet show, Lenape Valley High School art class students researched famous artists, then created puppets that looked like Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Henri Rousseau. They also made stages in the style of stages of the time period of these well-known artists, as part of their service art class. After the show, the elementary school students were engaged in a crayon coloring activity related to the famous artist styles covered.
The puppet show is a collaborative project developed by high school art teacher Carnegie and Byram Lakes Elementary art teacher Elena McTaggart, Netcong Elementary teachers Marlene Baccaro, Robert DeKleine, and Francine Torsiello, as well as Valley Road School art teacher Leanne Sweeney.
Carnegie stated that she and the other teachers love this collaborative project because all the students involved benefit from participation. The elementary school students benefit by gaining knowledge about famous artists from art history, while the high school students benefit through teaching the younger boys and girls about these artists. Carnegie noted that it is due to her students’ tremendous efforts, her professional relationship with the elementary school teachers, as well as the support of the administration at all the schools, that makes it such a successful activity for all involved. The puppet show is an event that the teachers look forward to conducting together again in the future.