The Giant Jumperee!

For Kate's end-of-the-year writing unit, her class performed puppet shows for their families. I came in and helped the kids make their puppets a week or two ago, and it was pretty funny! The kids did EVERYTHING themselves, including designing the digital scenery on the Smart Board in the background. They had no real guidance or prompting while making the puppets; they were encouraged to just do it all from their imagination, which made for some pretty awesome and interesting puppets! My favorite had to be the "big, mean, disgusting troll" from the Three Billy Goats Gruff, who was indeed big, mean, and disgusting and also sported a beaded necklace on a pipe cleaner. Of course Kate's puppet was my favorite, and although I am a little biased, her puppet really did look exactly like a frog! I could not have made a frog puppet, if it were me. The child has mad frog-designing skills!

Her puppet show was called The Giant Jumperee, and since it's kind of hard to hear what the little characters are saying, here's the gist of the story:
Rabbit goes up to his burrow and realizes something is inside, which calls out to him "I'm the Giant Jumperee!" and threatens him with something scary. It works and Rabbit is afraid. Then along come Cat, Bear, and Elephant, and each tries to approach the burrow but with the same results. Then frog comes along and is not afraid but instead coaxes the Giant Jumperee to come out. I will not spoil the ending, so you will just have to listen really hard!

I thought they did such a fantastic job, and they were so proud of their work! We love Kate's hard-working teacher, who does not appear in the video, but she is nearly 9 mos. pregnant with her second baby and so this will be her last year teaching. Kate was sad to know she wouldn't see her around school, but I explained that all this time her little girl has had to share her mommy so she can come and spend the day with Kate. Then she felt, well, a little less sad, I suppose. I'm so grateful for teachers who stand in for me and love these sweet children like they are their own!